Tag: National Championship

Notre Dame forward reaches stat line achieved only by Anthony Davis

Quite a comparison.

As excited as Notre Dame fans are about [autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag] and [autotag]Olivia Miles[/autotag], they want to look at a third potential star if they aren’t already. Freshman forward [autotag]Kate Koval[/autotag] was inserted into the starting lineup during the Irish’s season opener and has been nothing short of phenomenal.

Through three games, Koval has a total of 40 points, 33 rebounds, eight assists and 15 blocks. According to OptaSTATS, only one other Division I freshman, men or women, has achieved at least that stat line over that span. That freshman is Anthony Davis, who did it in his final three games with Kentucky en route to the 2012 national championship.

Davis’ stat line objectively was better at 42 points, 41 rebounds, eight assists and 17 blocks. That won him the Most Outstanding Player award.

Only time will tell whether Koval can keep up this level of production. That she already is drawing comparisons to Davis this early though indicates that the Irish might have hit yet another home run with her.

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Notre Dame women’s basketball clobbers Purdue on road for second win

Make that two blowout wins to start the season.

If an opponent isn’t contending for an ACC or national championship, Notre Dame is likely to run it out of the gym. That’s exactly what happened during the Irish’s first road game of the season against Purdue. Much like with the football team less than two months earlier, this game was never close as the Irish won, 102-58.

The Irish (2-0) scored the game’s first nine points before jumping out to an 18-3 lead and never looking back. Every time the Boilermakers (1-1) got any sort of momentum going, the Irish answered and often expanded their lead. They gave themselves more scoring chances with plays on both ends of the floor and took full advantage.

[autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag] had a trademark night with 28 points and six steals. [autotag]Liatu King[/autotag] did a tall player’s impression of Hidalgo, scoring 18 points and recording four steals. She also achieved a double-double with 15 rebounds.

[autotag]Olivia Miles[/autotag] scored 17 points, which included this ridiculous shot from beyond half-court as time expired on the third quarter:

[autotag]Sonia Citron[/autotag] added 14 points in her season debut after missing the opener with an injury, and [autotag]Kate Koval[/autotag] grabbed 10 rebounds while coming within two-points of a double-double.

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Notre Dame football will host SMU in 2026, replacing Virginia

This time, the Mustangs won’t be fresh off the death penalty.

Notre Dame football plays five ACC opponents every season in exchange for retaining its independence. While we are told who the Irish will play well into the next decade, that opponents list can change anytime. We just got an example of that.

The ACC has announced that the Irish will host SMU during the 2026 season on a date yet to be determined. This game will replace the one against Virginia that was scheduled for Oct. 17 of that season. This will allow the Cavaliers to play the first of two games they have scheduled against West Virginia, a series that was concurrently announced.

This will be the first time the Irish and Mustangs have met since the Irish earned a crushing 59-6 victory in 1989. At that time, the Irish were the top team in the country and fresh off their most recent national championship. The Mustangs, meanwhile, were fresh off the death penalty sidelining them for two years.

The playing field should be a little more even this time. That should at least make this game more competitive.

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Duke commit Cameron Boozer picks Blue Devils as 2025 national championship favorites

After committing to Duke last month, Cameron Boozer said on Wednesday that the Blue Devils should be favored for the 2025 national title.

After recently committing to Duke in October, five-star forward [autotag]Cameron Boozer[/autotag] has since been speaking about the team whenever he’s given the chance. Most recently, he gave a prediction for the 2024-25 national championship favorite. He, of course, picked the Blue Devils.

In a conversation with League Ready on Wednesday, Boozer gave a strong vote of confidence for superstar freshman Cooper Flagg and his future team.

“For me, for sure,” said Boozer when asked if his future team should be the favorites. “I think they’re super talented. If you look at their roster from top to bottom, they got guys who were amazing in high school and amazing in college.”

“Everyone can hoop,” he continued. “They have great chemistry. They compete. On my visit, I got to see them compete a little bit at their practice. So, I think they’re gonna have a really good season.”

One could argue the Blue Devils should be favored next season once Boozer arrives on campus as well. He and his twin brother, Cayden, both committed to the Blue Devils on Oct. 11. According to 247Sports, Cameron is the No. 2 player in the 2025 recruiting class and Cayden is the No. 21 player. Four-star forward Nikolas Khamenia, the No. 19 player in the rankings, joined them in the 2025 Duke recruiting class on October 22.

Chicago Sports Network talks CFP implications for Notre Dame-Navy

This game will be big.

The annual matchup between Notre Dame and Navy carries heavier weight than usual this year. Both teams are ranked coming into this game, and that’s big given the expanded College Football Playoff.

The panel on “The Big College Football Show”, which airs on the Chicago Sports Network, discussed the playoff implications for this game. The stakes for the Irish are obvious in that they’re on shaky ground and certainly would have been out of the running already under the old four-team format.

The Midshipmen are putting their perfect record on the line against the Irish, and a victory here would give them a convincing argument to be the Group of Five representative in this year’s bracket. To have one of the service academies included during the first year of the playoff would be one terrific story.

Only one team can emerge victorious in this contest, and the outcome could determine the course of the rest of both teams’ seasons.

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CBS to broadcast Notre Dame-North Carolina men’s basketball game

A sign that the Irish are drawing interest.

The Notre Dame men’s basketball team is on the verge of something special. It won’t happen this year, but it likely will when the Irish’s top-ranked 2025 recruiting class comes in. Until then, there’s interest in where the Irish currently stand.

To that end, CBS Sports unveiled its regular-season schedule for its longstanding college basketball coverage, and the Irish will be part of it. Specifically, they will help tip off a tripleheader of games for CBS on Jan. 4 when they welcome North Carolina to Purcell Pavilion.

This will be the first time the Irish have played on CBS since they picked up a 64-63 road victory over Kentucky on Dec. 12, 2020. It didn’t broadcast any of the three games the Irish played during their last NCAA Tournament appearance in 2022.

The last time the network broadcast a game from South Bend was an 82-55 loss to Virginia on Jan. 26, 2019. The Cavaliers went on to win that year’s national championship:

Here’s hoping the Irish will rise to the occasion of getting national exposure on college basketball’s most prestigious broadcast coverage.

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Championship eludes former Notre Dame guard Kayla McBride again

Still can’t get it done.

Former Notre Dame guard [autotag]Kayla McBride[/autotag] had her best chance to win a championship yet this season. Her Minnesota Lynx had a 30-10 regular-season record and took the New York Liberty, the only team with a better record, to a winner-take-all Game 5 of the WNBA Finals.

McBride did everything she could, scoring 21 points, the second-most on the Lynx. She also grabbed five rebounds, had a team-high five assists and a game-high four steals.

It was not enough though as the Liberty won their first WNBA championship with a 67-62 overtime victory. The Lynx remain in a three-way tie for the most WNBA titles with four.

McBride is used to just coming up short by now. She made the finals with the Las Vegas Aces in 2020, but the Seattle Storm, one of the other two teams with four championships, swept that series. She went to three national title games with the Irish in the 2010s but lost every single time.

It’s a classic example of always being the bridesmaid but never the bride. Let’s hope that McBride, who turns 33 next season, can become the bride before too long.

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Virginia’s Tony Bennett, coach of Notre Dame ACC rival, retires

Big story in college basketball.

Notre Dame has part of the ACC for over a decade now, and it has gone against some legendary coaches during that time. While Virginia’s Tony Bennett doesn’t have quite the reputation of legends like Mike Krzyzewski, Jim Boeheim or Roy Williams, he has done a great job of building his own legacy.

When the Irish visit Charlottesville on Jan. 25 this season, the Cavaliers will look very different on the sidelines because Bennett reportedly has announced his retirement effective immediately. That this is happening less than a month before the start of the season is nothing short of surprising.

The Irish have gone 3-13 against Virginia since joining the ACC, and Bennett’s tenure with the Cavailers’ predates that period. But even before that, the Irish learned how good Bennett was when he coached Washington State to a 61-41 win over them in the second round of the 2008 NCAA Tournament.

Bennett retires having won one national championship, two national coach of the year awards, six ACC regular-season championships, two ACC Tournament championships and four ACC Coach of the Year awards. He has an all-time record of 433-169:

https://twitter.com/GoodmanHoops/status/1847009701877461379

Best of luck to Bennett in whatever comes next in his life.

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Matt Fortuna: Morrison injury is ‘devastating blow’ for Notre Dame

Hard to disagree here.

Few college football analysts are as intelligent as Matt Fortuna. When he has something to say about a certain topic, people listen, especially when it comes to adversity.

Notre Dame is going through perhaps its biggest adversity yet with star cornerback [autotag]Benjamin Morrison[/autotag] suddenly going out for the year with a hip injury. Naturally, this has shaken Irish fans to their core, and Fortuna says there’s every reason to feel that way.

In an appearance on “The Big College Football Show” on the Chicago Sports Network, Fortuna made it abundantly clear that this is as bad an injury scenario as the Irish could have envisioned. Not only did he call the future first-round NFL pick their “best player”, but he pointed out that this stretches the injury-ravaged defense even further.

Worse yet, Fortuna doesn’t see the Irish as they are making a deep run in the College Football Playoff if they even get there. Unfortunately, it’s hard to disagree with him:

A prayer might be the last hope Irish fans have at breaking that national championship drought this season, so hit your knees.

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Notre Dame-UConn women’s basketball game for Dec. 12 is sold out

Did you get your tickets?

For years now, few rivalries in women’s basketball have come closer to that between Notre Dame and UConn. The programs that once occupied the Big East together clearly see the value in continuing to play one another even as they’ve ventured off into different conferences. More than anything, their games draw a lot of attention.

To that end, the Irish and Huskies will face each other Dec. 12 at Purcell Pavilion. If you haven’t gotten your tickets by now, you’re too late because the Irish have announced that the game is sold out. Everyone recognizes the significance of this game, so it will be the place to be on campus that night.

The Huskies and Irish rank second and sixth respectively in the AP Top 25 Preseason Poll, so this as much as anything else is a preview of a couple of national championship contenders. Who wouldn’t want to watch a game like this?

https://twitter.com/ndwbb/status/1846625534412726408

The Irish will try to make it three straight wins in this rivalry, and the home-court advantage only can help.

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