Tag: hoops

Notre Dame basketball home opener canceled…again

Notre Dame is now 0-3 in trying to play a home basketball game after their latest cancellation.

The Notre Dame men’s basketball team is now 0-3 in trying to play a home game this season.

The Irish were supposed to open the home portion of their schedule on Wednesday night by playing host to Western Michigan but that game was canceled due to the Broncos having too many players with COVID-19 on their roster.

Previously, Notre Dame was scheduled to host Tennessee this Friday night but that game was canceled last week for the same reason.

As a result Mike Brey took to Twitter in search of an opponent for this weekend and found Purdue Fort Wayne who agreed to come to Notre Dame to play at 11:00 a.m. ET.  However, that game won’t be happening either.

Notre Dame offered the following release on Wednesday evening:

The University of Notre Dame men’s basketball game with Purdue Fort Wayne, scheduled for Saturday, December 5, 2020, has been cancelled. The Purdue Fort Wayne basketball program has paused all activities after positive COVID-19 tests. 
There is no make up date scheduled at this time. 
That makes it 0-3 for the Fighting Irish at Purcell Pavillion this year despite not even taking the court for a game yet this season.
We all knew it would be an especially crazy college basketball season this year but I don’t think any of us thought it’d be quite as crazy as it’s gotten off to for Mike Brey and Notre Dame.
Here’s to hoping Notre Dame’s home game against Ohio State on December 8 is able to go off without a hitch.

Notre Dame basketball adds Saturday game

Notre Dame went searching for a local basketball opponent for Saturday and have found one. Details here.

We’re one game into basketball season on the men’s side and already things are being affected in a big way.

The 0-1 Fighting Irish saw their game against Tennessee that was scheduled to be played this Saturday canceled due to a COVID-19 outbreak with the Volunteers basketball team.  As a result, Mike Brey took to Twitter in search of an opponent on short notice.

As it turns out, he and Notre Dame were able to find one as the Irish will now take on Purdue Fort Wayne on Saturday morning with tip-off scheduled for 11 a.m. ET at Purcell Pavillion.

Notre Dame is 0-1 on the season after losing their opener at Michigan State on Saturday.  Brey and the Fighting Irish return to the court this Wednesday when they play host to Western Michigan.

Texas Longhorns Greg Brown listed as a top 10 freshman

Recently 247Sports produced their list of the top 10 freshman basketball players to know. Among them was Longhorns Greg Brown II.

The Texas Longhorns men’s basketball team is getting ready for another run at a Big 12 Championship. Much like their football counterparts, it has been a while since their last conference championship. They haven’t won a conference tournament since their days in the Southwest Conference. Their last regular season Big 12 Conference championship came in 2008. Is this the year for Shaka Smart and the Horns?

The entire team returns with one new face, the talented freshman Greg Brown. 247Sports named Brown one of the top freshman to get to know.

Texas is the analytics darling this offseason after returning every single scholarship player from last year and adding Brown, the No. 2 power forward and No. 9 overall prospect in the 247Sports Composite. The word Texas coach Shaka Smart uses most often to describe Brown’s game is “violence,” and it’s a trait that could help take the Texas basketball program up a notch or two. Brown attacks the basket on offense and is one of the most athletic and vicious dunkers in the class. On the other side Brown’s length and athleticism make him a fierce shot-blockers and pogo-stick rebounder.

It appears that the Austin native has been working on his dunking skills.

Cade Cunningham of Oklahoma State was the only other freshman listed in the top 10 from 247Sports. The burnt orange fans will get their first glimpse of Greg Brown and the Longhorns on Wednesday, Nov. 27. They will be taking on UT-Rio Grande Valley at 7:00 pm CST. The No. 19 Texas Longhorns open the season at the Frank Erwin Center.

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Notre Dame to host Ohio State this December

Notre Dame will host Ohio State this December in the annual ACC/Big Ten Challenge. Get excited

Despite both schools being better known for their football prowess. both Notre Dame and Ohio State have accomplished quite a bit on the basketball court.

The two have combined to make 65 NCAA Tournaments (Notre Dame 36, Ohio State 29) while 21 times has one of them appeared in the Elite 8 (Ohio State 14, Notre Dame 7).

The two have also combined for 11 Final Four appearances with Notre Dame getting there in 1978 while Ohio State has been there 10 times, most recently in 2012.

So maybe Ohio State has done more on the biggest stage of college basketball than Notre Dame, but that will only bring more excitement to the 2020 ACC/Big Ten Challenge as Notre Dame is set to host the Buckeyes in early December according to Jon Rothstein.

Notre Dame and Ohio State have met five times previously in basketball with the Buckeyes taking three of those games, including the most recent meeting in December of 2013, a 64-61 final.

Notre Dame Basketball Earns NABC Academic Honors For Fourth-Straight Season

Notre Dame is a hard place to be a student. Even harder to be a student-athlete. Yet the basketball team won another national academic honor

It’s no secret that being a student-athlete at Notre Dame isn’t the easiest thing.  It’s also no secret that despite the incredibly demanding workload and balance required, that Notre Dame’s athletic teams continuously impress in the class room on a national level.

That was again the case with the Notre Dame basketball team as this week they earned their fourth straight NABC Academic Honor.

From the University:

NOTRE DAME, Indiana (July 15, 2020) — The University of Notre Dame men’s basketball team has earned a Team Academic Excellence Award from the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) for the fourth consecutive year. The award requires a team to compile a minimum combined GPA of 3.0 for the 2019-20 season. 

