Tag: Jamaal Wilkes

John Shumate to be inducted into Notre Dame Ring of Honor

Congrats, John!

Notre Dame will have 10 members in its Ring of Honor when [autotag]John Shumate[/autotag] is inducted into it during the Irish’s Dec. 11 game with Marquette. Irish fans of a certain age will recall that Shumate made many meaningful contributions to the program. As a freshman, he was named MVP of the 1973 NIT. In 1974, he was a consensus First Team All-American, joining a team that featured future Hall of Famers Bill Walton, David Thompson and Jamaal Wilkes.

During his Irish tenure, Shumate averaged 22.6 points and 11.6 rebounds a game while also shooting 61.0% from the field. He was the best player on the 1974 Irish team that famously ended UCLA’s 88-game winning streak. No Irish team since has been able to touch its .897 winning percentage that came from its 26-3 record.

Shumate was so good that the Phoenix Suns made him the fourth overall pick in the 1974 draft. After missing his first NBA season, he made the All-Rookie Team. He went on to play five seasons with six different teams. Later, he coached SMU for six seasons and the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury for one season.

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Notre Dame celebrates anniversary of historic win over UCLA

Who remembers this?

With no game scheduled for Wednesday, Notre Dame is taking time to look back at arguably the program’s finest moment. When UCLA entered South Bend on Jan. 19, 1974, it had won a record 88 straight games as well as the past seven national championships. With the John Wooden-coached Bruins being led on the court by future Hall of Famers Bill Walton and Jamaal Wilkes, there was little reason to think this game would be any different from the recent past. Instead, the second-ranked Irish decided enough was enough:

The victory catapulted the Irish into the top ranking for the first and only time that season, but nobody thinks about that. What they do think about is the Irish took down a powerhouse, and those who were alive for it have fond memories to this day. Also, who wouldn’t storm the Joyce Center court after that? Hopefully one day, there will be a moment that will surpass that, like a national title.

Jamaal Wilkes said he’s proud to be an …

Jamaal Wilkes said he’s proud to be an American and wants law and order while at the same time seeing the need for change in the wake of demonstrations after the May 25 killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. “I’m not an activist. I’m not in the guts of the stuff, but we need some kind of reform with the police department (while) recognizing that the majority are good police,” Wilkes said in a recent conversation with the Bay Area News Group’s Wes Goldberg. “And they are probably as sick and embarrassed and disgusted with the Floyd incident as most of the country is.”

The Floyd murder during the COVID-19 …

The Floyd murder during the COVID-19 pandemic. Jamaal Wilkes: “On one hand, it was very shocking and disturbing. On the other hand, it’s nothing new . . . it was unbelievable. It was horrible and no one could deny it because there was footage. That, along there being no sports, brought it to a head. I think that all lives matter, of course, but it’s only black lives that are being murdered. We can no longer tip-toe or ignore the elephant in the room, which is systemic racism, white privilege.”

If returning to play would dilute the …