Tag: new year’s day

Notre Dame to play North Carolina in delayed ACC home opener

Time to tame the Tar Heels.

Notre Dame was unable to play its first ACC home game of the season on New Year’s Day as planned. Blame a COVID-19 outbreak in Duke’s program for that. The opener finally will come Wednesday against North Carolina.

After getting off to a 3-4 start, the Irish have won four of their past five games. That gives them a 7-5 overall record, and a strong showing in conference play would be crucial to their NCAA Tournament hopes. Their 1-1 ACC record easily could have been 0-2 but for Prentiss Hubb’s basket in the final seconds against Pittsburgh. That obviously doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence, but maybe the extra time off will do them some good.

Two streaks will be put on the line for this game. The Irish have won six in a row at Purcell Pavilion going back to last season. Meanwhile, Dane Goodwin has not scored below double digits in the Irish’s 12 games this season. The Tar Heels, one of the better teams in the conference, will provide a tough test to keep both streaks alive.

Pat Connaughton NBA Tracker: Dec. 27-Jan. 2

Pat’s going up and down right now.

While the Milwaukee Bucks keep winning, Pat Connuaghton is waffling. Over the past week, he had one good game, one that wasn’t so great, and another nice game. Talk about a player who’s hard to figure out right now.

The Bucks began the week with back-to-back road games against the Orlando Magic. Connaughton’s first game, played Dec. 28, featured a 10-point, five-rebound performance. When the Bucks and Magic met at the Amway Center again two days later, Connaughton had his lowest scoring game of the season with two points on 1-of-5 shooting from the field. When he started a New Year’s Day contest with the New Orleans Pelicans, he scored all nine of his points on three 3-pointers and also had six rebounds and three assists.

For the week, Connaughton averaged 7.0 points, 4.3 rebounds and 2.0 assists a game. All the while, he shot 47.5 percent from the field, which included going 5 of 13 from 3-point range.

What the experts are predicting: Fiesta Bowl

Notre Dame hasn’t won a major bowl in over a quarter of a century. It can snap that skid against Oklahoma State in the Fiesta Bowl on New Year’s Day. All eyes will be on Marcus Freeman in his first game as head coach of this legendary program. A …

Notre Dame hasn’t won a major bowl in over a quarter of a century. It can snap that skid against Oklahoma State in the Fiesta Bowl on New Year’s Day. All eyes will be on Marcus Freeman in his first game as head coach of this legendary program. A victory would go a long way in giving the Irish confidence for the 2022 season.

Let’s look at what some college football experts, including those on the Wire sites, are predicting for this game:

Prentiss Hubb rescues Notre Dame against Pittsburgh

That was too close.

Notre Dame will need to have a better showing against ACC competition than it had in its first game with Pittsburgh. The Irish came dangerously close to dropping this road contest against the only team in the conference with a record below .500. In the end, Prentiss Hubb’s go-ahead shot with 5.6 seconds left gave the Irish a 68-67 victory.

After the Irish (7-5, 1-1) found themselves in a 30-all tie at halftime, a 6-0 run by the Panthers (5-8, 0-2) looked like it would be enough of a catalyst to spark the hosts to a win as the Irish struggled with their shooting. Instead, an 8-0 Irish run later in the second half tied it back up, and they held a slim lead going into the final minute.

Femi Odukale scored on a layup and foul with 33 seconds remaining to put the Panthers back up. After he missed the ensuing free throw, Dane Goodwin got the rebound to begin the possession that ended with Hubb’s heroics. After taking a timeout, Jamarius Burton got a layup opportunity but missed it. The cliche that the Irish had escaped by the skin of their teeth definitely applied here.

Paul Atkinson Jr. led the Irish with 16 points, making all eight free throws, before fouling out late. Hubb was just behind with 15. Blake Wesley scored 12, and Dane Goodwin added 11, nine of which came on 3-pointers.

It was quite the maddening game to wrap up 2021. Now, the Irish will get Duke on New Year’s Day. A lot of improvement will be needed fast to pull off the upset. Do they have enough time to pull it off though?

No College Football Playoff semifinal replacements will be named

The Irish definitely won’t play for the championship this year.

If you think Notre Dame might replace a team that has to drop out of the College Football Playoff semifinals because of COVID-19, forget it. Contingency plans for the playoff have been announced, and they’re pretty straightforward. While the championship game could be delayed in the event of an outbreak, the semifinals will not be moved from their scheduled New Year’s Eve date.

If any of the four teams are not available to play on that day, they will forfeit the game, and their opponent automatically will head to the title game. In the event that three teams are not available, the remaining team automatically will win the national championship. If a finalist can’t play for the title, the other team would be declared the title. If neither finalist has enough available players, the championship will go down as being vacated.

It also was announced that the Fiesta Bowl, which the Irish are scheduled to play New Year’s Day against Oklahoma State, can be made up within a week of the original date if necessary.

Notre Dame to play in Fiesta Bowl

Headed out west…

Notre Dame missed out on the College Football Playoff but finishing fifth in the final CFP rankings on Sunday.  The Irish won’t be playing in the Playoff but will instead be headed to the Fiesta Bowl to take on Oklahoma State.

This will be Notre Dame’s first ever clash with Oklahoma State.  It will also be Notre Dame’s sixth all-time trip to the Fiesta Bowl, the site where the clinched their most recent national championship to cap the 1988 season, but a place they haven’t won since.

Notre Dame and Oklahoma State will play on New Year’s Day at 1:00 p.m. ET.

Keep it right here for everything regarding this interesting bowl matchup for the Fighting Irish as it will be where Marcus Freeman makes his head coaching debut.

Related:

Notre Dame’s all-time bowl history

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Holiday Gift Guide: Apparel and shoes and accessories, oh my!

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