Tag: North Carolina

A few caveats here: the Knicks doing …

A few caveats here: the Knicks doing extensive homework on a player isn’t necessarily a sign that they are going to pick that player. They are probably doing extensive scouting on several players to prepare for different draft scenarios in advance of the NBA Lottery. Also, the Knicks’ scouting this season was done by GM Scott Perry and his brain trust. New Knicks president Leon Rose will obviously rely on that scouting to evaluate the draft. Perry is Rose’s hand-picked general manager for the 2020-21 season.

Watch: New Notre Dame Corner’s Career Highlights

Notre Dame added a new cornerback in grad-transfer Nick McCloud on Monday. See McCloud’s best highlights from North Carolina State here.

North Carolina State graduate transfer Nick McCloud announced his commitment to Notre Dame on Monday.  McCloud joins a secondary that will be going through an overhaul entering the 2021 season.

So what is Notre Dame getting in McCloud?  We could write about him all day.  In fact, Mike Chen already did after McCloud announced his commitment to Notre Dame earlier today.  When you’re done checking that out you can also check out McCloud’s highlight tape during his time at North Carolina State below.

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The former three-star recruit to North Carolina State had 105 tackles and three interceptions during his time with the Wolfpack.  McCloud played in just two games last season as the captain suffered a knee injury early on in the year.

The commitment of McCloud is the second big win for new defensive backs coach Mike Mickens in the past week as the Irish also landed a commitment from Philip Ryley from Florida.

Georgia RB Zamir White a top 10 RB prospect for 2021 NFL Draft

Georgia football RB Zamir White is considered a top-10 ball carrier in the 2021 NFL Draft.

Pro Football Network recently released their list of the top-10 running back prospects for the 2021 NFL Draft.

Georgia red-shirt sophomore Zamir White (Laurinburg, North Carolina) comes in at No. 8, which is 3rd in the SEC behind Alabama’s Najee Harris and Mississippi State’s Kylin Hill.

Pro Football Network wrote:

“White is a blend of size and speed but has never been healthy for a full season. The best thing for his draft stock is simply staying healthy. Don’t be surprised if White ends the season as the consensus RB1, or if the injuries were too insurmountable.”

Former Georgia star back D’Andre Swift was drafted to the Lions in the 2020 NFL Draft and with the departure of Brian Herrien too, many believe White will be the next man up in an always talented Georgia running back room.

White’s college career so far still holds more questions than answers. The No. 1 running back in the 2018 recruiting class, White was considered to be the next great Georgia running back by many. After tearing his ACL in his left knee his senior season at Scotland High School, White enrolled at Georgia in 2018. He worked his way back from his first ACL tear only to suffer another one, this time in his right knee two weeks before the Bulldogs’ first game.

Knee injuries are always scary, especially for skill position players, so we weren’t sure if we would ever see White on the field for Georgia. However, he persevered, and after a tough rehab and red-shirting in 2018, White was able to suit up in 2019 and carried the ball 78 times for 408 yards and three touchdowns.

A small glimpse for sure, but NFL draft analysts have taken notice. White has already battled his way back from two serious injuries, so I think it’s safe to say he is ready for a big season in 2020 and it would be awesome to see such a hard worker do great things for the Bulldogs.

College Football Recruiting: Five Takeaways From ESPN 300

Notre Dame landed six players on the updated ESPN 300 list for 2021. What schools are impressing and who is disappointing in ’21 recruiting?

ESPN released their “ESPN 300”, their ranking of the 300 best prospects nationally in the 2021 college football recruiting class.  Here’s what we’ll do:

Here we’ll give you where the six Notre Dame commitments that checked in rank and then we’ll share a handful of observations about national recruiting beyond that.

Deal?

Cool.

Where Notre Dame players ranked:

QB Tyler Buchner – 39
TE Cane Berrong – 51
OT Blake Fisher – 103
DT Gabriel Rubio – 163
WR Lorenzo Styles, Jr. – 243
DE David Abiara – 280

Safety Justin Walters and offensive guard Pat Coogan, both of Illinois didn’t make the ESPN 300 but are also commitments to Notre Dame’s 2021 class.

Next:  Oh my, Ohio State…

Pages: Page 1, Page 2, Page 3, Page 4, Page 5, Page 6

ESPN’s Best College Basketball Coach Hirings of Last 25 Years

The top five are obvious but who have the other fantastic hires of college basketball been the last quarter century?

