Tag: National Championship

Notre Dame prepares to break ground on new football facility

Hope it looks beautiful.

This is a transitional period for Notre Dame with a new athletic director and, this summer, a new president. [autotag]Marcus Freeman[/autotag] is entering his third full season of hopefully will be a long tenure as football coach. So it only makes sense that a new football facility be built. That’s exactly what’s happening according to a report from Footballscoop.

Perhaps sometime after the current semester, ground on the Notre Dame campus will be broken for a state-of-the-art football building with a nine-figure cost. The plans are formally expected to be announced before Saturday’s Blue Gold Game. The meetings involving this facility have involved both past and present Notre Dame personnel.

This undoubtedly is an exciting time for the Irish as they position themselves to attract the best possible talent in the future. A new facility will go a long way towards making that happen, and hopefully, it will have played a role when and if the Irish win another national championship.

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Pat Spencer’s brother Cam wins national championship with UConn

Cam Spencer, the brother of Warriors guard Pat, won the national championship on Monday with the UConn Huskies.

Although the Golden State Warriors don’t have an alum from Purdue or Conneticuit on the roster, one member of the team has a special rooting interest in Monday’s men’s basketball national championship in Phoenix.

New Warriors two-way guard Pat Spencer is the brother of Uconn Huskies star guard Cam Spencer.

Spencer stuffed the box score, leading the Huskies in rebounds and steals as they secured their second straight national championship and the sixth title for UConn in the last 25 years.

Via @BleacherReport on Twitter:

Spencer tallied 11 points on 5-of-12 shooting from the field to go along with eight rebounds, two assists, two steals and a block in 34 minutes as the Huskies took out Zach Edey and the Boilermakers to end March Madness on Monday night. Behind Spencer and the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player Tristen Newton, UConn beat Purdue, 75-60

Spencer earned All-Big East honors in his only season with UConn, averaging 14.2 points on 48.4% shooting from the field and 44% shooting from the field with 4.9 rebounds and 3.6 assists in 32.8 minutes per game.

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Watch: 2024 edition of ‘One Shining Moment’

In case you missed it.

With UConn’s 75-60 win over Purdue in the championship game of the NCAA Tournament, the 2023-24 college basketball season is complete. Once the clock hit zero, the confetti dropped, the trophy was presented, and the net was cut down. But there still was one more piece of business to take care, and that’s the montage that has closed every tournament since 1987 set to the now-classic “One Shining Moment”:

You’ll notice the severe lack of Notre Dame in this montage because the Irish weren’t anywhere close to being a tournament team this season. [autotag]Micah Shrewsberry[/autotag] took over the program, and he had to scramble just to assemble a roster for the season from the moment he was hired.

Fortunately, all signs point to the Irish heading in the right direction. It might take at least another season before the Irish find themselves back in this montage, but they have the right guy at the helm, and he will rebuild the program into something South Bend can be proud of.

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UConn defeats Purdue to win second straight national championship

The UConn Huskies defeated the Purdue Boilermakers, 75-60, to win their second straight national championship in the NCAA Tournament.

College basketball has a repeat national champion for the first time since 2007 after Danny Hurley and the UConn Huskies defeated Matt Painter’s Purdue Boilermakers, 75-60, on Monday night in Glendale.

The Huskies become the first repeat champion since the Florida Gators went back-to-back in 2006 and 2007, and the third total since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985. The other was Duke in 1991 and 1992, led by point guard Bobby Hurley – Danny’s brother and the current head coach at Arizona State.

UConn, who lost five of their eight leading scorers from last year’s championship squad, secured the title on the back of a full team effort on the defensive end, holding Purdue to 44.4% shooting from the field and just 1-7 from the three point line.

Zach Edey was left in single coverage all night long, and while he had a productive night – finishing with 37 points and 10 rebounds on 15-25 shooting – the supporting cast for the Boilermakers did not step up to help him out.

Meanwhile, for the second year in a row Tristen Newton led UConn in scoring in a national championship victory, dropping 20 points and seven assists and cementing himself as among the best NCAA Tournament performers of all-time.

Newcomers Cam Spencer (11 points, eight rebounds) and Stephon Castle (15 points) had great games as well, while Donovan Clingan focused his effort on the defensive side of the ball while chipping in 11 points and five rebounds.

UConn not only won back-to-back titles, they finished the 2024 NCAA Tournament with the largest total margin of victory of all-time, and have now won every game they played in the last two tournaments by 13 or more points – a level of dominance that puts this program squarely in the dynasty conversation.

On the Purdue side, this ends their quest to do what Virginia did in 2019 – win a championship the year after losing to a No. 16 seed. It also keeps the Big Ten’s streak of not winning a national title alive, which dates back to 2000 when Tom Izzo and Michigan State got it done.

Iowa-South Carolina sets viewership record that peaked at 24M viewers

They just keep raising the bar.

Women’s college basketball just keeps re-writing history in terms of people watching the games this postseason. Last year’s title game drew over 12 million viewers. A lot of fans tuned in to watch Kim Mulkey win yet another championship and the first with the LSU Tigers.

LSU was able to fend off the Iowa Hawkeyes and Caitlin Clark, who became a cultural phenomenon at a time when the women’s game was treated the same as the men’s. You could argue that Clark helped elevate the women’s game beyond the men’s over the last two tournaments. On Sunday afternoon, they did it again with another record-breaking game.

