http://www.yardbarker.com/content/team/808 Recent articles about the Notre Dame Fighting Irish en-us I am posting a video of YouTube goodness, Notre Dame-style, right here. I hope all Notre Dame fans enjoy it. The Irish were successful for the 2007-2008 season. They finished the season with a record of 25-8. Notre Dame finished 4th in the Big East Conference at 14-4. Fri, 11 Jul 2008 12:16:33 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/289140 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/289140 Notre Dame has announced that men's head basketball coach Mike Brey has been given a contract extension through the 2014-2015 season. Brey has successfully gone from the hot seat to the catbird seat, guiding the Irish to a 25-8 record, the third highest win total in program history, and a program-best 14-4 Big East record during the 2007-2008 season. With renovations to the Joyce Center on tap, let's hope that Brey can keep the recruiting and on-court momentum going. Mon, 07 Jul 2008 15:44:26 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/286855 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/286855 The Big East Conference has released the conference matchups for men's basketball. The home and away matchups are set for the 2008-2009 season. The exact dates will be released at a later date. For the second season in a row, the men will play an 18 game conference schedule. Each conference school will play 9 games at home and 9 games on the road. When contemplating who played who and also which teams would play return games, the Big East Conference had the following to say: Wed, 02 Jul 2008 17:05:28 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/285262 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/285262 Ben Hansbrough's trip to South Bend was a memorable one as he looks for his right fit after transferring from Mississippi State. Hansbrough, a 6-foot-3 guard, started 28 games and was State's fourth-leading scorer (10.5) this past season as the Bulldogs advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. He averaged 3.8 rebounds, 2.6 assists and shot 36 percent from 3-point range. He also averaged 33.5 minutes per game, which was more than most Fighting Irish players averaged this season, except for Kyle McAlarney (35.7). Mon, 28 Apr 2008 13:43:24 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/260640 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/260640 Although things didn't end up where most Irish fans would have liked, Notre Dame finished the year inside the Top 20 at 19 in the final ESPN/USAToday Coaches Poll. Tue, 08 Apr 2008 15:30:27 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/232412 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/232412 Fun analysis and little humor mixed in at the end make this Carolina-Washington State preview a must read. Tue, 25 Mar 2008 22:19:31 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/218458 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/218458 Heading into the Second Round of 2008 NCAA Tournament, FIO staff writer Dan Mesday releases his picks for the regional games. Included, find Mesday's personal bracket, as well as some interesting commentary on each match-up. Also find a recap of Days 1 and 2 from the First Round. Sun, 23 Mar 2008 21:04:25 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/215757 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/215757 The second round game of Notre Dame and Washington State will be more like a chess match of strength versus strength. Notre Dame's high octane offense will try and get something going against the stingy Cougar defense. Fri, 21 Mar 2008 14:26:08 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/213319 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/213319 This was definitely not the same George Mason squad that made that magical run to the Final Four two years ago, that's for sure. What also can be said is that this is not the same Notre Dame bunch that bowed out of last year's first round of the NCAA Tournament either, as they dominated the Patriots 68-50 last night. Fri, 21 Mar 2008 10:45:11 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/213209 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/213209 So maybe the Patriots magic ran out last night against the Fighting Irish. GMU deserves to advance in the tourney on the strength of Coach Jim Larranaga's insanity alone. Fri, 21 Mar 2008 09:26:30 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/213166 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/213166 Well the early games yesterday proved to be "snoozers" with only the potential of #14 seed Georgia beating #3 seed Xavier giving some excitement to basketball fans. #12 seed Temple proved to be very disappointing against #5 Michigan State and #9 Kent State (a very high-scoring team) scored only 10 points in the first half against #8 UNLV. The one game that was truly exciting in the day-cap was #6 Marquette versus #11 Kentucky. The Wildcats, playing without their best player Patrick Patterson, gave Marquette all they could handle. Kentucky senior Joe Crawford went off for 35 points in a gutsy effort to single-handedly push his team to the 2nd round. But Marquette just proved to be too deep and too athletic for Kentucky and the Golden Eagles are the ones advancing. In the night cap, we certainly had a thriller with #15 Belmont pushing #2 Duke to the limit. If not for a Gerald Henderson coast-to-coast layup with under 1 minute remaining, the Blue Devils may have been bounced by the Bruins for Tennessee as only the 5th time a #15 seed had won an NCAA Tournament game. #13 seed Winthrop and #4 seed Washington State were tied at 29 at halftime, but the Cougars just took over in the 2nd half and were able to advance. #14 seed Cal State Fullerton hang tough the Big Ten champion Wisconsin Badgers, but the Titans fell short losing, 71-56. #12 seed George Mason was simply outplayed the #5 seed Notre Dame Fighting Irish, showing the Patriots were clearly not the Final Four team from 2006. There were 3 other exciting games in the nightcap with #10 Arizona versus #7 West Virginia, #8 BYU versus #9 Texas A&M and #11 Kansas State versus #6 USC. The West Virginia Mountaineers stayed consistent all game and although star forward Joe Alexander did not have an OUTSTANDING game, he still turned a good enough performance to win. Arizona`s Chase Budinger really stepped up his game with 23 points, but it wasn`t quite enough. The competitive 8-9 matchup did not let down with BYU versus Texas A&M. The Aggies started out the game 11-0, but the BYU Cougars slowed down the game to take a 29-29 tied into halftime. But in the 2nd half, Texas A&M were just too athletic for BYU and went on to win 67-62. When thinking of the Kansas State-USC matchup, everyone was talking about Michael Beasley versus O.J. Mayo. But as said in a previous Blog, this game would depend on the supporting cast and the Wildcats got a 22-point game out of Bill Walker to support Beasley. Jacob Pullen also played well scoring 11 points and dishing out 5 assists off the bench. On USC`s side, Davon Jefferson and Taj Gibson combined for 25 points, and that is perhaps the reason Kansas State went on to win and advance to the 2nd round. Fri, 21 Mar 2008 07:40:21 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/213121 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/213121 Every game analyzed for your enjoyment. Day 1 - 16 games - March Madness. Thu, 20 Mar 2008 23:51:37 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/212991 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/212991 A little perspective and rationalization means that suddenly the East Region doesn't look so daunting. Wed, 19 Mar 2008 22:36:44 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/211189 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/211189 With the NCAA Tournament officially underway with an opening round win by Mount St. Mary`s over Coppin State, let`s look ahead to some intriguing matchups on Thursday, the first day of the First Round: (12) Temple at (5) Michigan State: What a way top start off a tournament with a classic 5-12 game with potential for an upset. Temple comes out as out of the hottest teams in the country and are finally playing to their ability. Dionte Christmas and Mark Tyndale are two very underrated players in the NCAA`s and will be the keys to the Owls success in this game. On the Spartans side, no question that guard Drew Neitzel is what makes this team go. He needs to run his Michigan State squad against a tough Temple defense. If Temple can slow down the game and slow down Michigan State`s offense, an upset may occur. SFB Prediction: Temple wins 69-63 (9) Kent State at (8) UNLV The 8-9 matchup has produced some very good games and these teams are usually the most evenly matched. UNLV won the Mountain West title this year and Kent State won the Mid-American. The Golden Flashes of Kent State were very impressive in their Bracket Buster win over fellow tournament team, St. Mary`s, and perhaps is the game that put them into the NCAA Tournament. With four starters averaging in double figures, Kent State is a dangerous squad. However, the Rebels of UNLV are just as capable to win this game. Wink Adams averages over 16 points per game and is a great playmaker. SFB Prediction: Kent State wins 85-83 in overtime (13) Oral Roberts at (4) Pittsburgh So the Pittsburgh Panthers come into the Big East Tournament as the #7 seed and win the whole thing and get a #4 seed in the NCAA Tournament. They have players like Levance Fields, Sam Young and DeJuan Blair. So they have a great team with great momentum, right? Well remember in 2005, Syracuse went along a similar path and were upended by feisty #13-seeded Vermont in the First Round. Could this happen again with Oral Roberts pulling off an upset? Robert Jarvis is a phenomenal guard for the Golden Eagles and this team has been to the tournament before (similar to Vermont when they beat Syracuse). A lot of comparisons to that matchup in 2005, so don`t be so sure the Big East post-season champs will move in so easily. SFB Prediction: Pittsburgh wins 78-69 (11) Kansas State at (6) USC When sports fans saw the Kansas State Wildcats will be playing the USC Trojans in the First Round of the NCAA Tournament, everyone thought of the matchup between the Wildcats` Michael Beasley and USC`s O.J. Mayo. Both these players are outstanding and will most likely be Top 5 picks in this year`s NBA Draft. However, I say look at the supporting cast matchups for this game. USC`s Taj Gibson, Davon Jefferson and Dwight Lewis versus Kansas State`s Bill Walker and Jacob Pullen may be what determines the outcome of the game. USC is more deep and balanced than the Wildcats, but Beasley can potentially just take over the game. SFB Prediction: USC wins 75-62 (9) Texas A&M vs. (8) Brigham Young Gotta love these 8-9 matchups. The Texas A&M Aggies started off the year very solid and were ranked in the Top 25, but have tailed off towards the end of the year. The Aggies have 6 players averaging more than 8 points per game starting with leading scorer Josh Carter and ending with center (and NBA prospect) DeAndre Jordan. The BYU Cougars were the runner-up in the Mountain West Conference and they have 3 players averaging more than 13 points per game. Center Trent Plaisted is a monster inside and an on the glass scoring 15.6 points per game and pulling down just under 8 rebounds per game. This is another great 8-9 matchup. SFB Prediction: Texas A&M wins 71-67 (10) Arizona vs. (7) West Virginia The Arizona Wildcats are one of those teams that many think do not belong in the tournament. Well, even though their Pac-10 Conference record does not show it, this team is battle-tested (#2 strength of schedule) and talented. Potential 1st round NBA Draft pick Jerryd Bayless scores just over 20 points per game and forward Chase Budinger is a great all-around player. But the West Virginia Mountaineers have a forward named Joe Alexander, who had 34 points against Connecticut in the Big East quarterfinals. The key to this game will be whether Alexander can score for the Mountaineers and if Budinger can stop him. SFB Prediction - West Virginia wins 83-82 in overtime (12) George Mason vs. (5) Notre Dame Everyone picking their bracket this year remembers how the George Mason bracket absolutely tore the bracket apart 2 years ago in 2006 with their Final Four run. Will Thomas and Folarin Campbell are still left over from that starting lineups that beat Michigan State, North Carolina and Connecticut in the Big Dance. But this still is not the same team from 2 years ago and they can thank William & Mary for upsetting Virginia Commonwealth in the Colonial Semi-finals in order for Mason to make it to the tournament once again. The Fighting Irish of Notre Dame have forward Luke Harangody leading the way, averaging about 21 points and 10 rebounds per contest this season. Harangody may be a little too much for the Patriots to handle, but don`t be surprised to see Mason bust another bracket. SFB Prediction: Notre Dame wins 78-68 Enjoy the games on Thursday and fill out your bracket on Sports Fan Base.com! Wed, 19 Mar 2008 00:08:01 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/209248 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/209248 Following up on the success of this column from last year's tourney, FIO staff writer Dan Mesday is back with his guide to helping you fill out those NCAA Tournament brackets. From knowing the mid-majors to explaining the 12 over 5 upset, Mesday lays down 14 rules to know when making your picks for this year. Tue, 18 Mar 2008 21:18:38 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/209087 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/209087