Tag: Paul Atkinson Jr.

Opinion: Dark days ahead for Notre Dame men’s basketball

Don’t expect any winning for the Irish in the near future.

It’s no stretch to say this past season was the worst for Notre Dame in recent memory. Its 3-17 conference record was the worst in program history, and its 21 losses tied the 1965-66 Irish for the most in program history. The Irish’s 11 wins kept them far away from the program’s worst winning percentage, but that’s little consolation to the fans who had to watch this team.

With only [autotag]Blake Wesley[/autotag] and [autotag]Paul Atkinson Jr.[/autotag] as key departures from last season’s team that won two NCAA Tournament games, the veteran core appeared perfectly positioned to at least duplicate that success. Instead, everything that could go wrong did, and [autotag]Mike Brey[/autotag]’s mantra of getting old and staying old proved nothing more than hot air. As a result, the Irish will be shut out on Selection Sunday for the fourth time in five tournaments.

But missing out on March Madness yet again isn’t the worst part. That distinction goes to the fact the Irish will be very inexperienced next season and probably beyond. With almost every rotation player having exhausted their NCAA eligibility this season, this was the season to make one more run. That goal came up woefully short. Now, the Irish will be reliant on younger players and guys who didn’t crack the departing Brey’s eight-man rotation.

[autotag]JJ Starling[/autotag], [autotag]Ven-Allen Lubin[/autotag], [autotag]Dom Campbell[/autotag] and [autotag]Matt Zona[/autotag] hardly seem like a core that will put much fear into anybody. It’s not like much known help is coming either with [autotag]Markus Burton[/autotag] the only one of three committed freshmen not to decommit from the Irish after Brey announced his departure. And who really expects [autotag]J.R. Konieczny[/autotag] to step in as an impact player right away? Plus, if you’re counting on much help coming from the transfer portal, your optimism is admirable.

It’s hard to be envious of whoever takes over Brey’s job. That person will have to work with a group that has little collective game action, and that inexperience will show when those games are played. No one can look at next year’s Irish and convincingly say there is one trusted veteran leader. Starling hasn’t proven himself a leader despite having NBA aspirations, and if Zona is supposed to be one, well, the Irish will need all the luck they can get.

With a new core and a new coach, it will be some time before the Irish are worthy of attention again. No one likes to think of a program rebuilding, but that’s the reality. When a bunch of veterans lose and don’t leave much of a foundation behind, a lot more losing is in the future. The only hope is that Brey was sitting the players who could have made this past season a better one.

It goes without saying that the next Irish coach needs to be a strong recruiter because that’s the only way this program will return to respectability. There is nowhere to go but up after a season like this past one. Well, actually, the depths might sink further over the next year or two while the new group tries to figure things out. Either way, time to embrace the suck.

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Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

Mike Brey meets with media ahead of Notre Dame’s 2022-23 season

Here’s what we heard when we traveled to the Irish’s local media day.

[autotag]Mike Brey[/autotag] is coming off his best season coaching Notre Dame over the past few years. Irish fans will be anxious to see how his team will be able to build off last season’s success. Until they learn how or if that happens, words from the longtime coach will suffice. And he has plenty to say about it.

Fighting Irish Wire accepted an invitation to attend a media day for local media at Purcell Pavilion and was with the assembled group when Brey spoke. He addressed everything from the outlook of this year’s team to the ACC’s reputation to players old and new. This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone by now, but he knows his team very well and is as much of an open book as you can imagine for a college basketball coach.

Here is some of what Brey had to say to the local media:

Lakers draft prospect profile: Paul Atkinson Jr.

Our look at University of Notre Dame forward Paul Atkinson Jr.

Just because the Los Angeles Lakers do not have a pick in the upcoming NBA draft doesn’t mean they’re not doing their due diligence on draft prospects.

The team is reportedly interested in acquiring a second-round pick, and they are also looking to sign at least one undrafted player as a free agent.

One player they have recently brought in for a workout is Paul Atkinson Jr., a 6-foot-10, 220-pound senior from the University of Notre Dame.

This season, he averaged 12.5 points and 6.9 rebounds per game. In the 2020-21 campaign, he put up 17.6 points and 7.3 boards a game as a member of Yale University.

Here is a look at Atkinson.

Notre Dame gives out 2021-22 awards

Who was the best of the best for the Irish this season?

The 2021-22 season didn’t start like it would be a memorable one for Notre Dame. Starting the schedule with a 4-5 record will do that. Then, the Irish rattled off winning streaks of six, four and five and stayed in contention for the ACC regular-season championship almost to the end. Their resume was enough to be selected for their first NCAA Tournament since 2017, and a pair of wins to get to the round of 32 tied a nice bow on this 24-11 season.

Before this iteration of the Irish goes its separate ways for good, there were some team awards to give out. The informal presentation was held at Rolfs Athletic Center. When you look the winners, there probably won’t be any surprises if you followed this team closely from the beginning. Let’s take a look at which players were rewarded for being the best of the best for the Irish this past season:

Cormac Ryan carries Notre Dame past Alabama in NCAA Tournament

The season continues!

When Cormac Ryan began his collegiate career at Stanford, he never could have envisioned where he would be in a few years. He certainly couldn’t have anticipated playing the starring role for Notre Dame in an NCAA Tournament game. But that’s exactly what happened as he poured in a career-high 29 points to lead the Irish to a 78-64 win over Alabama. That gives the Irish a spot in the Round of 32 and a date with third-seeded Texas Tech.

The Irish (24-10) played a back-and-forth first half with the Crimson Tide (19-14) and took a five-point lead into the break. Just beyond the midway point of the second half, that lead grew to 14 thanks to the Irish making some timely baskets and not allowing many second chances. Consequently, the Tide never got closer than eight the rest of the way, though they were dealing with an early game-ending injury to Jahvon Quinerly, their second-best scorer and assists leader. While the Irish certainly would have preferred to beat a Tide team that was fully healthy, that doesn’t always happen.

Not only did Ryan play the best game of his career, but he did it at the most opportune time possible. His scoring total is a program record for an NCAA Tournament game, as are his seven 3-pointers. Since being reinserted into the starting lineup in February, he now is averaging 13.8 points a game. Him emerging as a player who leads by example on the court is a development few could have expected, but who’s complaining?

Equally lethal was the duo of Blake Wesley and Paul Atkinson Jr., who combined for 31 points and seven steals. Atkinson also led the Irish with eight rebounds, and Wesley had a couple of fast breaks off steals for easy buckets in the second half. Off the bench, Nate Laszewski scored 10.

If all those details are boring to you, you can just watch this:

And don’t forget about a few words from Mike Brey:

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Notre Dame ready to battle Alabama in NCAA Tournament

Hopefully, the basketball team fares better against the Tide than the football team.

All too often over the past decade, we’ve heard that Notre Dame never can beat Alabama in football. That’s because they’ve been correct, and those can’t stand the Irish will blurt that out for all the world to hear. However, they haven’t said anything about basketball, and the Irish can write a new narrative when these programs meet in the Round of 64 in the NCAA Tournament.

These programs last played each other at Walt Disney World in November 2015, and the Crimson Tide’s 74-73 win cut the Irish’s all-time lead in the series to 3-2. Now, they’ll be playing on the other side of the country in San Diego. The winner of this game will advance to play either Texas Tech or Montana State in the Round of 32.

Can the Irish count on another big game from Paul Atkinson Jr.? His 26 points, which included the game-winning putback in the First Four against Rutgers, set a record for the highest scoring total in a player’s debut NCAA Tournament game with the program. Or maybe the Irish should look to Cormac Ryan and his 12.3 scoring average since joining the starting lineup in February. It really doesn’t matter who steps up as long as the Irish are ahead when the clock hits zero.

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Notre Dame beats Rutgers in double-overtime classic, makes Round of 64

The Irish signaled that March Madness has begun!

Call it cliche that Notre Dame’s First Four game against Rutgers was decided right as it became midnight on St. Patrick’s Day. Whatever label you want to give it, the result was the same. After battling with the Scarlet Knights for 40 regulation minutes and two overtimes, the Irish appeared headed to a third extra session in Dayton, Ohio. Instead, a Paul Atkinson Jr. putback with 1.4 seconds left gave the Irish an 89-87 win and a date with Alabama in the Round of 64.

This NCAA Tournament game featured numerous ties and lead changes with neither team gaining a serious advantage for a lengthy amount of time. Every time it appeared over, someone would knot up the score, a game-winner would be missed, and the contest would be extended. By the second overtime, you couldn’t have called yourself a real fan and not be tuned into truTV at that moment. You would have missed something epic.

