Big Luke Harangody Will Come Back to Play Senior Season!

Notre Dame forward Luke Harangody will return to school to complete his senior year and his final year of sports eligibility. Yesterday was the deadline for NCAA basketball players who had declared for the NBA Draft to reconsider and instead go back to school. If you didn’t indicate that you’d like to play one more year of college ball, you would have been locked into the draft. Instead, Luke has chosen to remain in South Bend. All Notre Dame basketball fans are breathing a sigh of relief today, because there were plenty of times last season when it seemed like Big Luke was carrying the team on his massive shoulders.

In fact, Luke Harangody led the Big East in scoring and rebounds for two consecutive years. He is a multiple-time member of the All-Big East team, and multiple-time Second team All-American. Needless to say, he’s one of the early favorites to win the Naismith Player of the Year next season, if he continues to play as he has been.  Harangody had worked out for the Chicago Bulls a week ago, sparking some fresh debate about where Luke’s opinion was regarding going to school or heading to the NBA. Congratulations on the decision, Luke, and good luck next season!

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Permalink - Posted in General on June 16, 2009 - Post a comment

Luke Harangody Really Taking His Time; Soccer’s Schedule Out

Notre Dame junior forward Luke Harangody really meant it when he said his decision to enter the NBA Draft would probably come down to the last minute. Here we are, 2:00 PM Eastern on June 15th, the deadline for athletes to return to school if they don’t intend to go to the NBA Draft, and Harangody is still waiting to make an announcement. As of this post, we haven’t heard anything from the Luke Harangody camp. You’ll have to get the official word in tomorrow’s post.

We do know one thing for sure, though. Notre Dame will open up it’s 2009 soccer season with a home game against Michigan at Alumni Field. Slated for Tuesday, September 1, the game will kick off an exciting season for Notre Dame. The schedule is out, so you can look for all of the must-see games.  Notre Dame will play Big East competitors like Louisville, Cincinnati, West Virginia and UConn at home, and they’ll also get to play teams from the ACC, Big Ten,  and WAC.  If you aren’t hyped up about soccer yet, start getting pumped!

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Permalink - Posted in General on June 15, 2009 - Post a comment

Smyth 4th in 10,000x Final; Sharpley Taken in MLB Draft

Notre Dame senior track and field long distance star Patrick Smyth placed fourth in the 10,000 meter final yesterday at the NCAA Track and Field Championships, held at the University of Arkansas. Smyth earned his seventh All-American nod for the completion of the 10K in a time of 29:08.13. He ranks among the fastest long distance athletes to ever compete for the Irish, including Luke Watson and the late Ryan Shay. Congratulations from us here at the Notre Dame Blog go out to Smyth for this amazing feat.

In other news, more congratulations are in order for the Irish baseball and football star Evan Sharpley, who just yesterday was drafted in the MLB Draft. Sharpley, who you might remember took a few snaps as the Notre Dame quarterback a few years ago, is also an outstanding baseball player. He was taken on the third day of drafting in the 50th round, No. 1,493 overall by the Seattle Mariners.

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Permalink - Posted in General on June 12, 2009 - Post a comment

Notre Dame’s A.J. Pollock Drafted by Arizona Diamondbacks

A.J. Pollock was drafted by the Arizona Diamondbacks just the other day. He was taken 17th overall by the Arizona Diamondbacks in the 2009 First-Year Play Draft, tying the previous high mark set by Irish draftees. Brad Lidge and Ken Plesha were both taken in the 17th position in precious drafts. Pollock was an All-Big East player and had some impressive stats through his first three seasons, both on offense and defense. Here’s a nice story about the selection, found at UND.com. Apparently Pollock will be back next year to finish out his college education, but after that the D-backs will have rights to him as a professional ball player. Saud Pollock after he was drafted:

“There was no question that I would return to Notre Dame in the fall to finish school and now I might be able to play in South Bend for the Silver Hawks as well. I really can’t imagine it working out any better.”

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Permalink - Posted in General on June 11, 2009 - Post a comment

Charlie Weis’ Tweets

You’ve heard about the Twitter craze. Heck, you’re probably tweeting about this blog already. But did you know that some of the most famous college football coaches in the nation have Twitter accounts? Even Notre Dame’s football coach Charlie Weis is part of the action. Check out his Twitter account. You can also look up some of the most interesting coaches and their tweets by checking out this Sports Illustrated article, which lists some of the highlights.

Charlie Weis’ account is called www.twitter.com/NDHFC, which stands for Notre Dame Head Football Coach. Mostly he tweets about his day-to-day goings-on, which lately has included taking a test about the recruiting rules in the offseason. You can see that Charlie is pretty concerned about the recruiting rules from some of his tweets. Follow him if you have a twitter, or check up on him if you just want to save the bookmark.

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Permalink - Posted in General on June 10, 2009 - Post a comment

Harangody Waiting Until the Last Minute

Luke Harangody is waiting until the last minute to make his college-or-NBA decision. He previously stated to several reporters that his choice to either return to Notre Dame to play basketball another season, or to enter the NBA Draft would be a long process, one that might go down to the last second. Well, with roughly five days left to decide, Luke Harangody is making things interesting. He’s slated to work out with the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday.

