Wire to wire win for men's basketball. Blake Wesley early and Dane Goodwin late. We were pretty hot from the 3 point line, 54%. Defense was good again tonight. Nate Laszweki was back tonight, didn't score but was good to see him back on the court. I do think though that Duke is clearly the best team in the conference. 11-3 tied again with Duke for 1st place in the ACC.
So it appears that Al Golden will be named Defensive Coordinator soon. Golden is known as a very good recruiter, and he did a great job of reviving Temple before he moved on to Miami where he failed. Thing I remember most is that at one point in the Weis era that he was considered a candidate for the same job, but that Weis was friends with Al Groh, the UVA head coach and asked for his permission to interview and Al declined.
The common thread in the bios of all the new coaches is that they are great recruiters (except, of course, for HH). Certainly a good sign.
Al Golden was a star at Red Bank Catholic HS here. That is the same school that gave us Quentin Nelson, probably the best O-Lineman I have ever seen and current TE Kevin Baumann. He grew up right next to my current town. All of these coaching hires are top shelf and and as Sid said, are reputed to be excellent recruiters.
Irish men take on Boston College. The meeting at BC earlier was an embarrassment and fuel a fire Mike Brey internet tirade. This team is a different team now, and we get them at the friendly confines of Purcell. Hopefully a big payback.
This is something I've read that Nick Saban insists on with new Coordinators. Says there is an Alabama way and they will learn the Alabama way rather than forcing the players to learn their ways. He's of course talking about terminology. Not that the offense/defense playbook can't change or evolve. From the Athletic. When Freeman arrived as defensive coordinator a year ago, he adapted his terminology to former defensive coordinator Clark Lea’s system. Now he expects Golden to do the same. “I’m gonna encourage whoever becomes that defensive coordinator, as much as we can keep same as,” Freeman said during bowl prep. “Put it on the defensive coordinator to be able to relearn names and terminology, but don’t put all that stress on the players. Let’s put that on a coordinator. So that’s probably one of the things that I’m going to just demand a little bit of, hey, if we can keep as much same as that they know, it’s going to help them learn whatever new scheme adjustments that we have.”
Irish beat BC in OT. It was a dogfight the whole game. BC had to play the last few minutes of regulation and OT with all their big men fouled out BC shot the lights out and it was when their best big man fouled out that we finally got on a run to tie the game and take it to OT. Tough, much tougher than I thought it would be. Not only did their big men foul out they were also missing 2 other players that according to the broadcast crew were key players. But a win is a win. We needed that win! Ladies go to a tough Ga.Tech team tomorrow night A team that is ranked higher and has a really big and good front line. They are fighting to be one of the top 4 and get a double bye in the ACC tournament as is Ga. Tech. They didn't play well at Louisville, and they have to regroup and play well at Tech, can't let the blowout by Louisville beat them twice.
ND women get a solid OT win @ Ga. Tech. InsideNDSports - Dara Mabrey re-emerges as Notre Dame passes critical road test in OT
Irish women went to OT just like the men and also came away with a hard fought victory at Ga. Tech. They got off to a great start but I knew Tech wasn't going to go down easily, they've been a very good team esp on defense the whole season. They made a big run after being down 10 at the half and tied the game up in the 4th qtr, after that it was back and forth, with the Irish having a shot to win it in OT, but with the game tied and 18 secs left and the ball, they weren't even able to get off a shot. In OT they got the lead back quickly and held on for the win. They had 3 players (Sonia, Maya, and Maddy) with double doubles, and another (Olivia) who was close at 18/8. Tech's AA Center struggled against Maya in the first half but got going for a spurt in the 2nd half and was one of the reasons they came back, they also got very hot from 3 point line. In the end it was the gritty play of Dara Mabrey who put the team on her back and willed them to the win in OT. The win put them solidly in the top 4 in the race to get the double bye. Excellent win on the road. This team is still very young and still turns the ball over too easily. But they are growing.
Didn't see this game but the Irish men lost a tough one on the road at Wake Forrest. Thing that stood out to me looking at the stats is that while we shot well, we were out rebounded 16 - 2 on the offensive boards. Irish Hockey won last night at Michigan State. Baseball off to a good start, beating Manhattan and Stetson, as expected.
Irish Men host Syracuse tonight. Need to keep winning to get the favorable byes in the ACC Tournament Irish fans, myself included, always enjoy hanging a defeat on Jim Boeheim.
Awesome win tonight at Purcell. We almost got Boeheimed! Both of his son's were almost unstoppable scoring the ball Jimmy a grad transfer from Cornell scored 27 and brother Buddy had 20. Both made some great shots with ND players in their faces. But it was Nate Laszewski and Paul Atkinson who starred for the Irish tonight, Nate hit 5 3 pointers and Paul had 20 points and 16 rebounds. ND defense was really active and so was their passing they really worked the ball around to get good shots. Very fun game to watch, lots of great offense by both teams. Win keeps the Irish solidly in 2nd place in the ACC.
Irish women secure the double bye in the ACC tournament with the win over Clemson tonight. Big games from Maya Dodson and Sonia Citron. Clemson's leading scorer was Keith Robinsons daughter, Amari. Keith was on Diggers teams in the early 90's.