With 41 seconds left, Prentiss Hubb sank two free throws to give the Irish (23-10) an 87-84 lead. Although the Scarlet Knights (18-14) didn’t necessarily need a 3-pointer yet, Ron Harper Jr. fired one from way downtown and made it to tie the game at 87 with 22 seconds remaining. With the shot clock now off, the Irish had the chance to play for the final shot. Blake Wesley milked the clock before driving for a layup that missed everything, but that led to Atkinson’s game-winning heroics.

Atkinson scored all of his points in the paint, and his 26 led all scorers. Nate Laszewski came off the bench and scored 18 points. Cormac Ryan scored 16 and also picked up a game-high three steals in a terrific defensive effort. Dane Goodwin had 12 points as he returned to his usual spot in the starting lineup.

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Three Notre Dame players named to All-ACC teams

The ACC gave out some hardware to the Irish.

With Notre Dame all but certain to be an NCAA Tournament team, it was a given that the ACC would reward some of its players. Sure enough, that’s exactly what happened. Three Irish players have been named to a variety of all-conference teams.

Blake Wesley, the freshman phenom from South Bend who is projected to be a first-round NBA draft selection this year, has been named to the All-ACC Second Team and the conference’s All-Rookie Team. The Irish’s last all-rookie selection was Jerian Grant on the Big East team for the 2011-12 season. Wesley definitely earned both honors after leading the team in scoring (14.8 points a game).

Senior Dane Goodwin is on the All-ACC Third Team after averaging 14.0 points a game and putting up a shooting slash line of .498/.448/.855. Only Wesley had a higher scoring average for the Irish.

Paul Atkinson Jr., the graduate transfer from Yale and former Ivy League Player of the Year, is an honorable mention on the All-ACC Team. He rounded out the Irish players with double-digit scoring averages at 12.6.

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Notre Dame seniors’ best scoring games at Purcell Pavilion

Take a look back at these memorable performances.

Notre Dame’s graduating class will get one final opportunity to show itself off during senior day at Purcell Pavilion. Although there still will be a few meaningful things to play for against Pittsburgh, the significance of day shouldn’t be lost on any of them. After all, graduating players get only one opportunity to be honored for their years of service to the program, so this is the time to let it all soak in.

Over the past few years, the Irish’s six seniors and one graduate student have had plenty of opportunities to put points on the Purcell Pavilion scoreboard. Some efforts have produced better results than others. As they prepare to take their home court for the last time, let’s take a look at the scoring performances that they haven’t been able to top. Maybe one of these games will be replaced by this upcoming one, but this is their last chance to top themselves in South Bend.

Notre Dame misses opportunities in loss to Florida State

Not how the Irish wanted their last true road game of the year to go.

If anyone thought Notre Dame’s remaining opponents would just let it have the second seed in the ACC Tournament, they were wrong. Even with Florida State decimated by injuries to its top players, it had every intention of making a statement when the Irish came to Tallahassee. That’s exactly what happened in a 74-70 Seminoles win. Consequently, Duke has won the outright ACC regular-season championship.

The Irish (21-9, 14-5) bounced back from the Seminoles (16-13, 9-10) making their first five 3-point attempts to take a five-point halftime lead. The second half saw the Irish lose that lead early and never get it back despite plenty of chances to do so. They both missed shots and coughed up loose balls at inopportune times. Perhaps most damning of all, they missed all 10 shots from 3-point range in the second half while the Seminoles equaled the six 3s they made in the first half.

John Butler, who could make the jump to the NBA in the distant future, was the man for the Seminoles. He led them with 16 points, eight rebounds and four blocks. Three of his four 3-pointers came during the Seminoles’ shooting barrage out of the gate. Helping him out were fellow starters Anthony Polite, RayQuan Evans and Tanor Ngom, all of whom scored 12 points.

Blake Wesley scored two of his game-high 21 points on a thunderous first-half dunk, which proved to be the highlight for the Irish in this one. Paul Atkinson Jr. achieved a double-double of 17 points and 10 rebounds. Prentiss Hubb had a 10-point, seven-board game, but he shot only 4 of 12 from the field, including 1 of 6 from beyond the arc.

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