Freeman on Tosh Baker Tosh had been third tackle behind Alt and Fisher and stayed firm. Now, he's getting his opportunity. I'm so excited to see what he does with it. It's a competition, but this is his opportunity. Me: I am just happy that Tosh didn't hit the portal, many kids in his situation would have done so already.
Freeman on young LBs It's Sneed's third spring, here we go, it's time, let's go. ( he's been freakishly talented athletically but has struggled to get on the field consistently, now is his time) Bowen and Ausberry have been impressive, expecting to see a lot. Says Kynsgtonn will have a chance to play early. (KVA was one of our highest ranked recruits in the 2024 class and many expected him to play early, he's an early enrollee, very talented kid) I believe in talent of that room Freeman on safety Notes Luke Talich is on scholarship now. Talked about it during recruiting. Will be in competition with Adon Shuler and Rod Heard. (Talich is a great story, he's a walk-on that was a walk-on because he believed he would earn a scholarship, was great last year on ST and showed he belonged, from Cody Wyoming) Have seen those guys in Mickens' office a lot, which is encouraging.
Well I was dead wrong, Riley Leonard is enrolled and participating in the Spring Drills. That's a good thing.
Irish Women get the win v Louisville, had a big lead at one point but ended up being close at the end. Best part was the much hated Jeff Walz getting ejected. He's only exceeded by Kim Mulkey as as histrionic whiner on the sideline.
Irish get Va.Tech in the early game today, no Liz Kitley. But they are a well coached team and they better come out ready to play a great game or they'll not get what they want, a win! It's helpful that their nemesis Syracuse went down kind of easily to FSU so we don't have to face them down the line if we make it to the final.
Barring a massive collapse the Irish are going to beat Va.Tech they are up 61-40 after 3 quarters. The really bad news is that Kylie Watson is likely done for the season, went down with a non-contact knee injury and that's usually means and ACL. Georgia Amoore is getting most of Va.Tech's points.
Irish finish off the Hokies, but at a big cost with the loss of Kylie Watson in the middle. We are a thin team to start with and this makes us thinner. Irish had 4 players in double figures, spread the wealth around. Hannah Hildalgo had an good game but not quite what we've come to expect from her, she had slow start shooting the ball, but she does so much more than score.
The ladies are going to essentially play with a 6 man team. Becky Obimina has rarely played this year (center) and is a fouling machine, and Sarah Cerneugel is a scholarship player but was a walk-on before this year and really has only played at the end of a few games that were blow outs.
Irish Men lost a close one at Blacksburg, 82-76. It was a back and forth game and we never could control Sean Pedulla who seemingly scored 100 points but was only credited with 28. Irish Lacrosse went to Columbus and beat Ohio State, in front of a sold out Buckeye crowd, I wonder how big the Buckeye lacrosse facility is in terms of seating capacity. Our stadium seats 2500, I don't know how often we sell out. SOUTH BEND, Ind. – The No. 3/4 Fighting Irish defeated Ohio State in Columbus, Ohio, by a score of 13-10 in front of a sold-out Ohio State Lacrosse Stadium crowd. Notre Dame’s Chris Kavanagh had a career day, posting a career-high eight points off a career-best five goals and three assists. Eight Notre Dame players combined to score the 13 goals, with nine coming off assists. Pat Kavanagh led the team in assists with three to total four points on the day. Will Lynch continued his strong run of play from the dot, winning 14-of-24 faceoffs while scooping up a season-high 10 ground balls.
I asked my grandson about the size of the OSU lacrosse facility and he thought it was similar to ND's Arlotta which holds about 2,500.
Wow, what a run to finish the season, beat Louisville twice, beat Va.Tech twice, and took down NC State in a big defensive game for the ACC Championship. I didn't see the game as it was a beautiful day here in Houston and I was out on the links, but I have to say that after Watson went down I feared we wouldn't be able to handle River Baldwin in the post and that she'd kill us. But what ever Coach Ivey drew up it worked. We might end up as high as a 3 seed, but for sure we are going to be hosting the first round which is a huge advantage for the teams who get to host. Hannah Hildalgo was the MOP of the tournament. Our big 3, Hannah, Sonia and Maddy all had outstanding tournaments.
I've always liked Drew and he's back on campus to earn his ND Degree, I hope he has a lot of success at Missouri.
Lots of kudos coming the way of the Irish Women. Too many to post. They are assured that they will be host to the 1st round, for sure a 4 seed and maybe a 3 seed. Football is almost a week into spring, lots of good stuff being written about Riley Leonard and the WR room. Basketball plays Ga Tech who they have played and beaten 2 times already. Always hard to beat a team 3 times. If they do then Wake Forrest would be next also a team we beat. So not impossible to get a couple of wins, an excellent end to the season. Next job for him is to not have certain players who developed over the season hit the Portal for greener pastures.
Irish beat Ga Tech 84 - 80, in a game they blew a nice lead but held them off at the end. Got some unexpected scoring front Kedda Njie, 11 points to go with 44 points between ACC ROY, Markus Burton and the coaches kid! Next up is Wake Forrest tomorrow, we have a chance to beat them as we did when they came to South Bend in February. We will have to play another good game, and it's likely to be a close game win or lose.
End of the road for the Irish Men, not a bad finish to the season that at one point looked totally lost and I doubted we'd win another game. They played good defense and the offense came along. There are a lot of holes that need to be filled for next year and some development for sure. There are a couple of good freshmen coming in next year, not 5 star ready for the NBA like Duke will be getting but could contribute. , Some of the young players on this years team like Davis, Roper, Booth, Njie all need to get better and develop in their roles. Pretty much everybody agrees that we need a solid big man added to the roster through the Portal. So we'll see what develops over the off season. Hopefully Burton won't be lured away to a higher profile program for more NIL money. I like what the coach did this year, I think he injected some life into the program. He took over such a depleted roster that it's going to be year 3 before we can expect a NCAA team. But I have a good feeling that he's going to get it done.
As long as there is a feeling of progress, there is always hope and I agree that seems to be the situation for Notre Dame at the moment. Good hunting for the Irish.