Tag: National Championship

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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Notre Dame women’s basketball impersonates Niele Ivey for birthday

Happy Birthday, Coach!

If you don’t feel old yet, try this on for size: Notre Dame legendary player-turned-coach [autotag]Niele Ivey[/autotag] is 47 today. Yes, the player who was instrumental in the Irish winning their first national championship in 2001 and the assistant coach on the 2018 national championship staff who now heads the program is 47. Naturally, it’s a time to celebrate.

For the players, assistant coaches and managers in the women’s basketball program, there’s really only one way to mark Ivey’s birthday. That way is to give their best impressions of her and record them for a video.

With [autotag]KK Bransford[/autotag] acting as the video’s emcee, several of her teammates and some of the other aforementioned members of the program impersonated Ivey or gave her their best birthday wishes.

The best part about this video is that you can see how sincere everyone is. They truly love her, and it’s the kind of a video that only a group that considers itself family can make:

https://twitter.com/ndwbb/status/1838604541958176889

We join in wishing the head of the program the happiest of birthdays and many blessings over the coming year. Hopefully, that includes more success on the court.

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Urban Meyer explains why he picked Florida over Notre Dame

Does this change your perception of him at all?

Many Notre Dame fans likely still haven’t forgiven Urban Meyer for choosing to coach Florida over the program he once worked for. While the Irish ended up with [autotag]Charlie Weis[/autotag], Meyer won two of his eventual three national championships with the Gators. On the surface, Meyer made the right call.

But as Meyer pointed out in the latest episode of “The Triple Option”, he didn’t simply choose the Gators because he liked their program better. It goes back to the Irish having a national footprint as opposed to other programs with more regional footprints.

Since the Irish have a national following, they need to recruit everywhere around the country, and that often means recruiters spending time away from their families. That wasn’t the case with the Gators, who primarily focused on the state of Florida and sometimes Georgia, which meant recruiters could be home on the same day they left to visit prospective players:

https://twitter.com/3xOptionShow/status/1836458992182145384

This probably won’t change some people’s perspectives of Meyer, but at least he’s setting the record straight. He chose to spend more time with his family, and who can fault a man for that?

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Former Notre Dame star Brianna Turner asked if she plays for UConn

Come on now.

Former Notre Dame standout [autotag]Brianna Turner[/autotag] has established herself during her six seasons in the WNBA. While she’s played fewer minutes this year with the Chicago Sky than she did during her five years with the Phoenix Mercury, it’s not like she doesn’t have accomplishments like two All-Defensive First Team selections.

Meanwhile, UConn is the biggest brand in women’s basketball across all levels, and the proof is there in all of its national championships. So it stands to reason for casual or ill-informed fans that any elite women’s basketball player to emerge over the past quarter-century went there or still goes there.

Turner, of course, did not go to UConn. The accolades she earned while with the Irish are too many to list, making her one of the most accomplished players ever to come through South Bend.

Apparently, some people don’t recognize this though because Turner took to social media to reveal this anecdote:

We don’t know for sure, but is it possible this person confused her with  Breanna Stewart, who’s been away from the Huskies longer than Turner’s been away from the Irish? It would be a logical explanation.

Stewart and Turner met only once during their collegiate careers, and that was when the Huskies beat the Irish for the 2015 national championship. Turner actually outscored Stewart in that game, racking up 14 points while Stewart had only eight.

The point of all this? The Huskies don’t have a monopoly on elite women’s basketball talent, hard as that might be to believe.

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Notre Dame forward Maddy Westbeld will miss start of season

Tough break for the veteran.

[autotag]Maddy Westbeld[/autotag] will be a veteran leader on a Notre Dame team full of them during the 2024-25 season. Recognizing the opportunity the Irish have to win a national championship, she chose to use her final year of eligibility and be a part of that effort.

However, the Irish will have to get used to life without Westbeld for now. The 6-foot-3 forward, who averaged 14.4 points, 1.1 blocks and a career-high 8.7 rebounds in 2023-24, is dealing with a foot injury that will keep her out of action at the start of the season. This is unfortunate for a player who has missed only one game during her collegiate career and always been in the starting lineup.

While the Irish have some veteran forward transfers this year in [autotag]Liatu King[/autotag] and [autotag]Liza Karlen[/autotag] to help soften this blow, it doesn’t make this setback any easier for Westbeld or her teammates. Here’s what she said on social media:

 

We wish Westbeld the best of luck in her recovery. If the Irish are to have any real success this upcoming season, they’ll need her.

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Notre Dame hockey joins in remembering Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau

A terrible tragedy.

Hockey is a very tight-knit community, and Notre Dame is part of that community. So when tragedy strikes it, the Irish feel the rightful need to know that they’re mourning as much as those the tragedy directly impacts. Unfortunately, that time has come once again.

Columbus Blue Jackets star Johnny Gaudreau and his brother Matthew were killed Thursday night when they struck while riding their bicycles by an alleged drunk driver near their hometown in New Jersey. They were anticipating their sister’s wedding this weekend.

The Irish took to social media in light of this horrible news to express their condolences:

The Gaudreau brothers’ time at Boston College spanned from 2011 to 2017. The Irish went 7-6 against the Eagles during that time with most games coming when the Irish were a member of Hockey East. But the Eagles went to three Frozen Fours and won the 2012 national championship. Johnny Gaudreau also won the Hobey Baker Award to cap his collegiate career in 2014.

We at Fighting Irish Wire extended our deepest condolences to the Gaudreau family during this difficult time.

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Notre Dame preparing for Texas A&M with piped-in crowd, band noise

Will this help the Irish tune the Aggies fans out?

Kyle Field is said to provide one of the best home-field advantages in college football, and Notre Dame is about to experience it. If the Irish lose to Texas A&M in their season opener, the atmosphere Kyle Field is sure to provide could be a major reason why. Win or lose, we’ll have a good idea about the mental makeup of this team when the game is over.

Whatever happens, the Irish are preparing properly. While piped-in crowd noise and marching bands are nothing new with football practices, Tyler Horka of Blue and Gold Illustrated noted that the Irish cranked the volume with it during Tuesday’s practice, which was held in sweltering temperatures:

We’ll see how well this prepares the Irish for the first game of the season. If they want to win a national championship though, they eventually will have to conquer frenzied crowds to get there. If nothing else, it would build character for the entire team.

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