Hockey Team Eliminated from NCAA Tourney, Men’s Basketball to Play Tonight

Notre Dame found itself on the wrong end of a mini Miracle on Ice. Even though the Irish entered the NCAA Ice Hockey Tournament as one of the clear favorites after winning the CCHA title and finishing the season with one of the best records in college hockey (30-6-3), they wound up falling to Bemidji State 5-1 in the first round of the Midwest Regional Semifinal. The Irish fell behind early, and even though they were constantly pressuring the B-State goal, they just couldn’t seem to get the puck into the net. It’s a disappointing loss and a bummer of a loss to end an otherwise brilliant season. Take heart, Notre Dame hockey players—you’ll get ‘em next year!

In other news, you can catch some of the interviews the Irish basketball players gave for Media Day at the NIT Tournament in New York at UND.com. They’re prepping to play Penn State in the game before the championship. Get your tickets, because the game starts in just a few hours now!

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

Permalink - Posted in General on March 31, 2009 - Post a comment

Notre Dame Preps for Penn St. Tomorrow Night in NIT Final Four

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are in the NIT’s Finals Four, set to play Penn State for the chance to get to the NIT’s title game.  Penn State is somewhat of a football rival to the Irish, but on the basketball court they don’t meet as much because they’re in different conferences. Penn State and Notre Dame did not play each other this season.

For many of Notre Dame’s games this season, we’ve done game previews by looking up the competition at KenPom.com, an invaluable basketball stats resource for college hoops junkies. The Domers are set to play a tough team, but the Nittany Lions do have some weaknesses. Here are a few.

Penn State has an above-average offense which has done well because they take care of the ball, shoot high percentage shots and get up and down the floor well. However, the Irish are much better at shooting from the outside, and the Lions can’t hit a free throw to save their lives.

Defensively, Penn State struggles to create turnovers, and is one of the worst teams in college basketball at getting blocks. The Lions do, however, keep other teams off the offensive glass, and they’re wise with their fouls.

Penn State has major wins this year against Georgia Tech, Purdue, Michigan State, and Illinois. They beat George Mason, Rhode Island and Florida to get to this point in the NIT.

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

Permalink - Posted in General on March 30, 2009 - Post a comment

Notre Dame Basketball to Play in NY; Other UND Sports Stories

The Notre Dame men’s basketball team has earned a trip to the NIT’s final four, which will begin in New York’s Madison Square Garden next week. The Fighting Irish are due to play Penn State on Tuesday night in what should be a very good game. The Nittany Lions were one of many teams which were just barely passed up for a bid to the NCAA Tournament. Tickets, as you can imagine, are going fast. Get yours now!

In other sports news from around Notre Dame, there are tons of athletic competitions you can get in on if you’re interested. The baseball team will play Pittsburgh on Friday in the afternoon, and continue the series through the weekend. The women’s lacrosse league is heating up. The track team will compete in the Stanford Invitation this weekend. The men’s swimming and diving team is currently competing in the NCAA Championships. The men’s hockey team is set for it’s game against Bemidji St. this Saturday, and then if they win they’ll play another game on Sunday.  This is a great time of year for Notre Dame sports fans, so get in on all the action.

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

Permalink - Posted in General on March 27, 2009 - Post a comment

Notre Dame Moves on to NIT Final Four

While most Notre Dame fans would rather see the Fighting Irish men’s basketball team in the other Final Four, the one taking place in a bout a week, we sure can’t sneeze at this one.  Last night UND defeated Kentucky in the NIT quarterfinals to advance to the next round, the round-of-four. It’s a great moment for the team, a squad that went through a lot of adversity in the middle of the season.  They seem to be putting it together now, though.

Notre Dame won the game 77-76 before a fired-up crowd at the Joyce Center, their home gym in South Bend, Indiana. Notre Dame had beaten UAB in the first round and New Mexico in the second round. Now, however, the Irish will have to give up their home court advantage and play in New York at the famous Madison Square Garden. The young men couldn’t help but be happy about their recent turn of success. According to the South Bend Tribune, Irish guard Kyle McAlarney had this to say:

“The energy in the locker room, that’s what you play for. It’s a 180-degree turn, let me tell you… It almost gets to the point in the locker room where it was just silence; no one had anything to say…  Now it was just yelling and everyone just psyched. We feel like we’ve accomplished something… We feel like we’ve overcome a lot.”

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

Permalink - Posted in General on March 26, 2009 - Post a comment

Notre Dame Preps for Kentucky

Notre Dame is set to play Kentucky in the quarterfinals of the NIT today.  The game will go down at 7:00 PM at the Joyce Center, where the Irish have had great luck in beating both the New Mexico Lobos and the UAB Blazers in the postseason National Invitational Tournament.  In fact, Notre Dame carries into the game a four-game home win streak. Well, they have a lot to go before they can come close to the home win streak they accumulated when they were midway through this past regular season. But we digress.

Kentucky has been a solid team this year, so the Fighting Irish should not take the meeting lightly. The Wildcats rely heavily on guard Jodie Meeks, who averages about 25 points per game.  Containing Meeks will be task No. 1 for the Irish. If Notre Dame can beat the wildcats, they’ll move onto the NIT’s version of the Final Four, which will take place in New York’s Madison Square Garden. Make sure you come out to the game tonight to root the team on to victory.