When you think back to 1996 and go through today there are some college basketball head coaches who have knocked their jobs out of the park.

Roy Williams has won three national championships since being hired by North Carolina in 2003.  Bill Self hasn’t had a year where he failed to win a Big XII and his Kansas Jayhawks won it all in 2008.  Jay Wright has taken Villanova to new heights and a pair of national titles while Tom Izzo has led the Michigan State Spartans to eight Final Four appearances and a national championship in 2000.

Those are the obvious ones to best hires in that run.  What about the other, not so obvious great hires?

ESPN’s John Gasaway ranked the 25 best college basketball hires of the last 25 years with the caveat that the coach still has to be active even if they’re now employed by a different program.

Those obvious names made the list with Williams one, Wright two, Izzo three and Self four.

John Calipari at Kentucky, Tony Bennett at Virginia and Mark Few of Gonzaga are all on the list as well. A name Notre Dame fans are plenty familiar with checked in at 14th as well.

14. Mike Brey, Notre Dame Fighting Irish (2000)
Brey chose his mentors well. When you’ve been an assistant to both Morgan Wootten (DeMatha High School, 1982-87) and Mike Krzyzewski (Duke, 1987-95), you’re tough to beat in that category. The Fighting Irish have been to 12 of the 19 NCAA tournaments that have been played since his hiring, and ND nearly beat team of the decade Kentucky in the 2015 Elite Eight.

There isn’t much to complain about here if you’re a Notre Dame fan or Brey supporter.  Perhaps Leonard Hamilton at Florida State being ranked eighth might seem as a bit of a slight but Hamilton has had the Seminoles playing at a higher level than Notre Dame the last couple of years.

Whatever the case it’s nice to see Brey get some national love for a program that had an entire decade without an NCAA Tournament appearance before his arrival.

Makes you really miss what could have been with Matt Doherty, doesn’t it?

A look at Georgia QB Jamie Newman’s high school recruitment, highlights

Looking at Wake Forest transfer QB Jamie Newman, now with Georgia football, as a high school prospect and some of his best highlights

We know that Wake Forest transfer quarterback Jamie Newman is one of the highest-graded quarterbacks returning in 2020, but what was Newman like as a high school prospect before playing for Wake and later transferring to Georgia?

Newman was a 3-star prospect at Graham High School in Graham, North Carolina and was ranked as the No. 17 dual-threat quarterback in the 2015 recruiting class, according to 247Sports.

Newman recorded a 4.7 40 in high school and held offers from NC State, Vanderbilt, West Virginia, North Carolina and Wake Forest, among six others.

Although Newman took unofficial visits to Duke, Wake Forrest, North Carolina, Vanderbilt and East Carolina, his college decision really came down between Wake Forest, Vanderbilt, NC State and West Virginia. And ultimately signed with Wake Forest in Feburary of 2016.

See some of our favorite highlights from Newman’s high school days here:

 

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Notre Dame Football: 2021 Commitment List

Bookmark this page as we’ll keep it updated and linked to everything on all of Notre Dame’s 2021 football commitments!

Notre Dame sits in a bit of an interesting spot in terms of recruiting with Brian Kelly having already been on the record about wanting to take a step in the caliber of talent the Fighting Irish bring in annually.  Kelly and his staff would probably be best described as having done a good but not great job in terms of recruiting in his decade at Notre Dame.

In Kelly’s now 11 classes he’s signed to Notre Dame, only once has a class finished in the top five of recruiting rankings (per 247Sports), that being the 2013 class that featured five-star talents Jaylon Smith and Max Redfield.  Other than that only three of the ten remaining class finished in the top ten, those coming in 2011 (ninth), 2017 (10th) and 2018 (10th).  The last two seasons have seen Notre Dame rank 16th (2019) and 17th (2020) by 247’s rankings.

So where does Notre Dame currently sit in terms of their commitments?  We’ll keep a running list for you to be able to easily use in the future.  As of posting, 247Sports ranks Notre Dame the 10th best class in 2021.  Obviously that can change relatively quickly with just one commitment or de-commitment from the class.

