Should He Stay or Should He Go?

Luke Harangody has a lot of thinking to do before June 15th.  The Ides of June is the deadline for college basketball players to declare for the NBA Draft. Before that date, players can say they’re going pro, not hire an agent, and then back out at the last minute, head back to school and play at least another season in college. Harangody, one of the best college basketball players last season, has declared his eligibility for the NBA Draft, but has not hired an agent. At this point, it doesn’t mean too much. The big decision will come June 15th.

What might Big Luke be thinking about these days? Here’s an interesting article, from the South Bend Tribune, that goes into detail about what might be running through the mind of this gargantuan scorer-rebounder. He could earn lots of money, or he could get a degree. He could enjoy another year outside of the real world, or leap into the stress of pro hoops life. What will it be, Harangody?

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

Freshman Will Start at Point for Notre Dame

Here’s the situation. Tory Jackson, the current point guard for the Notre Dame basketball team, is a junior. He’s the only pure point guard on the roster, and there are no pure point guards coming onto the team in the next freshman class. All of the other guards are either combo guards or shooting guards.

This could be a problem- especially in the college game, where it’s more important to have a floor general out there than in the pros. Plus, Coach Mike Brey clearly likes to use a traditional “pass first” decision making point guard in his schemes.

The solution: Brey has recently attracted Maryland high school junior point guard Eric Atkins to Notre Dame. Since he’s a junior, he won’t be on the team next season, but the year after next he’s projected to start. Atkins seems like a good player, so we’ll have to keep an eye on him in his senior season.

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

Permalink - Posted in General on April 29, 2009 - Post a comment

Women’s Lacrosse Wins Big East Title; Same with Women’s Rowing

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish women’s lacrosse team has captured the Big East Conference championship.  The other day the lacrosse team beat Georgetown in the Big East title game, winning 12-10 with the help of a fantastic defensive effort by goalie Erin Goodman. The Irish will get an automatic bid in the NCAA Tournament, set to begin shortly. We should all go get some tickets to their Tourney games and support the Irish on their way to the national championship.

In other Notre Dame sports news, The Notre Dame women’s crew team has won the Big East Conference championship.  The Rowing team has won six titles in a row- the longest conference title win streak save for Notre Dame swimming and diving, which has won 13 conference championships in a row.  Irish rowing head coach Martin Stone said:

“We are very pleased that we won the BIG EAST title. It certainly was a total team effort as all six of our boats contributed to today’s championship. We knew going in that it was going to be a very challenging day of racing, but I am so proud of how our team responded to the challenge. Over the course of the last several weeks, I believe that we have picked up speed and I’m excited as to where we are and the progress we have made heading into the Central/South Region Championships in the next couple of weeks.”

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Permalink - Posted in General on April 28, 2009 - Post a comment

Notre Dame’s David Burton Drafted by the Broncos

Notre Dame’s sole draftee this past weekend was safety David Burton. Although there were several potential graduating seniors that NFL teams could have picked up in the 2009 NFL Draft, the only one to make it onto a roster this past week was Burton, a Fighting Irish safety who was one of the most coveted players at his position. According to ESPN’s take on Burton, the Broncos were probably impressed with Burton’s physical size and weight, his top speed, his durability and ball skills. Burton can stuff the run with the best of them.  One of the downsides of David Burton, according to ESPN is his “fluidity,” his ability to change paths through nimble footwork. He was not a big name player expect for Notre Dame fans, and played on a lackluster defense overall, adding to the drop in value. Burton was taken as the 114th pick overall in the 4th round.

Early evaluation on this pick ranges, and, as we all know about draft picks, oftentimes the speculation has nothing to do with the reality. For now the Broncos will probably use Burton as a backup, but when injuries hit or if he’s impressive in camp, he might even get a starting position. Good luck in Denver Burton, and thanks for a few great years at Notre Dame.

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

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

Notre Dame: The Smartest College Athletes

Notre Dame took other schools to the cleaners this past week—not on the playing field, per se, but in the classroom.  Notre Dame led all Football Bowl Subdivision schools, all 119 of them, with 14 athletic program awards for multi-year Academic Progress Rate Scores. That means that there were 14 programs that were in the top ten percent in the nation academically for more than one year in a row.  The athletic programs getting multi-year honors include: men’s baseball, men’s basketball, men’s cross country, men’s golf, men’s ice hockey, men’s soccer, men’s indoor track and field, men’s outdoor track and field, women’s fencing, women’s rowing, women’s soccer, women’s softball, women’s tennis and women’s volleyball.

Congratulations to all the Notre Dame student-athletes, who truly put the “student” in student athlete. Notre Dame has had a long tradition of academic success, combined with supreme athletic achievement in all kind of sports- not just basketball and football.  It comes as a surprise to few that Notre Dame was able to beat out other high-achieving D-1 Bowl schools, like Stanford, Cal, Texas, Duke and Boston College.

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

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

How Did Weis Lure Crist?