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

Permalink - Posted in General on March 25, 2009 - Post a comment

Curt Shilling Retires

One of the game’s most recognizable faces and most dominating pitchers has announced his retirement. Curt Shilling, age 43, has decided to call it quits after a long, distinguished career in Major League Baseball.  He announced his retirement on his blog- typical of Curt Shilling these days- and you can read a nice little article about the retirement at CBSSports.com.  Here’s to Curt Shilling. May you have a happy retirement. We all hope this doesn’t turn into a Roger Clemens/Brett Farve deal. How about looking at some Shilling stats? Here are some highlights, compiled from Baseball-reference.com (bloody socks not included).

  • In his 20-year career in the Major Leagues, Shilling has three times been runner-up for the Cy Young Award.
  • Shilling is 11-2 in postseason play and has a combined 2.23 ERA in the playoffs.
  • He was selected six times to the All-Star Game, but only played in three of those games.
  • Shilling has won the Lou Gehrig Award, the Babe Ruth Award, the Branch Rickey Award, the Hutch Award and the Roberto Clemente Award.
  • In 2001 and 2004 he led the league in wins, and in 2001 he was the World Series Co-MVP along with Randy Johnson.
  • Although his ERA has been low as it can get (2.35, 2.97, 2.98, 2.95), Shilling has never earned the lowest ERA.
  • In 1998 Chilling threw 15 complete games.

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Permalink - Posted in General on March 24, 2009 - Post a comment

Team USA Eliminated from the World Baseball Classic

Team USA was eliminated from the World Baseball Classic last night after Team Japan blew the Americans away with hit after hit after hit.  Japan ended up winning the game 9-4. They will face Korea in what should be an intense matchup of two baseball-crazy countries who don’t particularly like one another.

But for fans of Team USA, the questioning will begin.  Why is it that we continue to lose these international competitions when it seems as though we should have the best players in the world on our team?  While baseball has increasingly become an international sport, with Asian and Latin American countries leading the surge of worldwide national teams, it’s the US that usually produces the biggest Major League Baseball stars. And it’s the MLB that’s truly the pinnacle of professional baseball, right? So why can’t we win one of these international tournaments?

Scott Miller tries to tackle this issue in his latest article. While most of the points he raises are the obvious ones, they really do need to be addressed. We don’t take the games as seriously as the other teams. They happen right in the middle of the warm-up period. The managers are sleep walking through it. Some of the best young players don’t want to show up for risk of injury… the list goes on.  Check out the article and think for yourself tonight about this perplexing issue.

To get MLB tickets, go to StubHub.com.

Permalink - Posted in General on March 23, 2009 - Post a comment

Notre Dame Survives New Mexico in NIT

Notre Dame hung on to beat New Mexico 70-68 in the second round of the National Invitational Tournament last night. The Fighting Irish took a 34-24 lead into halftime at the Joyce Center, but allowed the New Mexico Lobos to get within a three point shot of an upset. Fortunately, the Lobos were unable to convert on a possible game-winning three, allowing UND to move into the third round of the NIT. Notre Dame will play the winner of the Creighton-Kentucky game in the NIT’s version of the Elite Eight.

For the Irish, Big Luke was the man. He led the team with 26 points and 11 rebounds. Tory Jackson capped off the game with a layup on an impressive drive. Jackson added 16 points. It appears as though Notre Dame is taking to heart the theme of basketball tournaments, “survive and move on.” Check out Notre Dame survive in their next game by getting some tickets!

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

Permalink - Posted in General on March 20, 2009 - Post a comment

Second Round Battle: UND vs. New Mexico at Joyce Center

The UND Fighting Irish will take on the New Mexico Lobos tonight at the Joyce Center for some second round NIT action. As we’ve said before, we love the fact that in the NIT  the high seeds get to play their opening round games at home.  The Irish are already in the “sweet sixteen” of the NIT, having defeated UAB in the first round of the NIT. The Lobos should be a bit more trouble, though.  If you want to check out some of the most interesting facts about the game, you can always got to UND.com, where the pregame coverage has been excellent all year long.  In fact, if we were going to hand out awards at the end of the regular season, the official athletic site of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish would defiantly get an award. But we digress- back to the game at hand.

Notre Dame will need to contain the New Mexico’s Tony Danridge, who has been all over the stats sheet for the Lobos this year. Notre Dame will probably have the edge inside with Big Luke down low, like the always do, but they’ll need some nice guard play to win this game.  Interesting to note: this is the first time ever that Notre Dame will play New Mexico in a college basketball game.

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

Permalink - Posted in General on March 19, 2009 - Post a comment

Notre Dame Sends UAB Packing

Notre Dame won their opening round NIT game last night, beating UAB 70-64 before a large crowd at the Joyce Center in South Bend.  The Irish were able to convert on their free throws and hit outside shots in critical portions of the game and eventually outlasted the Blazers, who could not hit their free throws.  Luke Harangody led the Irish with 22 points and 10 rebounds.

So where does this leave the Fighting Irish? Well, the await the winner of the New Mexico-Nebraska game, and will play one of those two teams in their next matchup. So now that the Irish are winning in their postseason tournament, can we ask the question, What if they win the NIT? Will Notre Dame fans consider this season a success, or a disappointment? Perhaps we should wait to ask that question before they have the chance to win another game.  Well, Domer fans. Stay tuned to the hoops scoreboard tonight to see if the Irish will play New Mexico or Nebraska. Try to secure tickets as early as possible!

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

Permalink - Posted in General on March 18, 2009 - Post a comment


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