According to Front Office Sports, the game averaged 18.7 million viewers and peaked at 24 million.

The game will miss players like Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, Cameron Brink, Kamilla Cardoso, Rickea Jackson, and Aaliyah Edwards who helped make the past few seasons so electric. However, the future is also bright with the superstars to come. Let’s also not forget that UConn star Paige Bueckers has already announced that she will return for at least one more season.

Wisconsin women’s hockey back in the national championship

The Wisconsin women’s hockey team will face off with Ohio State in the National Championship on Sunday

The Wisconsin women’s hockey team will face off with Ohio State in the National Championship on Sunday in Durham, New Hampshire. The Badgers defeated Colgate 3-1 in the semifinals Friday, setting up a rematch with the Buckeyes.

Mark Johnson’s squad is the reigning national champions, taking down Ohio State 1-0 in the title game last March, securing their seventh championship in program history.

In five contests against the Buckeyes this season, Wisconsin has gone 2-3, but they have won the last two matchups, including a 6-3 victory in the WCHA Final Faceoff title game on March 9.

The Badgers come into Sunday’s contest red-hot, winners of seven games in a row, while the Buckeyes took down Clarkson 4-1 in the semifinals Friday.

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Notre Dame annihilated by North Carolina in worst loss of season

Glad this one is over with.

North Carolina hopes to win a national championship, and it didn’t care how well Notre Dame played lately before Tuesday’s game. While the Irish weren’t expected to beat the Tar Heels, there was at least the hope that they could make it a game as they have every game for the past few weeks. Instead, the Tar Heels dealt the Irish their worst defeat of the season, 84-51, to clinch a share of the ACC regular-season title.

Even though the Irish (12-18, 7-12) never led, there was a brief moment in which it appeared they might actually go in front of the Tar Heels (24-6, 16-3). They kept it close during the first 11 minutes of the first half, culminating a potential go-ahead 3-pointer from Markus Burton. But Burton didn’t get the friendly roll, and the floodgates opened from there.

After Burton’s miss, the Tar Heels outscored the Irish, 23-9, before halftime. The break in the action did nothing for the Irish as the Tar Heels scored 16 unanswered points over the first five minutes of the second half. From there, it was just a big senior night party in Chapel Hill for the departing players who were playing their final home game.

Leading ACC scorer RJ Davis played his part with 22 points as well as a game-high six assists. Armando Bacot, the conference’s top rebounder, had 14 points and was one of four Tar Heels with five boards. Former Irish guard Cormac Ryan scored 14 of his own points, and two other Tar Heels off the bench also reached double figures.

[autotag]Tae Davis[/autotag] being the only Notre Dame player in double figures with 11 points said it all. Still, even if the Irish had made more than 18 field goals and shot better than 30.5% from the field, it’s unlikely they could have done much to stop the Tar Heels, who are on a level with the best teams in college basketball.

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Notre Dame fencing team member Spencer Vermeule killed in car accident

Awful news.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – The Notre Dame fencing program is in mourning after losing one of its own. Sophomore [autotag]Spencer Vermeule[/autotag], who was on the 2023 national championship team, died Saturday after the Audi A3 he was driving hit a tree and flipped over in Elkhart County. He was pronounced dead at the accident’s scene, and an investigation is continuing.

Notre Dame’s president, the [autotag]Rev. John Jenkins[/autotag], released the following statement:

“We are deeply saddened by Spencer’s tragic death. On behalf of the entire Notre Dame community, I extend our deepest sympathies to the Vermeule family, and offer prayers of comfort and peace to Spencer’s family, friends and all who knew and loved him.”

A moment for silence for Vermeuhle was planned before the women’s basketball team’s sold-out home finale against Louisville at Purcell Pavilion. We at Fighting Irish Wire join Notre Dame in offering our deepest condolences to his family and friends during this difficult time.

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Looking back at Kentucky’s eight National Championship teams

Looking back at all eight of Kentucky’s National Championship winning seasons.

The 2023-24 men’s college basketball season is winding down, and the Kentucky Wildcats are hoping to close it out with a ninth National Championship. It has been an up and down season for the Cats, but they have gotten stronger, particularly on defense, over the past few weeks and are looking to make noise in the NCAA Tournament.

This year’s Wildcats team is as talented as any they’ve ever had from top to bottom. They’re short on experience, but long on ability, with plenty of young stars, any of which can explode on a give night. It’s a team driven by Freshmen, but those first year players are playing with maturity beyond their years.

Kentucky won’t enter this year’s NCAA Tournament as top seeds, or as favorites to win it all. They made things a little more difficult on themselves with some tough losses in conference play. However, they’re a squad that other teams won’t want to face in March.

The University of Kentucky knows a thing or two about winning championships. They have celebrated at the end of the season eight times in their history, and would love to add another. Here is the path that those eight other Wildcats teams took to the ultimate March Madness prize.

Texas among 247Sports’ 10 teams with national championship potential in 2024

Texas has one of the most talented rosters in college football heading into the 2024 season.

It’s no secret that Texas has one of the most talented rosters in college football heading into the 2024 season. Continue reading “Texas among 247Sports’ 10 teams with national championship potential in 2024”