Tag: Wake Forest

Notre Dame Basketball Player Review: Nate Laszewski

When an underclassman comes off the bench one season, he often performs well enough that you know he’ll be starting the following year.

When an underclassman comes off the bench one season, he often performs well enough that you know he’ll be starting the following year. Sophomore Nate Laszewski has all but assured himself of that after a solid season of 7.4 points and 4.6 rebounds a game while averaging 21.0 minutes. With Notre Dame set to lose senior forwards John Mooney and Juwan Durham, Laszewski’s table with the starting five is ready.

Statistically, Laszewski had his best game in a Jan. 29 win over Wake Forest, scoring 18 points on 6-of-8 shooting while also playing solid interior defense. In other games, he proved he can handle big moments. Most notably, he hit the deciding 3-pointer with 2.2 seconds in a one-point win over North Carolina on Feb. 17. He also forced overtime Nov. 21 vs. Toledo with a buzzer-beating 3, and the Irish went on to win.

Laszewski’s only getting started with his Notre Dame story, and barring some major setback, the best still is to come.

ACC Tournament Bracket Set

The ACC regular season has come to a close and the transition to college basketball’s postseason now begins. Find out who and when your squad is playing here!

The ACC regular season has come to a close and the transition to college basketball’s postseason now begins. For Notre Dame that means the ACC Tournament which gets started in Greensboro, North Carolina on Tuesday.

In beating Virginia Tech on Saturday, Notre Dame locked up a 10-10 ACC record and seventh place conference finish. They get a first round bye as a result and will play No. 10 Boston College on Wednesday night as tip-off is set for 7 p.m. ET.

If Notre Dame wins that they will play No. 2 Virginia on Thursday night at 7 p.m. and the winner of that contest will play the winner of the No. 2 Louisville, No. 6 Syracuse, No. 11 Virginia Tech and No. 14 North Carolina pod.

No. 1 Florida State and No. 4 Duke sit on the other side of the bracket.

Early impressions from me are that this is as good of a draw as Notre Dame could hope for. A Boston College team they should beat, a seconded-seeded Virginia squad they should have beat on the road earlier this season and then a potential semi-final draw that wouldn’t be against the only team to really run them out of the gym in an ACC contest this year.

March Madness is upon us. Here’s to hoping for a nice run into maybe Friday night for Mike Brey and the Fighting Irish.

Notre Dame’s Small Chances at Dance Dashed by Deacons

Notre Dame had won seven of nine in conference play and gotten from just 2-6 in ACC play to 9-8 in conference play before this setback sent them back to .500 in league play at 9-9

It was a long shot at best entering Saturday afternoon that Notre Dame would hear their name called in a few weeks on Selection Sunday, but after an 84-73 loss at lowly Wake Forest on Saturday afternoon the Fighting Irish can start preparing for the possibility of an NIT berth.

Notre Dame had problems all afternoon in Winston-Salem, North Carolina as the now 13-15 Wake Forest Demon Deacons scored over 40 points in both halves. Despite a fine effort from John Mooney who totaled yet another double-double with 24 points and 17 rebounds, the Irish simply couldn’t slow down Wake Forest big man Olivier Sarr who put up 30 points in 32 minutes of action.

The Fighting Irish had been shooting better from beyond the arc but that hit the skids Saturday as they went just six of 22 (27.3%) from three. Conversely the Deacons made more (seven) while attempting far fewer (15) from three.

Notre Dame had won seven of nine in conference play and gotten from just 2-6 in ACC play to 9-8 in conference play before this setback sent them back to .500 in league play at 9-9. In an incredibly disappointing ACC top to bottom, Saturday’s loss against 14th place Wake Forest will certainly end their NCAA Tournament hopes with anything short of an unlikely ACC Tournament title.

Notre Dame returns to action Wednesday night as they will host Florida State, who is currently tied with Louisville atop the ACC standings with a 14-4 record.

Notre Dame Basketball: Irish Visiting Deacons

With only three games left in the regular season, Notre Dame is running out of time to build its NCAA tournament resume. But even the Irish (18-10, 9-8) have to admit a second win this season over struggling Wake Forest (12-15, 5-12) only will help …

With only three games left in the regular season, Notre Dame is running out of time to build its NCAA tournament resume. But even the Irish (18-10, 9-8) have to admit a second win this season over struggling Wake Forest (12-15, 5-12) only will help them marginally at best and not at all at worst. Even so, the best thing the Irish can do is not lose because if it happens again before the ACC tournament, they can start looking at the NIT or one of the other lower postseason tournaments in earnest.

John Mooney is on the precipice of more program history in a season defined by double-doubles. With one more double-double, he’ll have 45 for his career and tie Troy Murphy for fourth on Notre Dame’s all-time list. Two more will tie Luke Harangody’s single-season record of 25. Twelve more rebounds will tie him for 10th-most in program history with Collis Jones (884), and Michael Graney (893) and Bonzie Colson (900) aren’t much further ahead.

 

Notre Dame – Latest on Bubble Watch

Win all four and the case gets stronger with a win that could potentially knock Florida State out of ACC contention for the regular season championship.

Notre Dame basketball picked up a much-needed win over Miami on Sunday, moving them to 17-10 overall on the season and perhaps more importantly, 8-8 in ACC play.  With four games to go before the ACC Tournament it’d appear that a minimum of three wins are needed to even have a chance at an NCAA Tournament berth.

