The Ducks and Tar Heels will play for the first time on the gridiron in the first Holiday Bowl since 2019 and the first inside Petco Park.
It’s been a while since we’ve done one of these, but the Holiday Bowl is right around the corner. No. 15 Oregon is set to play North Carolina in San Diego.
This will be the first Holiday Bowl since 2019 and the first one to be played inside Petco Park, the home of the San Diego Padres. This game was set to return last season, but Covid issues within the UCLA program cancelled its game with North Carolina State.
Since the game is going to take place in a supposedly baseball-only stadium, the configuration isn’t going to be the standard fare. One end zone will be in front of the Padres dugout down the first base line with the other side going out into the left field.
The Holiday Bowl will also feature a new television home. It had been on ESPN for many, many, years. But Fox bought the broadcast rights for the bowl game.
This will be the first meeting between the Ducks and Tar Heels in football. We all remember the 2017 epic Final Four matchup where the Ducks just missed out on defeating the eventual national champs.
Great white sharks have become a tourist attraction at Torrey Pines State Beach north of San Diego.
Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve and State Beach is known for its sweeping views of the Pacific. Migrating whales are sometimes spotted in the distance.
But these days great white sharks are the premier attraction for some hikers at the reserve near San Diego. Dozens of juvenile white sharks have spent the summer and early fall off Torrey Pines and Del Mar, just to the north.
The sharks have been feeding on stingrays and other bottom fishes, keeping a fairly low profile until recently.
Anglers began to hook them and on Oct. 30 the carcass of an 8-foot white shark was discovered on the shore at Torrey Pines. The shark died as a result of fishing activity. (White sharks are protected and targeting them while fishing is illegal.)
On Nov. 4, a distance swimmer was bitten by a shark off Del Mar and hospitalized. Lyn Jutronich told NBC San Diego that the shark shook briefly before releasing its grip. Jutronich was hospitalized and treated for puncture wounds to her right thigh.
The type of shark was not confirmed, but it was presumed to be a juvenile white shark.
On Nov. 6, the Torrey Pines reserve posted a Facebook image of a white shark in a wave. The image was captured via cellphone from the bluff at Yucca Point.
The Facebook post advertised the presence of sharks and listed spots from which they might be seen: Yucca Point, Razor Point and the Guy Fleming overlooks.
(Personal note: I observed at least four white sharks two weeks ago from the Guy Fleming North Grove trail. There was a field trip in progress and several children also saw the sharks.)
“For best results, plan your trip before 11 a.m. and during high tide,” the Torrey Pines reserve advised. “Sunglasses with polarized lenses and binoculars both also help.”
To be sure, the temporary white shark aggregation site at Torrey Pines is substantial.
Chris Lowe, director of the Shark Lab at California State University Long Beach, told FTW Outdoors that several white sharks tagged off Southern California in recent years are in the area.
“We’ve detected 31 tagged juvenile white sharks (in the last month) out the 62 tagged at Solana Beach, Del Mar and Torrey Pines over the last three years,” Lowe said. “We’ve seen up to 12 sharks in a single drone video frame at Torrey Pines in the last few months.
“This is now the largest aggregation since the Santa Barbara aggregation has broken down.”
It’s not clear how long the sharks will remain in the area.
–Top image courtesy of Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve and State Beach
A great white shark was found dead Sunday near San Diego with wounds caused by fishing gear, and experts suspect that anglers are illegally targeting the species.
A great white shark was found dead Sunday near San Diego with wounds caused by fishing gear, and experts suspect that anglers are illegally targeting the species.
The carcass of an 8-foot juvenile white shark was discovered at Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve and Beach, between Del Mar and La Jolla, and temporarily placed on display.
“She had succumbed to injuries sustained from fishing activities,” the reserve stated on Facebook. “Great whites are protected and must be safely released if accidentally caught. We took the opportunity to turn this unfortunate event into an educational opportunity for our visitors.”
Juvenile white sharks feed on stingrays and other bottom fishes off Southern California and some areas become aggregation sites. These sites vary over time and Torrey Pines is presently one of them.
The shark found Sunday was tagged Aug. 12 by a crew from the Shark Lab at California State University Long Beach. It had regularly been detected between Del Mar and Black’s Beach – directly off Torrey Pines.
