Tag: Pittsburgh

Former Vols’ analyst Jacob Bronowski joins Pittsburgh’s coaching staff

Former Vols’ analyst Jacob Bronowski joins Pittsburgh’s coaching staff.

Pittsburgh announced the hiring of Jacob Bronowski as tight ends coach and special teams coordinator.

He served as special teams coordinator at Miami University from 2022-23.

Bronowski was a special teams analyst at Tennessee in 2021 under head coach Josh Heupel. He came to Tennessee after serving as a special teams quality control assistant under Heupel in 2020 at UCF.

“Under Jacob’s direction, the special teams at Miami of Ohio were absolutely elite,” Pittsburgh head coach Pat Narduzzi said. “His units were extremely organized, executed at a high level and made a huge impact during their MAC championship season. Jacob is a really passionate coach and teacher. I know his impact will be immediate for us in a number of different areas.”

ACC women’s basketball leaders as of Jan. 14

One Notre Dame player continues to tear up the conference.

The college basketball regular season might be half over but not the ACC season. No, we’re still getting warmed up, and the conference action continues to heat up with each passing game. The next couple of months promise to live up to the conference’s billing as one of the best in the country. You won’t want to miss it.

Here are the players to watch as of this moment:

Hannah Hidalgo breaks Notre Dame conference rookie award record

She is just incredible.

For the seventh time this season, Notre Dame’s [autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag] has been named the ACC’s rookie of the week. This came after two solid games for her against Pittsburgh and North Carolina that the Irish split. She posted averages of 20.5 points, 8.5 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 3.5 steals a game.

With this honor, Hidalgo now is the Irish’s all-time leader in conference rookie of the week honors. The previous record of six stretched back to the program’s Big East days and was shared by [autotag]Brianna Turner[/autotag], [autotag]Jacqueline Batteast[/autotag], [autotag]Alicia Ratay[/autotag] and current Hidalgo teammate [autotag]Sonia Citron[/autotag]. Hidalgo needs three more such honors to match the ACC record set by Florida State’s Ta’Niya Latson a season ago.

The Irish are not even halfway through their regular-season schedule, and one only can imagine what else Hidalgo will do as conference play continues. There are many more bars in front of her waiting to be cleared, and it would not be shocking if she cleared all of them or at least the ones that are attainable this season.

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

ACC women’s basketball leaders as of Jan. 7

Guess who’s leading on Notre Dame’s behalf?

ACC play officially is in full swing. Now, we’ll really get to see what the teams are made of as they start to play each other. As that happens, we’ll get to see which players stand out the most. It might be too early to distinguish that right now, but we at least have an idea.

Here’s who continues to stand out in the conference at the moment:

Notre Dame has Citron again but not Westbeld in loss to North Carolina

A lost weekend for Notre Dame basketball.

Notre Dame’s [autotag]Sonia Citron[/autotag] returned to the starting lineup against North Carolina after missing nine games with a knee sprain. However, her return was canceled out by the absence of [autotag]Maddy Westbeld[/autotag], who was being evaluated for a concussion after being injured in the Irish’s last game at Pittsburgh. With the Irish down to six rotational players, they lost to the Tar Heels, 61-57, who won their first game in South Bend in six tries.

Except for most of the third quarter in which the Irish led by as much as seven, the Tar Heels showed from the beginning that they were the better team during this particular evening at Purcell Pavilion. They made more plays when it really mattered and took advantage of having more available depth. While neither team shot well, the Heels held the advantage there (38.7% from the field for them and 31.1% for the Irish), and that made the big difference.

After tying the game at 55 with 3:41 left on a pair of Citron free throws, the Irish didn’t score again until the outcome already was decided. They still had a chance with time running out and trailing by only three, but [autotag]Anna DeWolfe[/autotag]’s layup attempt was blocked by Maria Gakdeng, forcing the Irish to foul Deja Kelly.

Even when Kelly missed both free throws, Gakdeng got the offensive rebound, and the ball got to Indya Nivar, who was fouled and split her ensuing two free throws for the last of her team-leading 16 points, putting the Heels up four. [autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag] was fouled on the subsequent possession and missed two free throws. Lexi Donarski then finished the Irish off with two free throws of her own, bringing her total to 13 points.

The Irish wasted 18 points from Citron and a double-double from Hidalgo (17 points, 11 rebounds). [autotag]KK Bransford[/autotag] scored 12 points.

