Notre Dame 15 Years Tournament: ’07-08 Irish Win Title vs. ’06-07 Team

The Notre Dame 15 Years Tournament was filled with close games and come-from-behind wins.

The Notre Dame 15 Years Tournament was filled with close games and come-from-behind wins. It only seemed fitting that the championship feature both of those. The 2007-08 Irish won the tournament title after defeating the 2006-07 Irish, 85-81, in a game they had to fight for.

The ’07-08 Irish coughed up a six-point first-half lead and trailed by three at the break. The ’06-07 Irish led by as much as 12 midway through the second half and still held a nine-point lead with six-and-a-half minutes left. That’s when the ’07-08 Irish went on a 13-2 run to take a two-point lead. From there, the teams battled back and forth until it came down to the final minute, which the ’06-07 Irish entered with a 78-76 lead.

With 38 seconds left, Luke Zeller hit a 3 on a nice pass from Jonathan Peoples to give the ’07-08 Irish a 79-78 lead. Colin Falls was unable to answer with his own 3, and Rob Kurz got the rebound before being fouled and hitting two free throws to make it 81-78. After the ’06-07 iteration of Kurz missed a shot, the ’07-08 Zach Hillesland cleared the rebound and got it to Zeller, who made two more free throws to put his team up five and ice the game. The points scored in the final 12 seconds made no difference.

The ’07-08 Luke Harangody wrapped up the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player honor with his best performance yet of 27 points and 19 rebounds. In three games, he averaged 22.3 points and 16.3 boards. Kyle McAlarney scored 25 points, including five 3-pointers, to wrap up an equally impressive tournament in which he had a 22.0 scoring average. Kurz scored 10 and joined Harangody and McAlarney in accounting for 19 of the ’07-08 Irish’s 25 free-throw attempts, all of which they made.

Falls and Kurz scored 19 points apiece to pace the ’06-07 Irish. Russell Carter achieved a double-double of 16 points and 12 rebounds. Tory Jackson scored 10, and their iteration of Harangody grabbed 10 boards off the bench.

Notre Dame 15 Years Tournament: ’07-08 Irish Squeak Past ’13-14 Irish

We no longer have a double-digit seed in the Notre Dame 15 Years Tournament, but oh Lord, was the last quarterfinal game exciting.

We no longer have a double-digit seed in the Notre Dame 15 Years Tournament, but oh Lord, was the last quarterfinal game exciting. There’s nothing more exciting than a Cinderella team giving a superior team all it can handle. In the end, the third-seeded 2007-08 Irish barely defeated the 14th-seeded 2013-14 Irish, 87-86, with a buzzer beater.

The ’13-14 Irish led by as much as 10 in the first half before the ’07-08 Irish bounced back and took a one-point halftime lead on a Luke Zeller 3-pointer at the buzzer. With just under seven minutes left in regulation, the ’07-08 Irish had built that lead up to 11, but a 15-3 run by the ’13-14 Irish put them up one with two-and-a-half minutes to go. They briefly lost the lead before going up four. A Kyle McAlarney 3 cut the lead to 82-81 going into the final minute.

Pat Connaughton got to the free-throw line with 18 seconds left and made two shots to give the ’13-14 Irish an 84-81 lead. Rob Kurz quickly tied it at 84 with a 3-pointer five seconds later. Connaughton put his team up two with an open fadeaway jumper with two seconds left. That was just enough time for Ryan Ayers to hit his only field goal of the game: a buzzer-beating 3 to send the ’07-08 Irish to the semifinals.

McAlarney led the ’07-08 Irish with 21 points, including five 3-pointers, and four steals. Kurz was just behind with 20 points while shooting 6 of 12 from the field and making all five of his free throws. Luke Harangody did his part with a double-double of 16 points and 15 rebounds.

Eric Atkins had 19 points, seven rebounds and a game-high eight assists for the ’13-14 Irish. Jerian Grant came off the bench and scored 18 on 7-of-9 shooting from the field. Connaughton scored 14, and Demetrius Jackson and Zach Auguste had 10 apiece.

Notre Dame 15 Years Tournament: ’05-06 Irish Take Out ’16-17 Irish

The slipper still fits for the 13th-seeded 2005-06 Irish in the Notre Dame 15 Years Tournament.

The slipper still fits for the 13th-seeded 2005-06 Irish in the Notre Dame 15 Years Tournament. This time, they recorded a 95-85 win over the 2016-17 Irish, who had the highest seed of any team in the field with a first-round bye at fifth. As the clock kept winding down, it appeared this game would go the other way. Then, the unexpected happened.

After the teams went back and forth in the first half, the ’16-17 Irish went up 10 five minutes into the second. With seven minutes to go, the lead was at six. The ’05-06 Irish came back to hold a slim lead for most of the next few minutes, during which the ’16-17 Irish tied it back up and even briefly retook the lead. But Chris Quinn hit a dagger 3-pointer with 54 seconds left to put the ’05-06 Irish up six, and the ’16-17 Irish sealed their fate when they couldn’t score again.

Colin Falls led all scorers with 22 points and created a lethal duo with Quinn, who had a double-double of 20 points and 10 assists. Falls and Quinn made all 10 of their collective free throws, and they were a combined 8 of 14 from 3-point range. Russell Carter scored 14 points, and Torin Francis nearly achieved a double-double with 12 points and nine rebounds. Luke Zeller scored 11 off the bench.

Steve Vasturia led the ’16-17 Irish with 21 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the field. Bonzie Colson had a double-double of 17 points and 11 rebounds, while Matt Farrell came close to one of his own with nine points and 10 assists. V.J. Beachem scored 16, and Rex Pflueger had 11.

Notre Dame 15 Years Tournament: No. 12 Seed – 2008-09 Irish

Fresh off Luke Harangody’s Big East Player of the Year campaign, Notre Dame entered 2008-09 anticipating a big season.

Fresh off Luke Harangody’s Big East Player of the Year campaign, Notre Dame entered 2008-09 anticipating a big season. The national writers agreed, ranking the Irish ninth in the AP preseason poll. At first, the Irish rewarded the writers’ faith with a 9-2 nonconfernce record and a 3-1 start to Big East play. The ranking ascended to as high as seventh.

Unfortunately, the bottom fell out once the tough part of the Big East schedule began as the Irish lost their next seven games, six of them against ranked teams, and the final deficit in each never was closer than seven points. Somehow, the Irish recovered enough to earn an NIT berth, and they made the most of it. They won their first three tournament games in South Bend before falling to Penn State in the semifinals at Madison Square Garden. At 21-15, things certainly could have gone a lot worse.

Averaging 23.3 points and 11.8 rebounds a game, Harangody broke LaPhonso Ellis’ program record for most double-doubles in a season (25) and became the sixth Notre Dame player to reach 400 rebounds in a season (401). This season was the last for seniors Luke Zeller, Ryan Ayers, Zach Hillesland and Kyle McAlarney, all of whom were key cogs in the rotation for their farewell tour. Tory Jackson was the team’s best passer with 4.9 assists a game to compliment a 10.6 scoring average.