Discarded fishing gear, including large hooks designed for big-game fishing, was found near the stranding site.
Chris Lowe, director of the Shark Lab, told FTW Outdoors that nearly 40% of Torrey Pines white sharks are trailing fishing gear. “So there will be more problems,” Lowe predicted.
One of the hooks found near the stranding site.
Targeting white sharks is illegal, but enforcing the law is difficult because anglers can simply claim to be fishing for other species. Possessing white sharks also is against the law; white sharks that become hooked must be set free instantly upon identification.
“These fishers are pretty brazen and don’t think they’re doing any harm, but when you see the size of the tackle and how many are breaking off with 100 feet of line and lead trailing, you can understand why these sharks die from these interactions,” Lowe said.
“They aren’t fishing for bat rays with this heavy duty terminal tackle and baits – it sure looks like they are targeting these white sharks, which is illegal.”
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife performed a necropsy on the shark Monday but results have yet to be revealed.
Said Lowe: “There was clear indication of jaw hooking and tearing through the jaw.”
–Generic image showing a juvenile white shark is courtesy of Pete Thomas
A San Diego whale-watching company logged an extraordinary daily double Monday with sightings of a blue whale and a whale shark.
A San Diego whale-watching company logged an extraordinary daily double Monday with the sighting of a blue whale and a whale shark.
The blue whale is the planet’s largest creature, but the rarer sighting was that of the whale shark – the planet’s largest fish species – far north of its typical range.
“I always say ‘you never know what you’re going to see out there’ and today proved that!” San Diego Whale Watch boasted on Facebook. “Not only did we find hundreds of long-beaked common dolphins, but we found a blue whale, two Molas [sunfish] and a WHALE SHARK!”
Whale sharks, filter feeders that can measure 40-plus feet, are found in tropical waters around the world, including Mexico and Hawaii. Sightings off Southern California are exceedingly rare.
But hot weather and light winds have allowed for unusually high sea surface temperatures, inviting exotic species such as dorado, or mahi-mahi, and at least the one whale shark.
(Blue whales, which can measure 100 feet and weigh more than 150 tons, feed off California every summer.)
The whale shark that greeted San Diego Whale Watch passengers and crew swam near the boat, allowing for lots of gawking and picture-taking.
The “gentle giants” are incredibly popular among scuba divers and snorkelers in areas they’re known to frequent.
James is finalizing a destination to host the team’s annual minicamp prior to training camp, with San Diego being the likely landing space over Las Vegas, sources said. He’s hoping to build a better rapport with teammates before entering the 2022-23 …
James is finalizing a destination to host the team’s annual minicamp prior to training camp, with San Diego being the likely landing space over Las Vegas, sources said. He’s hoping to build a better rapport with teammates before entering the 2022-23 season. The meeting was deemed productive and informative. Pelinka made his feelings clear that he wants James to retire as a Laker and promised to provide him with every resource possible to compete for a championship each year he’s with the organization, sources said.
Jon Hamm @JonMHamm
Sitting here bored in early August, trying to remember why LeBron James was not named an All-Star as a rookie in 2004 but Kenyon Martin, Ron Artest, JAMAAL MAGLOIRE, and Michael Redd were. – 10:58 PM
LeBron James @KingJames
Seattle was rockin’ today for Sue Bird last home game! I may have to make a trip up there before summer’s out and get a run in! 🤔 – 7:19 PM
StatMuse @statmuse
Highest career PER ever (min 1,000 games):
1. Michael Jordan
2. LeBron James
3. Shaquille O’Neal
4. Wilt Chamberlain
PER might be flawed, but this list feels right. pic.twitter.com/lyhBHvXtqR – 1:11 PM
Oregon baseball completely dropped out of the national polls following its five-game losing skid, including four straight to OSU.
Every team in every sport wants to peak towards the end of the season.
Unfortunately for Oregon Duck baseball, that’s not the case.
After losing five straight, including four losses to Oregon State, the Ducks have dropped out of every national college baseball poll, including the USA TODAY baseball coaches poll.