According to the Chicago Tribune, Charlie Weis did some rather unconventional, psychologically demanding recruiting to get Dayne Crist to come to Notre Dame. The highly touted quarterback was on a recruiting visit to Notre Dame, looking at a few other schools as well, notably LSU.  Weis knew it was going to be a long shot getting Crist to come to UND, given the fact that they’d just signed another top QB, Jimmy Clausen, a year before, and LSU was looking for somebody to start immediately. Weis said to Crist on his visit, “This is a courtesy visit because you’re afraid to compete with Clausen, right?” Well, the reverse psychology paid off. Crist was irked and challenged by the statement, signed with the Irish and has been playing ferociously in practice to try to get the starting job.

So what do you think of this type of recruiting?  The Notre Dame Blog thinks it’s well within bounds- even kind of clever. With all the recruiting shenanigans and payoffs going around these days, it’s almost refreshing to see a coach try to lure a kid with wits rather than cars and women. Of course, we hope to see Dayne in action in his Junior and senior years with the Irish. We hope he came here to play not just the chance to compete to play.

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

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

“The Shirt” Is Here!

Fashion forward football fans should pipe up and pay attention to this blog post. The Shirt 2009 has been released. After about a year’s worth of planning and design, The Shirt is now available online or a the Notre Dame Bookstore. An annual tradition for decades, The Shirt is the unofficial team uniform of the cheering section for Notre Dame sports, especially home football games. Every student or alumni who’s worth his weight in beans will have his Shirt on by game time. So let’s take a good, thorough look at The Shirt.

  • First off, it’s gold. While there has never been a gold Shirt before, the promoters of the attire are confident it will stand out even better than before. Don’t wear khaki pants with it though, dweeb.
  • “Rise and Strike” is the catchphrase on the front. Although you’d think it’s a Karate Kid reference, it’s actually a line from a Notre Dame fight song, “Hike, Notre Dame.”
  • The back of the shirt shows a famous photograph from the 1992 Snow Bowl against Penn State. The lettering reads “Defend Our Honor.” While it’s a good message, don’t you think it kind of signifies a period of weakness for the Irish- that their honor would need defending at all indicates that the honor of Notre Dame football is under attack or in jeopardy? Then again, sometimes when a hero appears to be at his weakest he’s actually at his strongest. Think about it.

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

Permalink - Posted in General on April 22, 2009 - Post a comment

Blue-Gold Game

The Blue Team (the offense) beat the Gold Team (the defense) in the latest Blue-Gold Game, which took place on April 18th. The score was 68-33, although the scoring system is improvised in order to allow the defense scoring opportunities even when they don’t actually have the ball- such as during an interception.

Jimmy Clausen, Dayne Crist and Nate Montana (son of Notre Dame legend Joe Montana) all got to take snaps. While Clausen threw an interception leading to a defensive touchdown and Crist was only 4-10, Coach Charlie Weis did take away some positive developments from the game.  It’s best to get the kinks out months before the season begins. There’s still a long time to work on accuracy.

Robert Hughes, Jonas Gray and Armando Allen all got double digit carries in the first half, with Allen ending with the best per-carry average. Hughes had two TDs in the first half. Those in attendance were able to see receivers like Kyle Rudolph and Golden Tate.

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

Permalink - Posted in General on April 21, 2009 - Post a comment

Looking at the Notre Dame Football Schedule

It’s never too early to start thinking about the college football season.  With the Irish projected to be even better this season than the previous one, football hype is going to be huge. Let’s take a moment to go through the tickets page at StubHub.com.

  • Season ticket packages come at a large cost (starting at $1,350 and ending at nearly $5,000), but the seats are amazing, and there’s nothing like seeing the whole season progress from start to finish.
  • The first home game on the schedule is Nevada, a team Notre Dame should beat up on pretty badly. Nevada has put together some quality teams recently, but the safe money’s on UND.
  • Michigan State will play at Notre Dame this year. The Spartans have been trouble for the Irish in recent years.
  • Washington rolls into South Bend on October 3rd. With Tyrone Willingham gone, so is the storyline. The Domers should rout the Huskies.
  • USC will play at Notre Dame on October 17th. This will be a tough one for Notre Dame to win, but if Weis does it might become his signature.
  • Boston College plays the Domers in the Catholic Bowl on the 24th of October. Should be an even match between the two D-1 Catholic football programs.
  • Washington State plays Notre Dame on Halloween night. Four Pac-10 meetings this season.
  • Navy, an old rival, will play Notre Dame in South Bend in the second to last game. This one is usually a evenly matched contest.
  • The second Big East game is against UConn on November 21st.

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

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

Luke Harangody Declares Himself Eligible for the NBA Draft

Big Luke made a big announcement regarding his future as a basketball player yesterday afternoon, stating that he will make himself eligible for the NBA Draft. He will not hire an agent, however, meaning that he has until June 10th to pull him name back out from the list of draftable players and continue his career with Notre Dame.

So will Luke stay at Notre Dame or leave for the NBA?  The question will have to be examined until he either picks up an agent or time runs out and he’s locked into eligibility.  Until the deadline there will be plenty of draft prospect camps and team workouts that help to determine his market value as an NBA draft pick. While his college stats were phenomenal, Harangody will still have to stack up against the expectation of NBA scouts. If all goes well, he’ll stay in the drat pool. If he feels like he won’t get selected in the first round, he might stay at UND.

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

Permalink - Posted in General on April 17, 2009 - Post a comment


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