There are those that spend seemingly 52 weeks a year breaking down potential brackets with who is in and who is getting whatever seed.  Let’s go to them to check on the latest on Notre Dame’s very faint bubble hopes:

USA TODAY –
Notre Dame considered, just not taken too seriously.  The good news is that the Fighting Irish find themselves in the “considered” list here and not on the “on life support” list.  However, a total of 11 teams are listed before Notre Dame finds it’s way on the list.  Best way to describe things here are like in “Dumb and Dumber” and the whole “So you’re saying there’s a chance!” line.

Joe Lunardi – ESPN
The bad news here is Notre Dame does not get listed in either the “first four out” or “next four out”.  The good news?  We’ll let you know when we find it.

John Gasaway – ESPN
Gasaway goes conference by conference and lists who is safely in the dance and which teams have work to do.  The good news is that Notre Dame doesn’t appear to have any work to do in his eyes.  However the Fighting Irish basketball team isn’t listed in the “safely in” category, either.

My thoughts: 

You absolutely can’t lose any game other than the Florida State contest in the remaining four regular season games.  A win over Florida State would also go a long way but another bad loss against the likes of Boston College, Wake Forest or Virginia Tech would be disasterous.

Win all four and the case gets stronger with a win that could potentially knock Florida State out of ACC contention for the regular season championship.

If Notre Dame loses to Florida State but plays them close again, all hope probably isn’t lost but a strong showing in the ACC Tournament could at least aid Notre Dame’s hopes.

In short – just win.  A lot.  Doesn’t matter if its close or in blowout fashion, just win otherwise the hopes are going to be gone aside from the extremely unlikely chances that Notre Dame could win the ACC Tournament.

 

Notre Dame Women’s Basketball: Gilbert Named Rookie of the Week

Katlyn Gilbert’s terrific freshman season has given Notre Dame hope in what’s been a rare dreary season for the program. Everyone can see the potential even clearer after Gilbert was named the ACC Rookie of the Week on Monday. In wins against Wake …

Katlyn Gilbert’s terrific freshman season has given Notre Dame hope in what’s been a rare dreary season for the program. Everyone can see the potential even clearer after Gilbert was named the ACC Rookie of the Week on Monday.

In wins against Wake Forest and Pittsburgh, Gilbert averaged 14.5 points, 5.5 rebounds and 3.5 assists while shooting 38.7 percent from the field. With 12 points against the Demon Deacons and 17 against the Panthers, she has a team-high 21 games in which she’s scored in double figures.

Of course, Gilbert isn’t the only freshman making an impact for the Irish. She and Sam Brunelle are the top scoring first-year players in the conference with averages of 13.9 and 13.6 points a game, respectively. Throughout the country, only Fresno State’s Haley and Hanna Cavinder can join them as freshman teammates who have scoring averages of at least 13.5 points a game.

If the season ended today, Gilbert’s scoring average would rank fourth all-time for Notre Dame freshmen.

Notre Dame Women’s Basketball: Irish Down Deacons

On Thursday, Notre Dame had one of its highlights in a season that’s featured few of them, at least compared to what the program is known for. The Irish survived a fourth quarter that featured 13 of the game’s 19 lead changes and defeated Wake …

On Thursday, Notre Dame had one of its highlights in a season that’s featured few of them, at least compared to what the program is known for. The Irish survived a fourth quarter that featured 13 of the game’s 19 lead changes and defeated Wake Forest, 75-71.

Notre Dame (9-14, 4-7) got a significant boost from Destinee Walker, who scored 22 of her game-high 24 points in the second half. She shot 8 of 15 from the field and 7 of 8 from the free-throw line. There was nothing the Demon Deacons (12-11, 5-7) could do to stop her. She now has scored at least 20 points a team-high six times this season.

Katlyn Gilbert scored 12 points, Mikayla Vaughn added 11, and Sam Brunelle totaled 10 to go with a team-high seven rebounds. Marta Sniezek flirted with a double-double with nine points, her highest scoring output since Dec. 8, and eight rebounds.

The Irish led by three in the final seconds, and a missed jumper by Ivana Raca paved the way for a Vaughn free throw to end it.

Notre Dame Basketball: Irish Seek Winning Streak

Notre Dame hasn’t won two in a row since beating Alabama A&M on Dec. 29 and Syracuse on Jan. 4. After defeating Wake Forest on Wednesday, the Irish (12-8, 3-6) will try to start a new winning streak against Georgia Tech (10-11, 4-6) on Saturday. It …

Notre Dame hasn’t won two in a row since beating Alabama A&M on Dec. 29 and Syracuse on Jan. 4. After defeating Wake Forest on Wednesday, the Irish (12-8, 3-6) will try to start a new winning streak against Georgia Tech (10-11, 4-6) on Saturday. It will be the middle of a three-game homestand for the Irish.

This will be the first game in which T.J. Gibbs enters action as the Irish’s all-time leading scorer in regular-season ACC games. It took him 61 games to score 761 points, 11 games fewer than it took Steve Vasturia, the previous record-holder, to reach his mark of 739.

While Notre Dame will look to improve its ACC record Saturday, it also will be a day for celebration. Kelly Tripucka, who scored 1,719 points over his Irish career, will be inducted into the Purcell Pavilion Ring of Honor at halftime. Tripucka will be the ninth person to receive the highest honor the program can bestow upon a former student-athlete or coach.