Tag: South Bend Tribune

Micah Shrewsberry introduced as Notre Dame coach

The next era of Irish basketball has begun.

On a celebratory day at Purcell Pavilion, Notre Dame officially introduced [autotag]Micah Shrewsberry[/autotag] as its next men’s basketball coach. Tom Noie of the South Bend Tribune wrote an awesome column about the day, and you surely will have some hope for the program’s future after you’re finished reading it. That hope was lacking desperately this past season as [autotag]Mike Brey[/autotag]’s tenure ended with as big of a whimper as you can imagine.

Shrewsberry has his work cut out for him as he has to fill half of the Irish’s roster before the 2023-24 season tips off, and that’s only the tip of the iceberg. For now, he has a little bit of time to soak this moment in. It’s the beginning of a new life for him and his family, and he gets to live it in his native state. Here’s are some of the images that surely will play over and over in his head for a long time, if not the rest of his life:

Niele Ivey, Maddy Westbeld, Lauren Ebo speak after NCAA Tournament win

What are your thoughts after this win?

SOUTH BEND – Notre Dame has to be feeling confident after knocking Southern Utah out of the NCAA Tournament, 82-56, in the first round. The Irish let the Thunderbirds know early and often that this game that was being played in their house would be played on their terms.

Whenever the Thunderbirds showed the slightest chance of coming back – and it was very slight – the Irish doubled down on both ends of the floor. It was such a blowout that little-used [autotag]Sarah Cernugel[/autotag] entered the game near its conclusion. The Purcell Pavilion definitely would have exploded had she made either of her two field-goal attempts, one which came from 3-point range. Alas, she remains scoreless for the season except for her lone basket Dec. 10 against Merrimack.

Cernguel was one of several people [autotag]Niele Ivey[/autotag] talked about in her postgame news conference. She was joined by top scorer [autotag]Maddy Westbeld[/autotag] (20 points) and dominant veteran big [autotag]Lauren Ebo[/autotag] (14 points, 10 rebounds). Here’s what they had to say:

Noie: Starling, Campbell and Carmody enter transfer portal

The situation with the basketball program is going from bad to worse.

Less than 24 hours ago, we made a damning prediction about Notre Dame’s future. Specifically, we expressed doubts whether the 2023-24 Irish will make a run with the few returning rotational players, a couple of guys who have yet to see the court for the Irish and a new coach. It turns out even having those guys might have been an overly optimistic outlook.

Tom Noie of the South Bend Tribune is reporting the Irish stand to lose two freshmen, including the player who would be their highest returning scorer, and an oft-injured veteran to the transfer portal. That might just be the tip of the iceberg, too:

So again, we can’t emphasize enough just how much of a missed opportunity this past season was. Now, with the uncertainty of who will coach the program going forward, a bad situation is becoming worse fast. Stay tuned to Fighting Irish Wire for all of your roster changes, of which there appears will be many.

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Porter Moser reportedly high on list to replace Brey at Notre Dame

Would you like this hire?

With a month to go in the season, the task of filling the retiring [autotag]Mike Brey[/autotag]’s job as Notre Dame coach isn’t urgent yet. However, one name already appears to be emerging as a front-runner. According to the Twitter handle Coaching Changes, Oklahoma coach Porter Moser is interested in the job, and Notre Dame reportedly is interested in return:

Moser, in his second season with the Sooners, is no stranger to coaching at a Division I Catholic university. He spent 10 seasons at Loyola-Chicago, leading the program to a surprising Final Four run in 2018 and helping make Sister Jean a household name. His background alone has to have made him a candidate for at least some Irish fans. He is for us.

Before you get too excited though, Tom Noie of the South Bend Tribune rightfully points out that Moser pulling up stakes would be costly for the Sooners. Still, Moser failing to replicate the success he had in Chicago thus far could give them cause to bite the bullet:

So basically, we have a long way to go before the Irish name Brey’s successor. Until then, we will continue to speculate. Don’t you just love coaching rumors a week into February?

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Notre Dame’s Dom Campbell has inflamed Achilles, being shut down

A short rotation seemingly gets even shorter.

SOUTH BEND – [autotag]Ven-Allen Lubin[/autotag]’s bad tendon in his ankle appeared to open up more playing time for fellow freshman [autotag]Dom Campbell[/autotag]. Instead, Campbell’s season appears to be over. Tom Noie of the South Bend Tribune is reporting that an inflamed Achilles is bothering Campbell, and it will keep him out long enough that we probably won’t see him again this season:

If this is how Campbell’s first season in South Bend ends, he will end it averaging 0.7 points and 1.1 rebounds on 2-of-9 shooting from the field and 2-of-4 shooting from the free-throw line over nine games. Campbell never played more than seven minutes in any game, and the recent win over Louisville was his first time seeing action in five games. While he found more playing time than most players not in [autotag]Mike Brey[/autotag]’s rotation, it still hardly was enough to make a significant impact.

Now, with his two freshman forwards unavailable, it will be interesting to see what Brey does as far as giving his starters rest for the time being. He can’t play all five of them 40 minutes as he practically is prone to do. Now is the time for him to dig deep into his bench, whether he wants to or not.

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Source: Mike Brey to retire as Notre Dame coach after season

The Irish coaching legend reportedly is hanging it up.

Sources have told the South Bend Tribune that Notre Dame coach Mike Brey will retire at the end of the current season. Brey plans to tell his players after Thursday’s practice. Brey, the winningest coach in program history, has held the position for the past 23 seasons.

