Saint Mary’s: It’s Tough Being at the Top

As promised earlier, the Notre Dame Blog will be informing you about the men’s basketball team this week because the team is taking a big break from competition currently. Their next game is scheduled for Saturday the 22nd of December, so we have all this week and all next week to dissect the upcoming game. Instead, we’ll try to give you the basics about the players you are going to see when you get Notre Dame basketball tickets. Let’s start with the guards.

For the sake of simplicity, I’ve elected to discuss three of the most used guards on the roster so far. Kyle McAlarney, a 6-1 junior, is one of the team’s top scorers. He’s averaging about 15 points per game right now and doing his fair share of dishing. Clearly he’s one of the team leaders on the floor, as he has some of the most experience of any of the starters. He’s a good outside shooter when he can get an open three, but he’s also effective at getting inside the lane, and he’s the guy that the Irish want on the line to shoot free throws at the end of a close game. Tory Jackson is the point guard of the team and the leading assist guy so far. He’s not a great free throw shooter, and his 5-10 height can sometimes be a negative, but he is recognized as an effective floor general and can take care of the ball well, plus he disrupts opponents’ passing lanes. John Peoples is a taller guard who fills in most often for the starters when they need some bereavement. He provides a long, athletic frame that would be well suited to play defense against a premier Big East backcourt player.

To get Notre Dame Fighting Irish basketball tickets, go to StubHub.com.

Permalink - Posted in General on December 12, 2007 - Post a comment

Meet the Notre Dame Basketball Team

With the football season well done with, there are plenty of things that the Notre Dame sports fan can occupy his or her mind with while trying not to think about all of the teams playing in bowl games. Both of the soccer team are out of contention in the NCAA Tournament, and although they both got very far, they will not be playing for the championship. The men’s cross country team is finished competing, but just a short while ago they were in the NCAA Championship meet. The team finished 21st in the nation, and Patrick Smyth recieved All-American honors. Overall it has been a great fall for Notre Dame sports (not counting football, of course).

Probably the second most popular sport at Notre Dame is basketball, and you will be happy to know that the team is doing amazingly well. Right now they sit on a 7-2 overall record, and as Notre Dame Blog readers well know, they have won 25-straight home games. The team is looking good and since there is a big gap between games (they won’t play until the 22nd) we have some time to get to know the team. So over the next few days we’ll be taking a look at your Notre Dame Fighting Irish basketball team.

To get Notre Dame Fighting Irish basketball tickets, go to StubHub.com.

Permalink - Posted in General on December 11, 2007 - Post a comment

Notre Dame Basketball Team Wins 25th-Straight at Home

The Notre Dame men’s basketball team has just won their 25th-straight game at the Joyce Center. Over the weekend the Irish topped the Northern Illinois Huskies 108-62 (a thorough beating), setting a huge mark for their new gym. The team has an older home game record, set in the 1940s, which is much longer. However, with the Irish being in the Big East, and with the quality of competition that the team has today, the feat of wining 25 consecutive home games is remarkable. Not many college basketball teams can claim that sort of thing in the past 20 years. The Irish are now on a five-game winning streak heading into their upcoming matchup with San Francisco, set for over a week from now– also to be played at home.

In other Notre Dame athletics news, the women’s soccer team’s run in the postseason has ended. The Irish lost to Florida State in the game before the national championship by a score of 3-2. The men’s soccer team also lost in the quarterfinals to Wake Forest, ending their run at the national championship in the NCAA Tournament. It was a very unfortunate weekend for Notre Dame soccer fans, but you have to remember that the both teams had absolutely stellar seasons. These two soccer teams look like they will be among the elite in the nation next year.

To get Notre Dame Fighting Irish basketball tickets, go to StubHub.com.

Permalink - Posted in General on December 10, 2007 - Post a comment

Notre Dame Beats Kansas State; Set to Play Northern Illinois

The Notre Dame men’s basketball team is doing quite well this year. Their latest win was over Kansas State, a team that was ranked in the AP Top 25 Poll before the college basketball season started. The Irish’s 68-59 win over K-State puts them at an overall record of 6-2—not a bad start at all. The game, which was played in Madison Square Garden as part of the Jimmy V Classic, saw the Irish take the lead for the majority of the game, though with less than two minutes to go the Wildcats of K-State managed to come within three points of Notre Dame. Kansas State’s biggest star, freshman Michael Beasley, was controlled very well in the second half- one of the key factors that led to the win. Beasley leads the entire nation in scoring and rebounding.

Notre Dame is set to play Northern Illinois on December 8th, tomorrow. Northern Illinois is only 2-6 right now, so you should be expecting a win for the Irish. This is shaping up to be a stellar year for Notre Dame’s other, non-football sports. Both men’s and women’s basketball are doing well, the soccer teams are both still alive in the late rounds of the NCAA Tournament, the men’s hockey team is on a seven game winning streak, and is 14-4-0 so far this year. But if you still can’t get your mind off of football, there are plenty of season tickets for you to ponder getting this offseason…

To get Notre Dame Fighting Irish football tickets, go to StubHub.com.

