Irish women tee it up for their 4th game in 8 days at FSU, an NBA like schedule. Will they have the energy left in the tank to pull off a win. FWIW FSU has never beaten the Irish women.
I watched the women's BB game. We looked completely out of sync for most of the game, especially in the 3rd quarter. I'm guessing roughly 70-80% of our missed shots fell short. FSU played very aggressive defense under the boards, preventing our bigs from getting easy layups. We came back strong in the 4th but couldn't make up the deficit. Olivia Miles is on her way to greatness if she stays healthy, but she's a freshman point guard and IMO makes a lot of freshman mistakes in running the offense. That's OK. I like this team considering how young it is.
I watched as well Sid. I was surprised that we fell apart, I mean we couldn't hit wide open jumpers, we missed layups, we turned it over. All at the same time that FSU couldn't seem to miss no matter why they threw up. I thought that when they got up by more than 20 that it was going to be an embarrassing blow out, not just a loss. When we went to the press it rattled them and seemed to energize us and when we got it back to 3 points I thought we might pull it off, but they made enough plays at the end to hold on to the win. Only thing that I take away was that we could have quit but we didn't and we almost pulled it off. As a young team they will learn and get better. I was glad to see a little spark of life in Maddy Westbeld's game. Oliva continues to impress, Maya really fights for everything down low. I wish we didn't try so many lobs to her, find other ways to get the ball into her. We have a midweek home game with a struggling Miami team before going down to Louisville to face the Cardinals a team with legitimate final 4 aspersions and who hates us.
Hockey shut out Penn State for the weekend sweep. We are solidly in 4th place and likely to stay there. Ohio State has supplanted Michigan as the #1 team in the standings.
Irish TE George Takacs has entered the portal. He'll graduate so good luck to him. He was facing a logjam at TE. With him on the roster and including incoming TE's we have 7 TE's. with Michael Mayer likely to get the bulk of the snaps. Going elsewhere will give him a shot at consistent playing time.
With Duke's dramatic loss last night to UVA the Irish find themselves in a tie for 1st for the ACC. Something I would not have thought possible back Dec 1st. Of course a lot of games left to go.
Irish beat Louisville in a bit of a ugly game. We played well in the 1st half, while the 'ville looked lost. Louisville came out in the 2nd half and played with intensity, took it to us. Got inside, got a lot of offensive rebounds and got on run to erase the 12 point halftime deficit and tie the game at 55. Of course runs always end and the Irish got the lead back at 57 - 55 and never lost it. They now, for the moment, are in 1st place in the ACC. Next is a weekend trip to Clemson.
Buckeyes had a 8 point lead over Rutgers with under five minutes to go and we could not score a single basket during the remaining period. They just out hustled us in the last four minutes.
Irish Women take on Miami tonight back in Purcell. Miami is a middle of the pack ACC team, being at home we should win, but as we all know you still have to go out and play and win on the court. The Irish men will still be without Nate Laszewski for the road game to Clemson. I assume that will mean a 6-man rotation. Brey has always frustrated us fans with his affinity for the short bench. Hard to imagine that he has nobody who he trusts to step up and give some minutes rest to the starters.
The women take down Miami relatively easily. Maddy Westbeld broke out of her scoring drought and put 21, shot it very well as well as getting in there and hitting the boards.. Next is top 5 Louisville at the Yum Center. That will be a tough place to go in and get the win, but I won't count us out!
Kevin Austin Graduated, good for him. I wish he was coming back and I think he would benefit, but with his degree in hand I wish him a lot of success. Also the Irish have another member of the Pro Football HOF. Bryant Young. Well deserved.
Re: ND women's win vs. Miami. Terry, I watched the game. It was Westbeld's birthday, so it's cool that she had a good night. Saw another "Oh my" pass/assist from Olivia Miles. I was impressed with the other freshman, Citron, who played a good game. Overall, my thoughts: Our passing to the open player is very good, often leading to scoring. We still turn the ball over too much. Hopefully, as the team matures, turnovers will diminish. Re: Louisville, like you, Terry, I'm hopeful. We have to catch them on a bad night.
Irish Football picks up a verbal! Lawrence (Mass.) Central Catholic four-star linebacker Preston Zinter is the latest class of 2023 recruit to commit to Notre Dame. Head coach Marcus Freeman targeted him early in the process and landed a good one in the 6-3, 215-pounder. Early in his recruitment, there were plenty of analysts that felt he would head to Michigan and follow his brother Zak Zinter, a current offensive lineman starting along the offensive line with the Wolverines. However, with the pursuit of Freeman, senior analyst Nick Lezynski and director of recruiting Chad Bowden, the Fighting Irish were able to get this one done. It also didn’t hurt that Zinter and his family recently made a trip to South Bend and that time on campus couldn’t have gone better.
Irish Hockey is on the road at Wisconsin, the series will be Sat /Sunday due to some COVID-19 issues with the Badgers.
Well, isn't this interesting? It's early and the 2023 rankings most likely will change, but for this moment ND recruiting is ranked no. 1 by Rivals:
Yeah, no Alabama or Ohio State in the top 10, I'd say things will change. But I do expect that we will have a top 10 class unless something goes horribly wrong with Freeman's 1st year.
As has been speculated, Al Golden has been offered the DCoord position and hasn't said yes or no and won't address the offer till after the Super Bowl. If he says no, the Minn DCoord , Joe Rossi, is supposedly Freeman's next choice.
Irish Men's Basketball are at Clemson. Of course the player who undercut the Duke player will not play vs the Irish. We have a good shot at getting a win. Irish Hockey is a late game tonight in Madison. Wisconsin is struggling this year but this Irish team has been an up and down team. Losing some games that have you scratching your head then sweeping Michigan at Yost.