ND <t>For some reason this de-commit doesn’t really seem to bother me that much. Maybe the kid is right. If he’s a true pro-style QB as listed then maybe ND isn’t the right place. I haven’t really looked at his film but if he’s not mobile enough he wouldn’t be right for the offense we’re running now.</t>
ND WBB lost the ACC championship to Louisville 74-72. The good news is, unlike the first time we played - a 30+ point blowout - the game was close all the way until the last 2 minutes. We lost our composure midway through the 4th quarter, which opened the door. L'ville is a legitimately solid team, although they lost earlier in the season by a sizable margin to Uconn. I don't know anything about Mississippi State, which is undefeated and playing later for the SEC championship. We probably will get a 2 seed in the tournament.
Tough loss for the women, but they still had a great season esp given all the injuries to key players that they had. This is a team that can make a deep run in the tournament maybe even a final four run.
Irish Hockey will face Penn State in the B1G Hockey Tournament semifinals. The other Semifinal is Mich vs Ohio State. Irish Men open the ACC basketball tournament with Pitt, Tues night.
Irish opened Spring Drills today. Looking at the transcript of Kelly's PC. Noted a couple of things. Wimbush will have to earn the job, he's running with the #1's but he's not the presumptive starter that he was this time last year. I think that's a good thing. Also the long forgotten Avery Davis is going to spend some time at WR as well as QB. We haven't heard a peep out of him since he stepped on campus but Kelly says he's too dynamic to not find a way to get him on the field. Stolen from NDNation: Summary of the PC Jafar Armstrong to RB/WR. Big kid. 10.79 100 speed. C.J. Prosise role. Hainsey to LT. A Zach Martin type technician. Jamir Jones to drop. Robertson to Rover. Bilal will start at Rover. Morgan to Rover. Bonner could slide to DE as well as NT (where he moved) Looking to get a lot of QB pressure from Tillery. Ewell is finally in shape. 321 pounds who apparently lift a lot of weight. Boykin is an Aff Olete. 4.51 40. 39 inch vertical. 6’4” 225 pounds. < 1.5 sec 10. Tony Jones and Dexter Williams were both hobbled a bit last year. So, apparently was Adams. McKinley (our highest rated WR is finally healthy.) They have started a speed school timing everyone. 8 players can run the 10 in under 1.5 seconds. Have no idea if this is good. Both QBs will get #1 team reps, Wimbush will start out as #1. Captains are Tranquill (no brainer), Sam Mustipher and Newsome . Mustipher was so overshadowed by McGlinchey and Q.Nelson that we didn't really get a sense of his leadership, but I like having an OL as one of the Captains. Wimbush would have been a Capt but he didn't produce on the field so he took himself out of the running. From what I've read he has a captain's personality. Newsome has done well as our punter, and is reportedly one of the most well liked players on the team. I'm maybe a little surprised that Tillery wasn't named a Captain, but then he's had a couple of incidents of very uncaptainlike behavior like stomping that USC kid and being kicked out off the team for the Fiesta Bowl vs Ohio State. Tevon Coney is another kid but again he was one of those in the car with Max Redfield. Kelly said both Tony Jones Jr. and Dexter Williams who battled injuries are 100%, I hope so since nobody is chasing them and tackling them! We do have some playes recovering from injury who won't be practicing, the biggest names to me are Nic Wishear and Brock Wright. http://www.asapsports.com/show_conference.php?id=137807
Irish men had a close game with Pitt yesterday, but got the win. They face Va.Tech tonight, a game they must win or they will be headed to the NIT.
Wow! Thanks Don! Down 21 pt and couldn't shoot. Then the Ole mo changed and we worked our way back into the game and win it at the end. PITT game was also a barn burner, do we have any gas left for Duke?
Oh yeah and Coach McGraw was the USAToday Coach of the Year. Congrats to her, lost 4 player to injuries and had 5 starters and 1 freshman and a 5th year Sr..on the bench and that was all. Yet still against one of the toughest schedules in the nation finished 29-3, Reg season ACC Co-Champs and top 5 in all the polls. Well deserved.
Irish Men's basketball Signee's Dane Goodwin and Robby Carmody won their states Gatorade Basketball Player of the Year. Goodwin is from Ohio and Carmody is from Pennsylvania. https://irishsportsdaily.com/s/5739/irish-signees-win-gatorade-player-of-the-year-awards Really looking forward to the Irish Men's basketball class of 2018 getting on campus and seeing what they can do. It's one of the best of the Brey era. http://www.und.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/111417aaa.html
Irish Men didn't have enough left in the tank tonight...plus Duke is really really good. That kid Bagley..oh my.
In the long run playing in the NIT would probably be a good thing. I doubt that the Irish can get past the second round. They could make the final 4 in the NIT.
You are probably right Mike, it's hard to know. If they somehow get in and get a 1st round win I'm guessing the team would like that more than a NIT championship. IRISH Hockey gets the win vs PSU and will face Ohio State in the Final. Buckeyes finished the season really strong and probably will be favored. Coach McGraw is the ESPN Coach of the Year. Baseball lost 2 out of 3 to Miami. Men's LaCrosse beat a very good Denver team, while the women's team lost to Va Tech. No news about football related recruiting
Well NIT it is, not surprising that a lot of fans felt we got screwed when they chose Syracuse over us given that we beat them at their place handily and that was without Bonzie and Matt Farrell. Hampton is our first opponent, they are currently members of the MEAC conference but are headed to the Big South next year. They played 2 top 5 teams this year in Xavier and UVa, both beat them by around 4 points. If we come out and play well it should be an easy win. The next likely opponent is a good Penn State team.
Irish come out well as usual in our academics with regard to graduating Black Athletes, specifically football and basketball players. Irish are right at the top with 86%. It always strikes home to me when recruits say that they chose school X for academics, and I look them up and the academics is that a low % of black athletes graduate. Also while I don't know about all schools but at Texas we have some 'easy" majors for them to take and if they will just show up and do some work they will graduate. Now personally to me the key is they graduate, even if it isn't a degree in Accounting or other difficult major, it's a big hurdle and will get them in the door for the interview when the first hurdle is "College Degree". If they were really thinking academics they would chose Northwestern, Notre Dame, Stanford, Duke, etc. But from what I read from guru's, they don't chose those schools sometimes because they want easy academics. Yet when they take the easy route a lot of them don't graduate any way. http://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/22723406/graduation-rates-african-american-athletes-power-5-schools-rise
Irish Women get a #1 seed and will open against Cal-Northridge at South Bend. Their OOC record got them the nod over Baylor who played a very weak OOC schedule inspite of having a 31-1 record.
Any school that has graduation rates for blacks under 50% should drop the "University" designation and call themselves "Football or Basketball Club" instead. That is shameful.