12/9/2016 other sports Edit

An Ultimate Notre Dame Saturday

Mike Brey has the Irish off to their best start (9-0) since 1973-74. (Joe Raymond)

Lou Somogyi • InsideNDSports

Senior Editor

There is no bowl game to look forward to this month or next for Notre Dame football, but Saturday Dec. 10 will be as busy a day as it can be a Fighting Irish junkie.

• 12 noon ET on CBS, Men’s Basketball: No. 23 Notre Dame vs. No. 1 Villanova

• 7:10 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Network, Hockey: No. 13 Notre Dame vs. No. 3 Boston College

• 8 p.m. ET on Comcast Sportnet Chicago, Women’s Basketball: No. 2 Notre Dame vs. No. 16 DePaul

• 9 p.m. ET on ESPN, 30 For 30: Catholics Vs. Convicts

MEN’S BASKETBALL

Notre Dame’s 9-0 start is its best since the 12-0 output in 1973-74, which included snapping UCLA’s NCAA-record 88-game winning streak (71-70) to move to No. 1 in the polls (albeit only for a week) for the first time in its history.

Under 17th-year head coach Mike Brey, Notre Dame is 7-4 versus defending national champions and has won four in a row, including both times versus Duke last year, against Kentucky in November 2012, and Connecticut in January 2012.

Notre Dame’s nine wins versus the Associated Press' No. 1 team — Indiana (1953 NCAA Tournament), UCLA (1971 and 1974), San Francisco (1977), Marquette (1978), DePaul (1980), Virginia (1981), North Carolina (1987) and Syracuse (2012) — are tied with Duke for fourth most in NCAA history. The three schools with more are North Carolina (13), UCLA (11) and Maryland (10).

The Irish last year also defeated top-ranked North Carolina 80-76 at Purcell Pavilion, but that was in the Coaches Poll, not AP, where the Tar Heels were No. 2 (the NCAA record books count only the AP).

However, it has been 35 years since Notre Dame vanquished an AP No. 1 at a neutral site: Feb. 22, 1981 versus Virginia, 57-56, on a fadeaway, turnaround jumper by Orlando Woolridge as time expired.

Notre Dame ranks No. 1 nationally in three categories: assist-to-turnover ratio (2.34), fewest turnovers per game (8.1) and free-throw percentage (85.9).

HOCKEY

Whether it was in the CCHA, in the current Hockey East Conference or the Big Ten Conference next season, Notre Dame’s premier rival on the ice over the years has become Boston College, which has won four national titles since 2001, including 2008 over the Fighting Irish.

In what has become a regular one-game home, one-game away series, the No. 3 Eagles invade Notre Dame Compton’s Ice Arena Saturday night to take on head coach Jeff Jackson’s No. 13 Irish.

The Eagles hold a 21-18-2 lead in the series that commenced in 1969, and the two split games last season, each winning on the other team’s home ice.

Notre Dame is coming off a game two, 3-0 shutout victory at Massachusetts (Dec. 3), while the Eagles most recently defeated Northeastern, 5-3, on Tuesday night (Dec. 6). Notre Dame then has a three-week break before resuming action Dec. 31 at home versus Alaska.

Irish junior forward Anders Bjork — a 2014 fifth-round pick by the Boston Bruins — is one of the country’s leading scorers with 11 goals and 15 assists for 26 points. Bjork reached the 25-point plateau in his 15th game, the fastest any Notre Dame player has reached 25 points in the Jackson era (and dating back to at least 2001-02).

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

In the first of a school-record, six-game road trip — Toledo (Dec. 18), Michigan State (Dec. 20), Chattanooga (Dec. 27), NC State (Dec. 29) and Georgia Tech (Jan. 2) — No. 2 Notre Dame is going from the disappointed to anger stage after Wednesday night’s loss to No. 1 UConn.

“I was more disappointed watching the film because I didn’t think we played hard,” head coach Muffet McGraw said. “I thought they out-played us in terms of toughness and just how hard they played … there were a couple of breakaway layups we didn’t even chase them down the floor.

“We had some real letdowns defensively where we just didn’t get up and pressure. That was disappointing because we can control that and that’s something we definitely can do a better job of right away.

“We let everybody down. We didn’t compete. We didn’t play hard, and that’s unacceptable.”

The No. 16 Blue Demons annually give the Irish all they can handle, including a 95-90 Irish victory at home last year and a 94-93 overtime victory two years ago at DePaul in which Jewell Loyd tied the school record with 41 points. The Blue Demons’ two losses this year are to superpowers UConn and Baylor.

“It’s not a game I look forward to,” said McGraw of DePaul. “I really hate going there. It’s a small gym, it’s going to be a great crowd, it’s a late game. We’ve really got to be focused defensively. They run a lot of stuff … they constantly move. They always give us a good game up there.”

FOOTBALL

After the Heisman Trophy presentation on ESPN, the 30 for 30 feature is on numerous back stories involving the epic 1988 Notre Dame vs. Miami showdown, one of the all-time classics in college football history. Over the years, one of the highest rated shows annually on ESPN is the one following the Heisman award.

As one who saw a preview showing in October — don’t miss it. It can bring tears to your eyes remembering what Notre Dame became after rising from the ashes. Consider it this year’s Irish “bowl game.”