Bleacher Report: Z-Hill Is Crucial

Word on the street is that Zach Hillesland is the key to Notre Dame getting to the Final Four. Well, at least that’s the word from the Bleacher Report, in an article written by Weis Gipper. Side note: Is this guy whose writing about Notre Dame really named Gipper? Back to the story at hand. This Gipper fellow accurately points out that the Irish are much better when Hillestand is inserting himself into the offense and getting on the boards. Sure, the Notre Dame men’s basketball team has its start like Big Luke, Kyle McAlarney and Troy Jackson. But there is a noticeable shift in total team productivity when Hill gets into the game and goes after the glass.

Guys like Hill sometimes get overlooked when you’re thinking about the strengths of the Notre Dame team, but this guy has the size and the instincts to be one of the best players in the Big East. Will he show up in the second half of the season, when the Irish go up against some pretty tall and quick teams in the Big East? There’s only one way to see if he does, first-hand. Get some tickets to the game.

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

Permalink - Posted in General on December 31, 2008 - Post a comment

Checking in with ND Men’s Basketball

It’s been a long time since we wrote about the men’s basketball team here at the University of Notre Dame. Then again, it’s been a very long time since they played a game. The last Notre Dame basketball game was last Monday, the 22nd of December, when they played Savannah State. And it wasn’t much of a game.

So right now the Irish are sitting at 9-2, ready to start up their Big East run, ranked No. 7 in the Associated Press Top 25 Poll and No. 10 in the Coaches Poll. Their next game is tomorrow night, New Year’s Eve, when they play DePaul. Make sure you’re there to see it go down, although it’s an away game, so you might have to fill up the car with a tank of fuel. It should be worth it, though. If you say the Georgetown-UConn game lat night, you know just how intense and important these conference games are going to be.

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

Permalink - Posted in General on December 30, 2008 - Post a comment

Notre Dame Gets Christmas Present Early- Big Time Bowl Game Win!

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish broke their bowl game losing streak on Christmas Eve this past week, beating the Hawaii Warriors in the Hawaii Bowl by a remarkable 49-21 rout. For Irish fans, it was a nice Christmas present just about a day early. Notre Dame, which had been on the decline in the 2nd half of the regular season, made things look easy as QB Jimmy Clausen tore up the Hawaii defense with the help of Golden Tate. The defense was also spectacular, as the Warriors were never in sync for too long.

Player of the game had to go to quarterback Jimmy Clausen, who ended the night with five touchdowns, 401 yards on 22 completions of 26 passing attempts. Tate had six catches, three for touchdowns, for a total of 177 yards. Armando Allen joined in on the fun with a kickoff return for a touchdown. Clearly the bowl game win was the biggest story of the Christmas break for the Notre Dame Blog, so we’ll have to keep you updated on basketball and the other goings-on later this week.

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

Permalink - Posted in General on December 29, 2008 - Post a comment

Looking Over the Roster for ND’s Bowl Game

The season is almost complete, but if you’re looking for a cool place to get the fast and dirty low-down on the Notre Dame football team before each game, you should check out CBS Sports.com, because their team report at each team page is quite informative and very brief. It’s the cliff notes version of everything you need to know before the Irish play a game.

Anyways, the Team Report, which was provided courtesy of the Sports Xchange, has some good roster information. The same basic players should appear on your watch list. Keep your eye on the performance of some possible future pro players, such as QB Jimmy Clausen, WR Golden Tate, LB Maurice Crum Jr. and defensive lineman Pat Kuntz. They all ought to be in top form with the cameras on ‘em.

Some guys joining the roster, or rejoining it after injury, include Michael Floyd, Terrail Lambert, Brian Smith and Robert Hughes. The extra time off has been good for resting some injuries sustained during the regular season.

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

Permalink - Posted in General on December 23, 2008 - Post a comment

Notre Dame Continues to Prepare for Bowl Game

The Hawaii Bowl is almost upon us. So is Christmas. As the Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team prepares to take on Hawaii in the Hawaii Bowl this Christmas Eve, one has to remark about the very long, long time it’s taken to finally get to the week of the game. The players can now, truly, call this week “Hawaii Week.” Everyone must be either tired of preparing for the game, or overly anxious to get it on.

It might not help that the Warriors will have the comfort of playing in their own backyard the night before the biggest holiday, of the year, and the night most people cherish spending with their families and loved ones. That just makes the task for the Irish a little bit tougher. Oh well. Some words of encouragement from Irish head coach Charlie Weis, as posted from the Sports Xchange at CBS Sports.com:

“Last year we were a crummy team that very often was non-competitive. This year I thought we were a decent football team that blew three double-digit leads in games … the difference between 6-6 and 9-3 is blowing three double-digit leads.“

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

Permalink - Posted in General on December 22, 2008 - Post a comment

Why’s Notre Dame at the Bottom of the Big East?