Brey, who has 481 wins at Notre Dame on top of his 99 at Delaware, will leave a large legacy behind. Under his tenure, the Irish have reached 13 NCAA Tournaments, three Sweet 16s and two Elite Eights. He also has one ACC Tournament championship, one Big East regular-season championship and a national coach of the year honor.

In spite of all the accolades, few of those have come lately. The Irish have missed the NCAA Tournament in four of the past five seasons, and it likely will be five of six after this year. Two of those seasons saw the Irish finish under .500, and this year also is a possibility for that distinction. Based on all of that, many Irish fans began calling for a change, and they’ll be getting their wish.

Here’s to Brey’s career, and here’s hoping his final season goes better with the weight of the future off his shoulders.

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Mike Brey tries to loosen Notre Dame players up with…Krispy Kreme?

This is a rather interesting decision by the longtime Irish coach.

It goes without saying that this has been a trying season for Notre Dame. A 9-9 overall record and losing six of its first seven ACC games will create some tension. So one day after his team’s latest frustrating loss at Syracuse, [autotag]Mike Brey[/autotag] decided to liven things up. While there’s nothing wrong with a coach doing that, Brey’s chosen method was rather puzzling:

Look, it’s fine to give your players a treat every now and then. The season is long and grinding, so you often need to break up the doldrums, especially when things are going badly. But Krispy Kreme seems more like a reward for good play, which this year’s Irish have not earned. They just barely earned their lone conference victory so far, and most nonconference wins were anything but impressive.

While this story fits Brey’s relaxed persona, it’s not what Irish fans need to hear right now. What they need to hear is that Brey is doing everything he can to salvage something from a season that has gone completely sideways. This won’t help his case.

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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.

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Notre Dame’s Ven-Allen Lubin will miss game at North Carolina

This is a tough time to lose him.

The ankle injury Notre Dame forward Ven-Allen Lubin suffered against Boston College hasn’t healed yet. Consequently, he won’t be available for Saturday’s game at North Carolina. That’s according to Tom Noie of the South Bend Tribune:

It’s unknown at this point whether he’ll be available for Tuesday’s home game against Georgia Tech, but that’s not the big concern right now. The problem is the Irish have lost some serious depth down low ahead of going up against Armando Bacot, the ACC’s scoring and rebounding leader. Oh, and Lubin is the Irish’s leading blocker at 0.9 a game. That’s not good for one of two teams that are 0-4 in conference play.

Simply put, Lubin’s injury could not have happened at a worse time. We don’t know if [autotag]Matt Zona[/autotag] or [autotag]Dom Campbell[/autotag] are capable of slowing Bacot down because they’ve barely played. If Mike Brey isn’t comfortable with sending either of those two out there against Bacot, he better get comfortable with it and fast.

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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.

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Noie: Notre Dame football a dumpster fire

Halfway through the season what is one thing does this team does well regularly?

After their latest loss, this one a 16-14 home defeat against a Stanford squad that hadn’t beat an FBS opponent in over 53 weeks, Notre Dame football has to again pick up the pieces.

It was only on September 10 that Marshall, another team that has just one win against an FBS opponent this year (that also being Notre Dame), beat the Irish in South Bend.

The two losses came despite Notre Dame being nearly three-touchdown favorites against both.  The Fighting Irish hadn’t lost a single game as a double digit favorite since 2016 before dropping their last two.

It’s bad for Notre Dame right now and with tough tests at Syracuse, against Clemson, and at USC still to come there is no guarantee that the Irish even qualify for a bowl game.  Sure, that’d require another upset at the hands of UNLV, Navy, or Boston College but after the showing against Stanford would anything really surprise you?

Tom Noie of the South Bend Tribune wasn’t as kind with his words in describing Notre Dame, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t correct.

This — 3-3 — isn’t it. But it’s all they have. With six games down and six to go, this is an average program from top to bottom and all around. Average coaching. Average assistants. Average players. Average mindset. Average results. Average fans. 

Average.

Nothing about that campus, about that football program, about Notre Dame is average. Not the academics. Not the reputation. Certainly, not the football program. But average the Irish are after Saturday, after a team that many figured Notre Dame would dispatch with a flick of the wrist came to town and took the Irish so completely apart. One play at a time. One quarter at a time. 

Sure the number-five preseason ranking wasn’t deserved as Notre Dame had too many questions entering the year to merit it, but they shouldn’t be .500 either.  Not when two of those losses are two of the very worst the program has suffered in years.

So what remains for this average squad the rest of the year?

Losses to both Clemson and USC are pretty much expected by the masses at this point and the end of October trip to Syracuse is no slouch.

I mentioned last night that I had concerns about this being headed towards Bob Davie territory in terms of results and feels and although a simple bowl appearance wouldn’t make those go away, they’d go a long way in at least lessening the current blaze.

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Notre Dame will face Georgia in Atlanta on Dec. 18

Make your plans to head to the Peach State in December.

While we still don’t know Notre Dame’s complete 2022-23 schedule, we now know of at least two December games. That’s thanks to this tidbit from Tom Noie of the South Bend Tribune:

As this game is being held the weekend before Christmas, it appears to be this year’s replacement for the Crossroads Classic, the annual Indiana college basketball showcase that was held for the final time last season after the Irish opted out of it. The good news is the Irish still will have the luxury of playing in an NBA arena at the same time of year.

The Irish and Bulldogs previously have met three times. They most recently faced each other during the 2011 CBE Classic in Kansas City, Missouri. After having lost twice to the Irish, the Bulldogs got on the board in the all-time series with a 61-57 win. [autotag]Jerian Grant[/autotag] had a game-high 20 points and led the Irish with four assists.

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