Permalink - Posted in General on December 7, 2007 - Post a comment

Notre Dame Women’s Soccer on Hot Streak, In National Semifinal

The Notre Dame women’s soccer team has advanced to the NCAA semifinal match where they are set to play the Florida State Seminoles for the chance at a national title. The Fighting Irish are now on the longest unbeaten streak in the country, going 16-0-1 in their last 17 matches. Florida State played Notre Dame in this game last year. Lucky for the Irish, history is on their side. Notre Dame won last year’s semifinal 2-1. If they win again, Notre Dame will play the winner of the other semifinal match, a rivalry game between USC and UCLA.

There is a good chance that the NCAA Championship game will pit Notre Dame against one of their biggest football rivals, USC. It would be a classic matchup, and a chance for UND to exact revenge for the loss to USC that they endured in the football season. Of course, we should try to focus on the task at hand- beating Florida State. Unfortunately the game will be played at Texas A&M University, but it will be televised on both ESPN2 and ESPNU, so you can watch the Irish fight on television if you live in South Bend. The game should be another good one, and with the streak that the Irish are on, you won’t want to miss it.

To get Notre Dame Fighting Irish football tickets, go to StubHub.com.

Permalink - Posted in General on December 6, 2007 - Post a comment

Notre Dame FanBlogs

If you haven’t yet discovered the FanBlogs Notre Dame Site, then this is your chance. This website is a great way to get information about the college sports world. If you like the obscurity and non-standardization that comes with reading blogs rather than mainstream news media, then this is for you. One of the articles that they have prominently featured at the site is a list that ranks the most expensive coaches in the nation in terms of cost per win. If only coach salary is divided by wins, Minnesota paid coach Tim Brewster $1,000,000 for the team’s one win. Notre Dame paid Charlie Weis $224,593 for each of it’s three wins, according to the research.

Another thing that has to be mentioned by the Notre Dame Football blog is the fact that there are now several versions of the Brent Musberger Drinking Game out there on the internets. You can find a good one at SportsIllustrated.com, but this blogger will give the one at FanBlogs his endorsement because he likes the rules about deciding who the “Pardner” and “Gary” will be. If Brent is going to call any Notre Dame away games next season, then you should make sure to read the rules and play along. Remember to be responsible with it, though. It’s all meant in good fun.

To get Notre Dame Fighting Irish football tickets, go to StubHub.com.

Permalink - Posted in General on December 5, 2007 - Post a comment

Weis: Next Season Will Do the Talking

Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis has decided not to place blame on any specific things that happened during the season, including graduating players, quarterback woes, lack of seniors, etc. Instead, he intends to win a bunch more games next season as his response to the down pouring of criticisms about his 3-9 record with the Fighting Irish last season. Coach Tyrone Willingham was only a half game better than Weis in his three years with the Irish, and he was fired shortly thereafter. Although many critics charge that a 3-9 season, especially with a team that draws national attention like the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, is worthy of a firing, Weis is getting at least one more year. In that year, Weis is expecting to answer all doubts and prove to the critics that last year was a fluke.

While it is nice to see a coach taking the blame on himself, one has to wonder if Weis isn’t getting special treatment from the powers that be at Notre Dame, considering the way that Willingham left. Of course, this blog wasn’t a fan of firing Willingham so quickly, so we like that one bad season with Weis does not a firing make. In fact, college and NFL coaches in general are much too often prematurely fired.

To get Notre Dame Fighting Irish football tickets, go to StubHub.com.

Permalink - Posted in General on December 4, 2007 - Post a comment

Notre Dame Soccer Gets Big Win; Same for Basketball

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team will have to sit and watch as other teams go to bowl games and play in the postseason. Ohio State and LSU will meet in the BCS Championship game in about a month, but the Irish, with the season that they endured, will only get to anticipate next year. So in the spirit of trying to forget about the things we can’t control, let’s focus on some very positive happenings with the other Notre Dame sports. The men’s soccer team advanced to the NCAA Championship quarterfinals this weekend after they beat the 7th-ranked Santa Clara Broncos 2-0. They will either play Wake Forest or West Virginia this upcoming weekend.

In basketball, the Notre Dame men’s team beat Eastern Michigan, improving their overall record to 5-2. Kansas State, which was a ranked team in the preseason, will be their next opponent on December 4th. Notre Dame has a goal of getting to the NCAA Tournament. The Big East should be plenty hard this year, so the Irish are going to have to load up on wins before the tough conference-rich part of the season starts up in January. Currently there are five teams in the Big East ranked in the AP Top 25 Poll, including #4 Georgetown.

To get Notre Dame Fighting Irish Football tickets, go to StubHub.com.

Permalink - Posted in General on December 3, 2007 - Post a comment


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