With the football season fully and finally behind him, a young man’s thoughts turn to Kate Upton basketball. The Irish men’s basketball team, with head coach Mike Brey (@NDMikeBrey) in his fifteenth year at the helm, is currently 10-5, coming off a rough loss to Pitt this past Saturday. Tonight, they face Georgia Tech at home and visit Coach Krabappel and the Duke Blue Devils on Saturday.
For Irish hoops fans, this season seems a bit of a letdown from last year’s run to the ACC Championship. At this point in the season, the Irish were 18-1, beat Tech in double OT and had just vanquished the Tar Heels, 71-70, at the Smith Center. They would go on to sweep the conference tournament, knocking off Miami, 70-63, Duke, 74-64, and North Carolina, 90-82. In the NCAA Tournament, they fell to Kentucky, 68-66, in the fourth round.
Gone to the NBA are guards Pat Connaughton to Portland in the second-round and Jerian Grant in the first, to New York. Grant has excelled in the bright lights of the Big Apple. He’s survived not only the adjustment to the professional game, but a demotion, as well. Whatever doubts the staff and team may have had have been put to rest and his most recent performance yesterday may have been the best of his young career. Against the Celtics, he scored sixteen points and contributed eight assists.
This year’s Notre Dame squad misses their contributions. On Saturday against Pitt, who it must be conceded went 1,376 for their first 1,380 shots, the Irish D was notably absent. This is clearly a team looking to find its identity and Coach Brey considering changes to the rotation. Look for more minutes from 6’6″ freshman Rex Pflueger and junior Austin Torres tonight.
Tip is at 8:00 p.m. Eastern. Broadcast is on ESPN3. If you can, tune in to Jack Nolan‘s broadcast. The guy’s incredible.
Hating Hurricanes Since 1990.
Bayou Irish is a Jersey boy and Double Domer who fell under New Orleans' spell in 1995. He's been through Katrina and fourteen years in the Coast Guard, so we cut him some slack, mostly in the form of HLS-subsidized sazeracs. But, when he's not face down on the bar and communing with the ghosts of Faulkner and Capote at the Carousel Bar in the Hotel Monteleone, he's our man in SEC-land, doing his best to convince everyone around him that Graduation Success Rate is a better indicator of success than the number of MNC's won in the last five years.
- Finding Flaws in a Diamond: Clemson’s Rushing Offense - December 17, 2018
- Why Nobody Will Cotton to Notre Dame - December 3, 2018
- Irish Finish Regular Season Perfect 12-0 - November 26, 2018