The Big East is a big beast this season, but it still comes as a surprise to see the Notre Dame Fighting Irish basketball team, at 7-2 and ranked No. 12 in the AP and 14 in the Coaches Polls, in the bottom half of the Big East. If you look at the Big East standings, the Irish are at No. 11… in the conference, mind you!

But don’t fret. The season is still young, and by all accounts, the Big East is the best group of teams in the nation. UConn and Pitt, both ranked in the top five nationally, are undefeated and ahead in the standings. Other awesome teams like Villanova, Syracuse, Georgetown, Seton Hall, St. John’s and Louisville have only notched one loss so far. It’s not that the Irish are doing poorly, by any means.

So far the Notre Dame hoops team has only lost to two teams, the first being North Carolina. They got whipped by the unanimous No. 1 team in the country, North Carolina, a squad that might represent the best team assembled in the past 25 years of hoops. So don’t get bothered by it. They also lost to Ohio State in a fairly close one. Although the Buckeyes have been better at recent times, with the early season schedule the Irish have, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that they drop one to a solid program in there. Delaware State and Savannah await the Irish before the conference part of the season gets underway.

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

Permalink - Posted in General on December 19, 2008 - Post a comment

Notre Dame Hoops Part of Indiana Basketball Extravaganza

Notre Dame will be a part of the new Indiana Basketball Extravaganza tour, a thrilling, fresh hoop crawl throughout the Hoosier state. What is the Extravaganza all about, you ask. Well, the NCAA runs an official blog, called the Double-A Zone, where Howard Smith and Ryan Powell contribute blogs to inform and spark interest about the finer points of the NCAA hoops world. The blog is going to visit 11 Indiana college basketball events in four days, and do some extra hoop sightseeing in one of the best basketball states in the land, Indiana.

Where does Note Dame come in? The Double-A Zone will visit the Notre Dame-Delaware State game on Saturday night in South Bend, on the UND campus (Joyce Center). This is after, among other things, they will have already visited the Davidson-Purdue game and the FGC-Butler game in the same day. The Extravaganza will get up early the very next day to see some of the famous sites from the movie Hoosiers. Blogging for the NCAA sounds like fun.

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

Permalink - Posted in General on December 18, 2008 - Post a comment

Alphabetizing the Hawaii Bowl

It’s only about a week from the start of the Hawaii Bowl, so we’d better start in on giving you blog readers the scoop about the game, really break it down from every angle. Luckily, we found a link in the Sports Illustrated page about the Irish football team that took us to this nifty South Bend Tribune article.

The author, one Eric Hansen, has organized the Hawaii Bowl game between the Irish and the Hawaii Warriors from every possible angle, but he did it in alphabetical order. Why? He said because it’s finals week at Notre Dame. Well, I suppose the alphabet has a nice academic connotation… But what the heck. It’s creative, and it sure does give fan of football a nice look at the game in a unique way. Still thinking about going to the game? Make sure you get to StubHub.com to find some seats.
To get Notre Dame Fighting Irish football tickets, go to StubHub.com.

Permalink - Posted in General on December 17, 2008 - Post a comment

Notre Dame Players Earn Accolades

Four Notre Dame football players have been named to the CollegeFootballNews.com All-Freshman and Sophomore teams. The story, coming out of UND.com, says that some of the younger players on the team are truly gaining national prominence. It’s a testament to how well Charlie Weis has recruited, and the strength of the Notre Dame program in the near future. Things should be looking up with some fantastic young players coming up the ranks. Here are the selections:

  • Kyle Rudolph – Tight End – Freshman First Team
  • Michael Floyd – Wide Receiver – Freshman Second Team
  • Trevor Robinson – Offensive Guard - Freshman Second Team
  • Golden Tate- Wide Receiver – Honorable Mention, Sophomore Team

Congratulations are in order for these young student-athletes. Let’s all root for them and the other Irish players in the Hawaii Bowl in about ten days. They’ll be on the national stage, so a good performance here could mean even more coverage for these young players in the coming seasons.

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

Permalink - Posted in General on December 16, 2008 - Post a comment

Charlie Weis to Have Double Knee Surgery

Notre Dame football coach Charlie Weis will have two knee surgeries, one on each knee. The gist of the story goes like this. Weis was hit in the knee during one of the Notre Dame football games this season, while standing on the sideline. Special teams player John Ryan was knocked out of bounds and landed into Weis’ left knee. Weis was on crutches for a large part of the season.

Since the initial accident, Weis has been favoring his other knee, and, probably as a result or a latent affect of the initial crash, his right lateral meniscus is also messed up pretty bad. Apparently he’s been in some pain this whole season.

Weis might even have surgery on his right knee before the Irish’s bowl game versus Hawaii on Christmas Eve. He has to get his right knee all better before he can go putting more weight on it while the left one, which is much worse. Let’s keep our thoughts with Weis, who will probably have a long road to recovery ahead of him.

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

Permalink - Posted in General on December 15, 2008 - Post a comment


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