Does this mean the Bulls are serious about Harangody, or that Harangody is just trying to get some advice about what he should do next season. Suppose he works out with the Bull and they like what they see (not that they couldn’t tell how Harangody plays based on his immaculate college career). Will that push the decision to the NBA? Suppose he stinks and the Bulls don’t think he’s ready, relying more on the workout with current NBA players and coaches than his performance in college. Will that make Luke pick school? We have another couple of days to sit and speculate.

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Permalink - Posted in General on June 9, 2009 - Post a comment

Games Would Suffer if ND Went Conference

To be in a conference or not to be in a conference. That is the question that perplexes Notre Dame football fans and will persist until the end of time. But what would life be like in a conference. For one thing, you’d get some pretty pathetic non-conference matchups. Pat Forde of ESPN writes that nowadays big conference football powers act like sissies when they’re forced to go out-of-conference to play games. Would you want that, Notre Dame fans?

Sure, playing the weaklings of the college football world is fun, economical, and you can run up stats and wins with little effort. But that’s cheap. Most Notre Dame purists prefer all of the tradition and rivalry- even when it means that Notre Dame has to play schools like USC and Michigan. In fact, looking at the 2009 Notre Dame schedule, the list of teams playing the Domers looks impressive compared to the Alabamas and Floridas of the world. Here’s the Notre Dame schedule by conference.

  • WAC
  • Big Ten
  • Big Ten
  • Big Ten
  • Pac-10
  • Pac-10
  • ACC
  • Pac-10
  • Independent
  • Big East
  • Big East
  • Pac-10

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Permalink - Posted in General on June 8, 2009 - Post a comment

Fighting Irish Track Athletes Compete at NCAA Nationals

Seven Notre Dame Track and Field athletes will head to the University of Arkansas for the NCAA National Championship meet this week. Just reaching this stage- the NCAA Championships- is a huge accomplishment in and of itself. The following student-athletes would really appreciate your support if you decide to go to Arkansas to view the meet.

  • Patrick Smyth - 10,000 Meters- Patrick got an automatic qualifying time at a meet earlier in the season, and didn’t need to compete at the Regional meet to secure a spot at the nationals. He set a Notre Dame record at 10,000 earlier this year.
  • Mary Saxer - Pole Vault - Saxer finished 5th at the Regional meet and set a Big East record in the process.
  • Joanna Schultz - 400 Meters - The Big East 400 Meter champion, Schultz finished 5th at the Regional meet.
  • Matt Schipper - Pole Vault - Won the Big East title in the Pole Vault and then finished 5th at the Midwest Regional meet to secure a spot at the Nationals.
  • Jacklyn Espinoza - Discus - Won the Big East title in Discus and then placed 5th in the Regional meet.
  • Anna Weber - Hammer Throw - Yet another 5th place finisher at the Regionals, Anna is an All-Big East thrower.
  • Justin Schneider - Decathlon - Second place finisher in the Big East Track and Field Decathlon event.

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Permalink - Posted in General on June 5, 2009 - Post a comment

Purdue-Notre Dame Game in Jeopardy?

The annual Purdue-Notre Dame football game has been a tradition for many, many years. In fact, the matchup has been an annual tradition since 1946, so it would be a big deal if the Fighting Irish-Boilermakers game didn’t go down. For people who live in the state of Indiana, where Purdue and Notre Dame are located, this is a huge rivalry.

Well, the Journal and Courier is reporting that some negotiations are taking place about the future of the series. The current contract says that the Irish are going to play Purdue through the 2015 season, but the future beyond that is, well, up in the air. Some sources (and by that we mean a representative from the University of Wisconsin) said that Notre Dame is re-thinking the current set-up. The Domers, he reports, want the series to be bi-annual, every two years.

Do you think a re-visit to the series with Purdue is necessary?  Will a different game plan for the schedule work? So far Purdue has been a nice competitor for the Irish- not as hard as USC, but not as easy as some of the other schools. Plus there’s the whole Indiana thing. We’ll see what happens.

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Permalink - Posted in General on June 4, 2009 - Post a comment

Irish Soccer Lands Gatorade Player of the Year

Big news for the Notre Dame Men’s Soccer team: The Irish just landed the Gatorade National Player of the Year, Dillon Powers. A Plano, Texas native, Powers is considered to be one of the top recruits by experts, and recently won the country’s top honor in high school soccer. The Gatorade National Player of the Year Award is similar to the Heisman, the Naismith or the NBA MVP award. Considering the number of high school soccer players there are, it’s an honor to even me nominated. According to the UND.com article about this, the North Texas State Soccer Olympic Development Program Director of Coaching

Gary Williamson had this to say about Dillon Powers:

“Dillon is very quiet, very unassuming, very shy off the field, but on the field, he’s an impact player. His range of passing and his pass selection is spot on. He can get out of tight spaces. He’s got a very powerful shot. He’s just on a different level. His soccer IQ is up there along with his natural ability. Technically, tactically, physically and mentally, he’s got the edge.”

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Permalink - Posted in General on June 3, 2009 - Post a comment


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