For the 2019-20 spring semester, the Irish boasted a 3.555 grade point average and a 3.338 average for the entire season. Each of Notre Dame’s 11 players earned a grade point average above 3.0 during the most recent school academic calendar year. In addition, the Irish conferred four undergraduate degrees (exiting seniors John Mooney and T.J. Gibbs along with rising fifth-year seniors Juwan Durham and Nikola Djogo) and a one-year Master’s of Business Administration degree for exiting fifth-year senior Rex Pflueger. 

The Irish join Villanova, Seton Hall and Stanford as the only power conference men’s basketball teams to earn NABC Team Academic Excellence Awards in each of the last four seasons.

Congratulations to all involved on this remarkable honor.

Notre Dame adds Virginia Tech transfer to continue family tradition

Dara Mabrey is leaving Virginia Tech for Notre Dame, following the path her older sisters set before her. Find out the player ND is getting!

Niele Ivey has done wonders in the recruiting world early in her run as head basketball coach at Notre Dame but we get the feeling she received a decent amount of help from her staff, perhaps from one assistant coach in particular after the Irish gained a transfer guard on Thursday night.

Virginia Tech transfer Dara Mabrey announced she’ll be transferring to Notre Dame on Thursday night.  She follows in the footsteps of her sisters Marina and Michaela who have both previously played at Notre Dame while Michaela is currently a member of Ivey’s coaching staff.

Virginia Tech went a combined 43-21 in Mabrey’s two seasons in which she averaged 11.9 points per game.  The Irish get help in their outside shooting immediately as Mabrey shot 41.2% from beyond the arc in her two seasons in Blacksburg.  Her 80 treys

Notre Dame and Kentucky to Renew Hardwood Rivalry

Notre Dame will have one of college basketball’s biggest names on it’s out of conference schedule the next three seasons.

Notre Dame and Kentucky have met in basketball 62 times over the years, the most recently being a thriller that sent the Wildcats to the Final Four in the 2015 Midwest Regional Final.

Now Notre Dame and Kentucky will meet again on the hardwood as a three game series between the teams has officially been announced with action starting this year at Rupp Arena in Lexington.

Notre Dame will travel to Kentucky on December 12 of this year while a neutral site game will be played in 2021 and the Wildcats will play in South Bend on December 10, 2022.

“It is great to renew a series between two of the ‘blue bloods’ of college basketball,” Men’s Basketball Coach Mike Brey said. 

“If our recent battles with Kentucky are any indication, these games should be appointment viewing for college basketball fans.” 

Kentucky was won 43 of the 62 all-time meetings with Notre Dame.

Watch: Notre Dame’s Top Ten Men’s Basketball Buzzer-Beaters

Notre Dame has had some classic basketball finishes over the years. Relive the 10 best buzzer-beaters in program history by watching here.

Nothing in basketball is better than a game that comes down to a last second shot.  Sometimes it goes in, sometimes it doesn’t and sometimes Pat Connaughton leaps out of a gym and stuffs it before it ever has a chance to find the bottom of the net.

In their latest edition of #NDTop10, Notre Dame released their ten best men’s basketball buzzer beaters in program history.  Take the next three minutes and enjoy a couple hand-fulls of epic Fighting Irish basketball finishes.

I love that Rex Pflueger averaged 5.4 points per game during his Notre Dame career but managed to make the list twice, including the top spot.  I still don’t know how the Irish got by Stephen F. Austin that day but I’m not complaining.

Glad to see Torin Francis on the list on what was to me, Chris Thomas’s most-memorable play/assist at Notre Dame.

I still contest that stuffing someone at the buzzer should count for this though.

Two Massive Recruits Pick Notre Dame

Niele Ivey hasn’t been on the job for even a week but has already landed commitments from two big-time recruits in the 2021 recruiting class.

You only get one chance to make a first impression and if new Notre Dame women’s basketball coach Niele Ivey’s first 100 hours on the job are any indication, she’s going to be an elite head coach.

After accepting the position and officially taking over for the Hall of Famer Muffet McGraw, Ivey has already landed two elite recruits to the 2021 class.

Not even 48 hours after the announcement of Ivey taking the job Notre Dame landed the second-rated player in the entire 2021 recruiting class, Olivia Miles.

Miles is rated as the top point guard prospect in the nation but wasn’t the only huge recruit to commit to Ivey and Notre Dame.  Just a couple of days later it was fellow five-star prospect Sonia Citron, the reigning Gatorade New York Player of the Year.

The 6-1 guard Citron averaged 23.8 points and 10.6 rebounds per game while leading Scarsdale (Ursuline) to a 24-0 record.

Citron and Miles are both huge gets for Ivey who I’d imagine will have great success at recruiting and developing guards.

Praise for Muffet McGraw Coming from Everywhere

Legendary basketball coach Muffet McGraw retired from coaching Wednesday after a historic run heading the women’s program.  33 years, two national championships and 848 wins later she turned Notre Dame from a women’s basketball afterthought to a blue-blood of the sport.  

Upon announcing her retirement Wednesday, some of the biggest names in sports and at Notre Dame offered well wishes to the hall of fame coach.

Legendary basketball coach Muffet McGraw retired from coaching Wednesday after a historic run heading the women’s program.  33 years, two national championships and 848 wins later she turned Notre Dame from a women’s basketball afterthought to a blue-blood of the sport.

Upon announcing her retirement Wednesday, some of the biggest names in sports and at Notre Dame offered well wishes to the hall of fame coach.

Notre Dame legend and current member of the Dallas Wings, Arike Ogunbowale:

Legendary former Notre Dame basketball coach, Digger Phelps:

Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame to which she was elected to in 2017:

Current Notre Dame men’s basketball coach, Mike Brey:

More…

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