Big Game tonight for the Irish Women's Basketball team, they travel to Syracuse where a record crowd ( for the Syracuse women) will greet them. Win tonight and they could get back their #1 seed since both Oregon (lost 2x) and Louisville (1 loss) have both lost recently.
Reports are now in on the big Jr. Recruiting weekend for the Irish. Not surprising that all the reports were positive, Moms loved it, Kids were impressed...but none enough so that they gave a verbal. The big fish is Calif QB Tyler Buchner who is rated one of the top 5 QB's in the 2021 class. He's also interested in Stanford but doesn't have an offer from them yet. He's visiting them sometime soon so everybody is watching to see if the comes away with an offer. I've read that if he doesn't verbal by end of March, that they will offer some other QB's, including a kid named J.J. McCarthy from Illinois who "they" say will verbal to ND as soon as the offer is extended. He's currently not rated by 247, that doesn' mean much as they don't have a lot of 2021 QB's or players in general rated yet.
I know nobody really cares about Softball, but Quinn Biggio is a freshman on the team and has had a great start to her career. I looked at the stats and she's either leading or in the top 5 of all the offensive stats. Craig and his wife must really love ND as they have sent all their kids here to study and play ball and it's not like we have a great ball program either. Both the boys could have gone to much better programs in baseball, and I assume Quinn could have as well.
Irish women handled Syracuse easily last night. Only game left is Senior night this Sunday vs UVA. This group of seniors will be missed a lot and the roster behind them is pretty thin so there could be a big drop off next year. After that the ACC tournament starts March 6th in Greensboro. Irish will need to win that I believe in order to get a #1 seed. If Louisville wins it they will get the #1 seed. I don't know what will happen if Miami (who is capable of winning it) wins the ACC tournament. Could be that the ACC doesn't get a #1 seed, seems unlikely as the ACC is the toughest league in women's college basketball. Irish men took FSU to late in the 4th qtr but as has been the case all year they couldn't finish the game and lost at FSU. FSU always has some amazing athletes on their roster that just can make those wow plays.
The 2020 game at Georgia Tech has been moved to Mercedes Benz Stadium. Ga.Tech has a new deal with them to play 5 games total over 5 years, 1 per year at Mercedes Benz. According to the article on Irish Illustrated we will also play them there in 2024. Future Tech home games at Mercedes-Benz Stadium expected
Weather is heading towards Artic temps again in the midwest and the Irish are opening Spring Drills tomorrow. Thank goodness for the new indoor training facility.
Interesting comments by Kelly on where he believes the program is at this time. I agree with him re: the Clemson game. As disappointing as it was, I didn't see it as the disaster it was portrayed to be, primarily by the haters. As spring practice opens, Brian Kelly believes Notre Dame isn't far from elite level
Sid, one loss, especially against another top ranked team seldom is an accurate indicator of anything. Many forget that Alabama beat Clemson 24-6 two years ago. That didn't seem to indicate the decline of their program....dammit!
Irish men put up another loss today, are now only above Pitt in the ACC. Irish women however go out in style for the regualar season. An easy victory over UVA and the seniors are sent off in style. This might be the greatest senior class in Irish women's basketball history. ACC tourney starts Wed, we get a double bye so Friday is when we'll play next. We'll need to get to the Final to hold on to the #1 seed. Win the ACC and we are a lock as one of the #1 seeds. Irish Hockey finish the regular season with yet another split at home. Wining Friday in a big comeback then losing last night. We ended up as the #2 seed in the B1G Hockey Tourney, gives us home ice vs MSU and should we advance we won't have to face Ohio State in the semi finals and have home ice again.
I can't say that I follow or really understand lacrosse. But from what I read this year is different. The programs that are considered power lacrosse programs have all lost to programs that you might consider like mid majors in basketball. Duke lost to High Point, Colgate beat Syracuse. But Maryland is one of those programs that is always at the top in lacrosse so it's a very good win for the Irish. We have been a very good lacrosse program as well, I read we lost one of our top players to academics this spring so that hurt. Only 5 of the 16 ACC teams play lacrosse, some reason I thought it was more, all 5 are ranked in the top 15 though. Lacrosse is still pretty much a East of the Mississippi, except for Denver which is a power and the only ranked program West of the Mississippi. Most of the teams are in the Atlantic region from Syracuse down to North Carolina. I don't think any SEC or B12 teams even play lacrosse. The ACC and the B1G are the top leagues I guess.
I'm pretty sure OSU has a LAX varsity program. My grandson plays for U of Cinn. in their club program. They beat the OSU club team last weekend. (I read Doc's post incorrectly. I thought he was referring to the Big1G when he was writing about the Big 12 not having LAX teams.) Like hockey, there are some schools that have good teams that aren't football powers. Schools like Navy, Albany, Johns Hopkins and Hofstra are examples of good lacrosse schools.
Yeah just like Hockey, there are a number of schools who don't have big time programs in basketball, baseball and football who do have big time programs in Hockey and Lacrosse. Yale, Denver and Loyola have won lacrosse Nat'l Titles in the last 6 years. Vast majority by far lacrosse Nat'l Champions come from Duke/UNC/Syracuse and UVA. Maryland in 2017 is the only Big 10 team to win a Nat'l Championship on only 1 other Big 10 team has ever made the final, Ohio State the year that Maryland won.
Same story for the Irish Men last night vs Clemson. Could not close out the game. Had their chances at the end to win or to at least get to OT but just couldn't get it done. If we lose to Pitt on Sat we finish dead last in the ACC, what a season.
Irish women in action this afternoon in the ACC tourney, UNC who beat them earlier in the season is the opponent. Payback!!
Irish Hockey open the best of 3 series with Michigan State in the Big 10 Hockey tournament. Fri, Sat, and Sunday if needed.
For Star QB from California. It’s never too early to land a quality quarterback and that’s exactly what Notre Dame did as Tyler Buchner has committed to the Irish and becomes the first commitment in the 2021 recruiting class. Has offers from Georgia, Alabama etc.