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo has stats line no other recent player had

She’s raising the bar higher all the time.

It’s clear by now that Notre Dame has a special player in freshman [autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag]. As the season goes on, we’re learning more and more about just how special she is. In fact, she might even be a generational player.

Shortly after the Irish finished off Pittsburgh in a tough game, OptaSTATS tweeted out something that had to blow away even Hidalgo’s biggest supporters:

Think about all of the prominent college and professional basketball players we have seen over the past quarter of a century. It arguably is the era with the most talent the sport has ever seen. In spite of that, nobody at basketball’s highest levels in this country has done what Hidalgo is doing until now. Absolutely incredible.

Through this early stretch of her collegiate career, Hidalgo is averaging 24.5 points, 6.3 rebounds, 6.1 assists and 5.8 steals a game. She is the nation’s leader in steals and third in the country in scoring. Everyone should be watching to see how long she can keep this clip up.

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

Notre Dame guts out tough victory against Pittsburgh

The Irish needed everything to win this game.

Notre Dame starting its ACC schedule 0-2 really would have thrown the season off the rails. For a while, it looked like Pittsburgh might actually inflict that pain upon an Irish team ravaged by injuries. However, the Irish made sure that didn’t happen and emerged victorious over the Panthers, 71-66.

The Irish (10-2, 1-1) jumped out to a 26-6 lead in the first quarter and scored the game’s first 12 points. But the points stopped coming so frequently, and the Panthers (6-9, 0-2), led by Liatu King’s career-high 34 points and 13 rebounds, outscored the Irish, 36-19, in the second and third quarters. It did not help that in the latter of those quarters, [autotag]Natalija Marshall[/autotag] fouled out, and [autotag]Maddy Westbeld[/autotag]’s lip was badly cut, forcing her to the bench with 17 points and six rebounds.

The fourth quarter proved to be [autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag]’s time. She matched her first-quarter total of 11 points after being held to single basket in between, bringing her total scoring output to 24. She and the rest of her remaining teammates turned what had become a three-point deficit into an eight-point lead with 1:48 left. The Irish held serve from there to escape the Steel City with the win.

Also helping Hidalgo was [autotag]Anna DeWolfe[/autotag], who scored most of her 11 points on three 3-pointers. That total was one off Hidalgo’s four 3s.

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

Notre Dame women’s basketball looks to rebound tonight at Pitt

Go get em Irish!

The 2023-24 ACC season didn’t get off to the start Notre Dame (9-2, 0-1) women’s basketball wanted as they fell at Syracuse on New Year’s Eve.

The Fighting Irish look to rebound Thursday night as they continue their ACC road trip at Pittsburgh (6-8, 0-1).  The Panthers were dominated in their ACC opener, losing 91-41 to Virginia Tech.

Liatu King is the Pitt star to keep an eye on as she leads the Panthers in scoring (19.6), and rebounds (9.5).  She led the way with 19 points in the defeat to Virginia Tech.

Tip-off is set for 6 p.m. ET Thursday night and can be seen on the ACC Network.

Notre Dame wins over teams at least eight games above .500 since 2018

The Irish haven’t had many recent wins like the one against Virginia.

In a season that figures to have few true highlights, Notre Dame had one Saturday. Virginia entered Purcell Pavilion with a 10-2 record and having received votes in the most recent Top 25 poll. That didn’t matter to the young Irish because they crushed the Cavaliers, 76-54. If anyone tells you they saw that coming, they’re lying.

This wasn’t only an upset against a quality program and Micah Shrewsberry’s first ACC win. It represented a rarity for Notre Dame in recent years. The Cavaliers’ record coming into this game meant they were eight games above .500. Since the Irish last made consecutive NCAA Tournaments from 2015 to 2017, they have beaten opponents who were at least eight games above .500 coming in only seven times.

So forgive the Irish if they go a little over the top in celebrating this latest such instance. This doesn’t happen to them very much these days, so they definitely are cause for celebration every time. Here are the most recent of these occurrences:

What the experts are predicting: Sun Bowl

What’s your pick for this game?

Notre Dame and Oregon State will face each other in a Sun Bowl that already is giving a real boost to the economy of El Paso, Texas. The least these teams can do is give the locals a thriller in a sold-out stadium. With so many regulars on both sides missing, that might happen purely on accident. This will be a must-watch.

There are plentiful predictions for this game. Here are some of them: