Notre Dame's Weekend Of Full Athletic Activity
March 9-18 has been spring semester break at Notre Dame, but don’t talk to the athletic department about having a lull in activity.
Since Monday and now heading into St. Patrick’s Day weekend, the combination of postseason play for the winter sports complementing spring sports in full activity makes it one of the more busy times of the year on the college athletics calendar.
Here’s a summation of what is unfolding:
Women Basketball — NCAA 1st Round: Friday, March 16
Named USA Today national coach of the year for this year’s 29-3 result despite a plethora of injuries, Muffet McGraw’s Irish earned a No. 1 seed (Spokane Regional) for the seventh straight season.
It hosts CSUN, the Big West Tournament champion, this afternoon at 5 p.m., and is projected to do the same on Sunday (time to be determined) against the winner of No. 8 seed South Dakota State and No. 9 seed Villanova, who meet later this evening.
This year’s Irish own the nation's No. 1 strength of schedule, the second most ranked wins (9) in the country, the most ranked wins away from home (7), the most RPI top-50 victories (15) and a fifth straight ACC regular season title in the nation's toughest-rated RPI conference.
Notre Dame is one of four schools to advance to the last eight Sweet 16s, joining UConn, Stanford and Baylor.
UConn, Baylor and the Irish are the lone trio to reach the Elite Eight six times in the last seven years.
Men’s Basketball — NIT 2nd Round: Saturday, March 17
The Irish tip-off at noon at Purcell Pavilion versus Penn State.
For the record, Irish men’s basketball is 5-3 on St. Patrick’s Day, including 3-1 in the NIT. The most cherished of those victories occurred March 17, 1978 with a 69-56 win over Utah in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. It snapped a six-game Irish losing streak in round 2 and advanced Notre Dame to its first Elite 8 in 20 years (and eventually the lone Final Four in program history).
The Irish and Nittany Lions have met twice in the NIT — both in the semifinals at Madison Square Garden. Notre Dame won easily in 2000, 73-52, under then head coach Matt Doherty, but lost 67-59 in 2009 to finish 21-15. If Notre Dame loses this time, it would be 21-15 again.
The first game of the NIT is the most difficult mental hurdle to overcome for a team such as Notre Dame that thought it could/should be in the NCAA Tournament, but they handled it well against Hampton this past Tuesday.
A win against Penn State would lead to a third home game (probably Tuesday, March 20) for the right to go to Madison Square Garden for the March 27 semifinals and then the March 29 championship.
Notre Dame has been the NIT runner-up four times (1973, 1984, 1992 and 2000), but has never won the tourney.
Hockey — Big Ten Championship, Saturday, March 17
On Feb. 9 Notre Dame clinched the Big Ten regular season championship in its first season in the league with a victory over Ohio State at home. It will attempt to do the same against the Buckeyes at 8 p.m. Saturday night at the Compton Family Ice Arena (game will be telecast on the Big Ten Network) in the Big Ten postseason championship game. In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, green rally towels will be given out to fans while supplies last.
Sophomore goaltender Cale Morris was named Big Ten Player of the Year, while senior forward Jake Evans and senior defenseman Jordan Gross joined him on the All-Big Ten first team.
The showdown between the No. 3 Irish and No. 5 Buckeyes also likely has a No. 1-seed on the line for the NCAA Selection Show that will be telecast Sunday at noon by ESPNU. In the PairWise rankings going into this contest, Notre Dame is tied at No. 2 with Cornell, while the Buckeyes are tied at No. 4 with Denver.
Men’s Lacrosse — Saturday March 17
Fresh off an 11-9 victory last weekend versus long-time nemesis and No. 5 Denver to elevate to No. 4 in the country, the 3-1 Irish host No. 9 Virginia at Ariotta Stadium in the second of a tripleheader sports bonanza at the school.
It begins with the noon men’s basketball tip-off versus Penn State, followed by the 6 p.m. lacrosse matchup (ESPNU) and then the hockey face-off two hours later. Just like in the hockey game, green rally towels will be distributed while supplies last.
In between, Irish women’s lacrosse also will host No. 7 Virginia at Ariotta Stadium at 1 p.m.
In other news:
• The men’s and women’s fencing team, the reigning national champions, qualified the maximum allotted 12 fencers — along with Ohio State and Columbia/Barnard — for the NCAA Championships that will be held March 22-25 at Penn State University.
• The 7-8 baseball team (1-2 in the ACC) begins a three-game series at Florida State today and will attempt to bounce back from a rough Florida tour over the break. The Irish were shut out twice by Miami last weekend before winning 9-5, but then on Tuesday and Wednesday lost 10-8 and 6-4 heartbreakers to St. Joseph's, the latter while holding a 4-0 lead going into the bottom of the ninth.
Both baseball and softball will open the home portion of their seasons on Wednesday (March 21), with baseball hosting NIU and softball Western Michigan.
• Women’s tennis coach Jay Louderback won his 700th career collegiate match (542 at Notre Dame) with victories over Minnesota and Florida Gulf Coast last week. Conference play commences this weekend when the Irish host Virginia Tech on Friday and Virginia on Sunday.
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