Here is who has committed to Notre Dame for the class of 2021 with a link to every post we’ve done that’s mentioned them in some capacity.  Bookmark it, refer back to it, do whatever it is you do because we’ll keep it updated until the class of 2021 becomes official months from now.

2021 Notre Dame Commitments:

It’s far from a complete class but clearly a lot of work remains over the next seven months or so.  Right now all eyes are on Will Shipley as Notre Dame, Clemson and perhaps North Carolina remain the front runners to land the star all-purpose back.

 

Notre Dame 15 Years Tournament: No. 1 Seed – 2014-15 Irish

Now, we get to the heavy hitters in the Notre Dame 15 Years Tournament, beginning with the top seed.

Now, we get to the heavy hitters in the Notre Dame 15 Years Tournament, beginning with the top seed. The 2014-15 Irish represented the program’s second season in the ACC, but they made it clear to everyone that they intended to compete in perhaps the best conference in college basketball, not simply lay down for the likes of Duke, North Carolina and Syracuse. No one could deny it when this season was over.

En route to a 32-6 record, the program’s best since going 33-7 in 1908-09, the Irish jumped out to a 15-1 start and ended up winning 20 of their first 22 games, including eight of their first nine ACC games. That run ended with a four-point win over the No. 4 Blue Devils, at which point the Irish were ranked eighth, as high as they would get during the season. In spite of their 14-4 conference record, it only netted them a No. 3 seed in the ACC tournament. That didn’t matter, however, because the Irish squeezed out wins over Miami, Duke and North Carolina by an average of 8.3 points to win Mike Brey his first championship and earn an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

The close but meaningful games continued in March Madness. Seeded third in their region, the Irish needed everything to get by 14th-seeded Northeastern in a four-point first-round win, and the second-round win over in-state rival Butler required overtime. They breathed a little easier in an 11-point win over Wichita State in the Sweet Sixteen, setting up an Elite Eight matchup with Karl-Anthony Towns, Willie Cauley-Stein, Devin Booker and top-ranked Kentucky. The game was a classic, and the Irish would have made their first Final Four in 37 years had Jerian Grant not air-balled a corner 3 at the buzzer, giving the Wildcats a two-point victory.

Jerian Grant was named to the Consensus All-American First Team alongside Stein, Jahlil Okafor, D’Angelo Russell and Frank Kaminsky. He led the Irish with 16.5 points and 6.7 assists a game. Zach Auguste, Pat Connaughton and Demetrius Jackson all had scoring averages in the neighborhood of 12, and Steve Vasturia averaged 10.1 points a game. All of this made the Irish the second-best shooting team in the nation (50.9 percent), the third-best scoring team (2,963 points) and the ninth-best passing team (576).

Notre Dame Makes Cut for Four-Star Defensive End

A lot to consume in those schools but what sticks out to me is that yet again, North Carolina is in on a top-recruit.  The Tar Heels already have 14 commitments in the 2021 class and rank behind only Ohio State nationally for the class.  I made fun of the Mack Brown hiring initially but there is no doubt he’s raising the amount of football talent in Chapel Hill.

Notre Dame has offered a good amount of defensive ends in the 2021 recruiting class but David Abiara of Texas remains the only commit at the position so far.  However, the Fighting Irish got good news over the weekend as they made the cut to eight for a four-star end from North Carolina.

Zaire Patterson, a four-star senior-to-be from Winston-Salem Prep in North Carolina announced his final eight teams over the weekend and Notre Dame is one of the eight.

Alabama, Clemson, Georgia, Kentucky, Oklahoma, North Carolina, Notre Dame and South Carolina were the eight to make the cut.

The 6-6, 215 pound defensive end is regarded as a four-star recruit by 247Sports and was originally offered a scholarship by Notre Dame in January, just days before Alabama, Louisville and Texas A&M followed suit.

A lot to consume in those schools but what sticks out to me is that yet again, North Carolina is in on a top-recruit.  The Tar Heels already have 14 commitments in the 2021 class and rank behind only Ohio State nationally for the class.  I made fun of the Mack Brown hiring initially but there is no doubt he’s raising the amount of football talent in Chapel Hill.

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Patterson recorded nine sacks, 27 tackles for loss and 109 tackles overall last season while forcing nine fumbles as well.  Patterson would be a welcome addition to a Notre Dame program who has done a strong job turning out talent on the defensive line of late.