Oregon hasn’t been ranked very high in the coaches’ poll, but the Ducks have been in the Top 10 in some polls. At 28-19 overall and 13-11 in conference play, Oregon has some work to do if they want to host an NCAA regional at PK Park in June. Something that is in their favor, however, is that the Ducks’ RPI sits at 24.
They have plenty of opportunities to increase that ranking if they are able to handle Gonzaga (26), San Diego (48), and some wins at the Pac-12 tournament at the end of the month.
For now, the Ducks are focusing on hosting USD for a brief two-game mid-week series beginning today at PK Park.
For 38 minutes, Notre Dame battled Texas Tech as well as it could have. In fact, the Irish had a three-point lead on the Red Raiders and just needed to hold on a little longer to earn a date with Duke in the Sweet 16. Instead, everything on both ends suddenly went south at the wrong time. The Red Raiders scored 10 unanswered points and eliminated the Irish in the second round of the NCAA Tournament with a 59-53 win in San Diego.
The Irish (24-11) had a 52-49 lead thanks to taking care of the ball, playing solid defense and making shots when they needed to. All of that changed in the game’s final two minutes, and the Red Raiders (27-9) were the beneficiaries.
Out of an Irish timeout with the lead cut to 52-51, Terrence Shannon Jr. stole the ball from Blake Wesley to set up the possession that ended in two free throws for Kevin Obanor, which he earned after being fouled on an offensive rebound. Wesley tried to answer, but his go-ahead layup attempt was blocked by Marcus Santos-Silva, who hit two free throws himself after he was fouled immediately.
The nightmare wasn’t over for Wesley. He turned it over again, leading to another foul that resulted in two successful Red Raiders free throws, this time from Kevin McCullar. Down five and desperate for points, the Irish came up empty on three straight shots. The last of those was blocked and thrown down the court so a completely-alone McCullar could dunk with authority to erase any doubt about this game’s outcome.
Obanor was the star for the Red Raiders as he achieved a double-double of 15 points and 15 rebounds. McCullar had 14 points, as did Bryson Williams. Adonis Arms grabbed seven boards and a game-high four assists.
Dane Goodwin led the Irish with 14 points. In what likely will be his final game for the program, Wesley scored 11 and also had eight rebounds. However, those three turnovers he had in the final two minutes are sure to weigh on him and Irish fans for a long time.
While it was a tough way to end the season, surely any Irish fan would have taken how this team got after such a rough start. Now, we wonder who will be back next year to join highly-touted commit J.J. Starling. Maybe he will get the Irish even deeper in the tournament next year. It sure will be exciting to find out the answer to that question.
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Can the Irish make the second weekend of March Madness?
Typically, nobody expects much of a team that gets out of the First Four in the NCAA Tournament. UCLA made the Final Four last year, but that was an outlier. Notre Dame hopes to take one step closer to becoming another example of that when it plays Texas Tech in San Diego in hopes of advancing to the Sweet 16. It will be a battle of programs with very little history together as the Irish won, 88-63, in their only previous meeting in 1975.
The discussion surrounding the Irish right now begins and ends with Cormac Ryan. He has started the past 11 games and averaged 13.8 points a game during that time. His 29 points against Alabama are the most for an Irish player in an NCAA Tournament game since Mike Brey became coach. Between that game and the First Four win over Rutgers, he has 45 points in the tournament, which is the most a Notre Dame player has scored in the first two games of an NCAA Tournament since David Rivers scored 51 in 1987.
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Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.
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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Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.
One of the cooler additions to March Madness coverage in recent years is celebrations in winning locker rooms. It usually consists of players and coaches gathering together and jumping up and down while cheering and shouting victory phrases. After Notre Dame beat Rutgers in perhaps the most epic game in First Four history, it would have been unreasonable to expect a calm locker room for the victors. Fortunately, for the sake of our enjoyment, that locker room was as far from calm as you possibly could get:
The Irish now will travel to the opposite end of the country to play sixth-seeded Alabama in the NCAA Tournament’s Round of 64. However, before that game begins, there’s a lot of celebrating to do, and that is well underway. In fact, it wouldn’t be surprising if no one on the team slept on the way to San Diego. We know Prentiss Hubb and Trey Wertz won’t be feeling tired anytime soon:
