#14 Irish Back Home Tuesday To Welcome Georgia Southern

Nov. 24, 2008

Full Notes Package in PDF Format

2008-09 ND Women’s Basketball: Game #4
#14/15 Notre Dame Fighting Irish (3-0 / 0-0 BIG EAST) vs. Georgia Southern Eagles (3-1 / 0-0 Southern)

DATE: November 25, 2008
TIME: 7:00 p.m. ET
AT: Notre Dame, Ind. – Joyce Center (11,418)
SERIES: First meeting
RADIO: Pulse FM (96.9/92.1) / UND.com (video) (Bob Nagle, p-b-p)
LIVE STATS: UND.com
TEXT ALERT: UND.com
TICKETS: (574) 631-7356

Storylines

• Georgia Southern is the first of two first-time opponents on Notre Dame’s 2008-09 schedule, with the Irish slated to visit Charlotte for their inaugural game with the 49ers on Dec. 28.
• The Irish have won 12 consecutive games and 17 of 18 against first-time opponents, dating back to the 2000-01 season.

No. 14 Irish Back Home Tuesday To Welcome Georgia Southern
It may be a quick turnaround for Notre Dame, but when you’re coming off the kind of offensive performance the Irish posted on Sunday, getting right back on the hardwood might be the very best thing. No. 14 Notre Dame will look to keep its early-season success going when it plays host to Georgia Southern Tuesday at 7 p.m. (ET) inside the Joyce Center, tipping off a two-game Thanksgiving week homestand.

The Irish (3-0) shot a blistering 64.6 percent from the field en route to a 102-54 win at Boston College Sunday afternoon. Notre Dame also placed six players in double figures and connected on 7-of-8 three-pointers while handing the Eagles the worst home loss in their nearly 40-year history.

Sophomore forward Becca Bruszewski continued her rapid growth, tying her career high with 18 points on 9-of-13 shooting, while freshman forward Erica Solomon had a “point-a-minute” effort with 15 points in 14 minutes.

Rankings

• Notre Dame is ranked 14th in the latest Associated Press poll and was 15th in last week’s ESPN/USA Today coaches’ poll (new poll released Tuesday evening).
• Georgia Southern is not ranked.

A Quick Look At The Fighting Irish
Following two seasons of impressive growth and development, Notre Dame has constructed a firm foundation upon which to build its next championship contender. The Irish enter the 2008-09 season on the heels of a seventh trip to the NCAA Sweet 16 and a highly-competitive effort in that regional semifinal that has players, coaches and followers optimistic that even greater success may be on the horizon.

Notre Dame has three starters and seven monogram winners returning this season from a squad that ranked among the top 10 in the country in scoring offense (8th – 76.2 ppg) and scoring margin (10th – +14.6 ppg) a year ago. The Irish also have many of the pieces back from the ’07-08 club that led the BIG EAST in steals for the second consecutive year (school-record 397, 11.68 per game) and forced an opponent-record 737 turnovers.

Perhaps it’s no surprise that Notre Dame’s present upward mobility has coincided with the arrival of its current junior class, including guards and co-captains Ashley Barlow and Melissa Lechlitner. Barlow earned honorable mention all-BIG EAST status last year and is the team’s top returning scorer (12.1 ppg), while also setting the defensive tone with a team-high 68 steals last season. Meanwhile, Lechlitner (5.5 ppg, 2.6 apg) assumes the mantle of leadership from the point guard position after two consistent years as a reliable understudy to Tulyah Gaines.

The Irish also should benefit from the veteran experience and guidance of senior guard and co-captain Lindsay Schrader, who joined Barlow on last year’s BIG EAST honorable mention squad after logging 10.3 points and a team-high 6.2 rebounds per game. She earned similar status this fall in preseason voting by the conference coaches and gives Notre Dame a unique blend of toughness and determination that has become the common thread running through the team’s recent resurgence.

The Irish sophomore class proved to be an exceptional complement to their predecessors last season, led by forward Devereaux Peters (9.0 ppg, 5.6 rpg, 2.0 bpg), who was a BIG EAST All-Freshman Team choice despite missing the final 11 games of the year with a knee injury. Guard Brittany Mallory (6.3 ppg, 34 3FG) joined Peters on the conference’s all-rookie squad, while forward Becca Bruszewski (5.0 ppg, 2.5 rpg) may be the team’s most improved player heading into this season after a scintillating three-game NCAA Tournament performance that included a season-high 16 points against both SMU and Tennessee.

Potent Notables About The Irish

• Notre Dame is among the nation’s winningest programs during the past 12 seasons (1996-97 to present), ranking seventh with 295 victories.
• For the eighth consecutive year, Notre Dame ranked among the nation’s Top 20 in attendance, placing ninth in 2007-08 with an average of 7,016 fans to its 16 home games (including three of the top six crowds in school history and two sellouts). The Irish also have drawn 5,000-or-more fans to 111 of their last 113 home games, including five Joyce Center sellouts of 11,418 (most recently on Jan. 27, 2008 vs. Connecticut).
• The Irish have become a regular fixture in the WNBA Draft in recent years, as seven Notre Dame players have been selected in the past eight seasons. Charel Allen was the most recent Irish player to be chosen, going to the Sacramento Monarchs in the third round (43rd overall pick) of the 2008 WNBA Draft. Allen, Megan Duffy (New York) and Ruth Riley (San Antonio) all were active in the league during the ’08 season, with all three teams making the playoffs (San Antonio made the WNBA Finals, while New York was the Eastern Conference runner-up). Three of Notre Dame’s eight WNBA alums have won a total of four league championships — Riley won a pair of crowns with the Detroit Shock (2003 Finals MVP, 2006), Coquese Washington toiled for the 2000 Houston Comets, while Jacqueline Batteast was Riley’s teammate on the ’06 title-winning squad in Detroit.
• For the third year in a row, the Irish posted a perfect 100-percent Graduation Success Rate (GSR), according to figures released by the NCAA in October 2008. Notre Dame also was one of only four teams with a perfect ’07 GSR to advance to the 2008 NCAA Sweet 16 (joining Oklahoma State, Tennessee and Vanderbilt). Furthermore, since Muffet McGraw became the Irish head coach in 1987, every Notre Dame women’s basketball player that has completed her athletic and academic eligibility at the University has graduated (a 57-for-57 success rate).

A Quick Look At Georgia Southern
Georgia Southern had four starters and seven letterwinners returning from last year’s 17-13 club that tied for third place in the Southern Conference. The Eagles also had six freshmen to the mix, and were picked to finish fifth in the SoCon, according to a preseason poll of the league’s head coaches.

GSU comes to town with a 3-1 record, fresh off a 52-39 wire-to-wire win at home over UNC-Asheville on Saturday afternoon. The Eagles’ defense played a pivotal role in the victory, causing 35 turnovers and turning those giveaways into 27 points.

Junior forward Jessica Geiger led Georgia Southern in Saturday’s win with a game-high 12 points (6-12 FG) and four assists. Senior guard Ashley Melson added 11 points and showed why her defensive prowess made her a preseason all-SoCon selection, coming up with seven steals.

Melson leads the Eagles in scoring this season (14.8 ppg.), with a .467 field goal percentage and .500 three-point percentage (team-best 6-of-12), and a team-high 12 steals (3.0 spg.). Geiger leads GSU in rebounding (7.0 rpg.), and is second in assists (3.5 apg.), while junior guard Carolyn Whitney is second in scoring (8.3 ppg.) and tops in assists (3.8 apg.).

Head coach Rusty Cram is in his 14th season at Georgia Southern, sporting a 187-165 (.531) record at the school. The 1985 graduate of Louisiana Tech will be matching up with Notre Dame for the first time in his career.

The Notre Dame-Georgia Southern Series
Tuesday night will mark the first-ever meeting between Notre Dame and Georgia Southern in women’s basketball.

Other ND-Georgia Southern Series Tidbits

• Georgia Southern is the first of two first-time opponents on Notre Dame’s regular-season schedule this year. On Dec. 28, the Irish will travel to Charlotte for their first-ever meeting with the 49ers.
• Georgia Southern will be the 177th different opponent in the 32-year history of Irish women’s basketball.
• Notre Dame is 37-5 (.881) against first-time opponents since joining the BIG EAST Conference in 1995-96, including a 17-1 (.944) mark vs. new teams since the start of the 2000-01 season (10-0 at home) with a current 12-game overall winning streak. The last first-time opponent to defeat Notre Dame was Colorado State, which earned a 72-66 victory on Nov. 21, 2001, in Fort Collins, Colo.
• The Irish also have won 16 consecutive home games against new opposition, dating back to Jan. 18, 1996, when Connecticut posted an 87-64 win at the Joyce Center.
• Notre Dame is 2-2 all-time against teams from the state of Georgia, and will be facing a Peach State school for the first time since Nov. 24, 2000, when the Irish edged Georgia, 75-73 in the championship game of the Coaches vs. Cancer Challenge in Madison, Wis. Ironically, the starting point guard for the Irish that afternoon was Notre Dame’s current second-year assistant coach Niele Ivey, who scored a game-high 19 points (7-10 FG, 3-5 3FG) and sank two critical free throws with 1:12 left en route to earning tournament Most Valuable Player honors.
• While Tuesday will be their first meeting in the sport of women’s basketball, Notre Dame and Georgia Southern have met once before in another sport — women’s tennis. On March 13, 1983, the Irish pulled out a 5-4 win over the Eagles in Statesboro, Ga., thanks in part to the guidance of head coach Sharon Petro — the same Sharon Petro who served as the first head coach of the Notre Dame women’s basketball program from 1977-78 through 1979-80, shepherding the Irish to a 49-20 (.710) record during those three seasons when Notre Dame played at the AIAW Division III level.
• Notre Dame has had three players on its all-time roster from the state of Georgia, including current freshman guard Fraderica Miller (Ellenwood/The Marist School). Miller actually hails from the same hometown as Georgia Southern freshman forward Dawnieka Green, who graduated from Lucy Craft Laney High School in 2008.
• Georgia Southern assistant coach Mary Perry spent two seasons as an assistant coach at BIG EAST Conference member Seton Hall (2002-03 through 2003-04), helping the Pirates to WNIT both years and a second-round appearance in 2003-04.

Notre Dame vs. The Southern Conference
The Irish have faced only one other current Southern Conference team in their history, and it came way back in the program’s first Division I seasons (1980-81). On Jan. 4, 1981, Notre Dame traveled to Charlotte, N.C., and claimied an 85-37 win over Davidson. Ironically, the Irish will make the first visit back to the city of Charlotte since that game on Dec. 28 when they take on the hometown 49ers at Halton Arena.

Where Eagles Dare
Georgia Southern is one of four Irish opponents this season with the nickname “Eagles”, and the second in a span of four games. Boston College began the unique stretch on Sunday, while Notre Dame will visit another “Eagles’ Nest” on Dec. 2 when it travels to Eastern Michigan. The fourth convocation of Eagles awaits the Irish on Jan. 13, when Notre Dame squares off with Marquette’s “Golden Eagles”.

Piping Hot Turnovers
After forcing an opponent-record 737 turnovers (21.7 per game) last season, Notre Dame is at it again early this year, causing 77 turnovers (25.7 per game) in its first three outings, including 59 in the past two games alone (31 vs. Evansville, 28 at Boston College).

The majority of those turnovers have come via Irish steals, with Notre Dame registering 46 thefts (15.3 per game) after leading the BIG EAST Conference in that category each of the past two seasons.

The Upper Hand
In its first three games of the season, Notre Dame has trailed for all of 3:50 and not by more than one possession (three points). LSU had a 20-18 lead on the visiting Irish at the 4:46 mark of the first half of the State Farm Tip-Off Classic on Nov. 16 before senior guard Lindsay Schrader answered with a layup on the ensuing possession.

On Nov. 19, Evansville scored the opening points of the game on an old-fashioned three-point play, but sophomore forward Becca Bruszewski erased that deficit 45 seconds later with a three-pointer.

Most recently on Sunday at Boston College, the Irish and Eagles traded buckets over the first three-plus minutes before junior guard Ashley Barlow drained a three-pointer at 16:17 to give Notre Dame the lead for good at 10-8.

Deep Thoughts
Notre Dame has found its shooting eye from the three-point line in the first three games of the season, connecting at a .516 clip from distance (16-of-31). The Irish have been particularly prolific in the past two games, making seven treys each in wins over Evansville and Boston College.

One has to go back nearly five years to find the last time Notre Dame made seven or more three-pointers in consecutive games. On Dec. 4, 2003, the Irish knocked down eight triples in an 82-64 win over Wisconsin at the Joyce Center, then hit seven more in an 85-74 loss at Washington three days later.

Barlow Named To BIG EAST Weekly Honor Roll
Junior guard Ashley Barlow was named to the BIG EAST Conference Weekly Honor Roll on Monday, an accolade she picked up twice last season (Dec. 17, Jan. 21) en route to honorable mention all-BIG EAST status.

Barlow averaged a team-high 16.0 points and 4.3 steals per game in Notre Dame’s first three outings, while also logging a sharp .636 three-point percentage (7-of-11) and 4.3 rebounds a night. She tossed in a game-high 19 points in the first two Irish wins (at No. 24/22 LSU and home vs. Evansville) before flirting with a triple-double on Sunday at Boston College and ending up with 10 points, seven steals and six assists. The latter two figures also were career highs for the Indianapolis native and team tri-captain.

Becca’s A Bruiser
Sophomore forward Becca Bruszewski showed a hint of the promise to come late last season, chalking up a (then) career-high 16 points in two of her three NCAA Tournament games (first round vs. SMU, regional semifinal vs. Tennessee).

That improvement has carried over into this season, as the Valparaiso, Ind., native has earned her way into the Irish starting lineup and has not disappointed. Last Wednesday against Evansville, she poured in a career-best 18 points, knocking down 7-of-9 shots from the field, including both of her three-point attempts. The latter statistic was particularly noteworthy, considering she was just 1-of-2 from beyond the arc during her entire freshman season.

Not to be outdone, Bruszewski matched her career high four days later on Sunday afternoon at Boston College, connecting for a game-high 18 points on 9-of-13 shooting.

In her last six games (dating back to the start of last year’s NCAA Tournament), Bruszewski is averaging 12.3 points per game with a .580 field goal percentage (29-of-50), including a .727 clip from the floor (16-of-22) in the past two games.

Polling Station
Notre Dame is ranked 14th in this week’s Associated Press poll, up one spot from its preseason ranking. It’s the 23rd consecutive AP poll appearance for the Irish, which opened last season at No. 24 and rose as high as ninth on March 3, marking the eight time in the past 12 seasons (1996-97 through 2007-08) that the Irish have reached the AP Top 10.

Notre Dame also has been ranked in the AP poll for 162 weeks during the program’s 32-year history, with every one of those appearances coming in the Muffet McGraw era (since 1987-88). McGraw ranks 13th among all active NCAA Division I head coaches for weeks in the AP poll, and also stands 25th all-time in that category.

In addition, the Irish earned their 22nd consecutive ranking in last week’s ESPN/USA Today/WBCA coaches’ poll, placing 15th (down one spot from the preseason balloting). Notre Dame ended last year at No. 13, its highest ranking of the 2007-08 season, and has appeared in the coaches’ poll for 153 weeks during its history (all coming during McGraw’s tenure).

The newest edition of the coaches’ poll is expected to be released Tuesday evening, shortly before the tip-off of Notre Dame’s game with Georgia Southern.

More Polling Data
Notre Dame head coach Muffet McGraw is one of 23 people in NCAA Division I women’s basketball history who have both played for and coached a team that has appeared in the Associated Press Top 25 poll.

Besides her 162 AP poll appearances while coaching at Notre Dame, McGraw was the starting point guard at Saint Joseph’s (Pa.) as a senior in 1977, helping the Hawks rise to No. 3 in the nation. Of the 23 people on this list, 11 currently are NCAA Division I head coaches (see accompanying chart).

Game #3 Recap: Boston College
Sophomore forward Becca Bruszewski scored 18 points to lead six players in double figures and No. 15 Notre Dame shot 65 percent from the field to cruise to a 102-54 win over Boston College on Sunday at Conte Forum in Chestnut Hill, Mass.

Freshman forward Erica Solomon added 15 points for Notre Dame (3-0), while sophomore guard Brittany Mallory had 14 and senior guard Lindsay Schrader 13. A pair of juniors — guard Ashley Barlow and center Erica Williamson — each finished with 10.

Carolyn Swords led the Eagles (3-1) with 16 points and seven rebounds.

Notre Dame led 49-25 at halftime and never had its lead fall below 20 points in the second half.

The Irish used an 8-0 run early in the contest to open their first double-digit lead of the game (20-10) on Bruszewski’s jumper. They closed the first half by outscoring the Eagles, 15-3, over the final 4:13. Mallory scored five points and Williamson had a pair of baskets in the run as Notre Dame used a tight defense on the perimeter that led to a number of turnovers and easy transition baskets.

The Irish shot 59 percent in the opening 20 minutes. BC committed 17 of its 28 turnovers in opening half.

Noting The Boston College Game

• Notre Dame is off to a 3-0 start for the first time since the 2005-06 season.
• After going 30 seasons without scoring in triple digits on an opponent’s home floor, the Irish have now done it in consecutive seasons, also winning at Georgetown, 104-86, on Jan. 19, 2008.
• Notre Dame’s 48-point margin of victory is its largest since a 53-point win (94-41) at Central Michigan on Nov. 20, 2007; it’s also the third-largest winning margin ever on an opponent’s home floor (second-largest of the 22-year Muffet McGraw era) behind the CMU game and an 84-27 win at Valparaiso on Jan. 21, 1982.
• The Irish post consecutive 95-point games for the first time in school history.
• The Irish log back-to-back 90-point games for the first time since Jan. 23, 26 & 30, 1999, when they reeled off a school-record three in a row (99-60 vs. St. John’s, 94-61 at Syracuse, 97-59 at Providence); it’s also the eighth time in school history Notre Dame has posted consecutive 90-point outings, all in the McGraw era.
• The combined 198 points in the past two games are the most for the Irish since Jan. 2 & 7, 1999, when they chalked up 204 points in wins at Georgetown (93-61) and home vs. West Virginia (111-90).
• Notre Dame hands Boston College its largest margin of defeat ever at home, eclipsing a 43-point loss to Central Connecticut State on Feb. 26, 1976 (a game played at BC’s original home, the Roberts Center); BC’s previous largest loss at its current home, Silvio O. Conte Forum (which opened in 1988), had come on Dec. 12, 1992, a 104-65 loss to Ohio State.
• Notre Dame registers the second-highest point total ever by a visitor at Conte Forum, topped only by OSU’s 104 points in that 1992 victory.
• The six double-figure scorers are the most for the Irish since Jan. 19, 2008, when they had seven reach double digits in that 104-86 win at Georgetown.
• The Irish earn their first victory in an Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) arena since Nov. 30, 1996, when they logged a 76-69 win at Georgia Tech in the title game of the Comfort Inn Downtown Classic.
• Notre Dame improves to 12-6 all-time against Boston College and earns back-to-back wins at Conte Forum for the first time in series history.
• Since the teams split the first six games in the series, Notre Dame has won nine of the past 12.
• Sunday’s 102 points and 48-point victory margin both were series highs; the previous highs were 91 points scored (91-64 win at home on Feb. 12, 1997) and a 30-point margin (88-58 on Nov. 24, 2007, also at the Joyce Center).
• Notre Dame narrowly missed reaching the seemingly-unreachable school record for field goals made in a game (44), which has been set three times, but not since Dec. 21, 1990, in a 109-56 home win over Marquette (44-of-73 that night).
• The Irish post their best field goal percentage in a single game since Feb. 12, 1997, when Notre Dame shot .680 from the floor (34-of-50) in the aforementioned 91-64 win over Boston College at the Joyce Center.
• The Irish were red-hot from the three-point line, going 7-of-8 (.875) from distance for their best long-range shooting performance (minimum of five attempts) since Nov. 17, 2004, when Notre Dame tallied a school-record 5-for-5 outing in a 76-65 win over sixth-ranked Duke in the Preseason WNIT semifinals at the Joyce Center.
• For the fourth time in six games (dating back to last season), sophomore forward Becca Bruszewski tied or broke her career-high scoring total, with Sunday’s 18 points matching the freshly-minted mark she had set four days earlier at home against Evansville.
• Freshman forward Erica Solomon turned in a “point-a-minute” effort in just her third collegiate game with a season-high 15 points in 14 minutes, the first for an Irish player (with a minimum of 10 minutes played) since Nov. 9, 2007, when Lindsay Schrader had 20 points in 17 minutes of a 98-50 win over Miami (Ohio) in the first round of the Preseason WNIT at the Joyce Center.
• Sophomore guard Brittany Mallory finished with 14 points, one away from the career high she set in the only other 100-point road game in school history (Jan. 19, 2008 at Georgetown); Mallory also almost duplicated Solomon’s “point-a-minute” performance, ringing up her total in 15 minutes.
• Junior guard Ashley Barlow had a career-high seven steals, the most for an Irish player since Jan. 16, 2008, when Devereaux Peters also had seven thefts in a 69-58 win over Villanova at the Joyce Center.
• Barlow also matched her career best with six assists, a mark she established twice at home last season (against Canisius on Nov. 27, 2007, and Marquette on Feb. 13, 2008.
• In addition, Barlow extended her streak of double-digit scoring games to eight in a row, stretching back to the end of last year.

Irish Fourth In BIG EAST Preseason Poll
The Notre Dame women’s basketball team has been projected to finish fourth in the BIG EAST Conference this season, according to a preseason vote of the league’s 16 head coaches that was announced during the 2008 BIG EAST Women’s Basketball Media Day on Oct. 23 at the ESPN Zone in New York City.

The Irish collected 182 points, with Connecticut (14 first-place votes, 224 points), Rutgers (one first-place vote, 201 points) and Louisville (one first-place vote, 200 points) joining Notre Dame in the top four.

In addition, senior guard Lindsay Schrader was chosen as a Preseason All-BIG EAST Honorable Mention selection, one of 14 players to garner preseason all-conference status. Schrader averaged 10.3 points and a team-high 6.2 rebounds per game last season while scoring in double figures 21 times.

A 2008 honorable mention all-BIG EAST selection, Schrader is one of three starters and seven monogram winners back for the Irish from last year’s 25-9 club that finished fourth in the BIG EAST and advanced to the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16 for the seventh time in the past 12 seasons.

Half And Half
During the past nine seasons, Notre Dame has been nearly unbeatable when it has the lead at halftime. The Irish are 148-14 (.914) since the start of the 2000-01 campaign when they go into the dressing room with the lead, including wins in 76 of their last 84 such contests.

This season, Notre Dame is 2-0 when up at the break, doing so in its last two games (Evansville and Boston College). Last year, the Irish went 22-2 when they led at the break, failing only to do so in their two postseason losses (BIG EAST quarterfinal vs. Pittsburgh, NCAA Oklahoma City Regional semifinal vs. Tennessee), although the UT lead marked the first time Notre Dame was up on the Lady Vols at the half in 20 series games.

The Best Offense Is A Good Defense…
During the past 14 seasons (1995-96 to present), Notre Dame has discovered that a solid defensive effort can almost certainly guarantee a victory. In fact, since the beginning of the 1995-96 season (Notre Dame’s first in the BIG EAST Conference), the Irish have an amazing 186-12 (.939) record when they hold their opponents below 60 points in a game.

Notre Dame has added two more wins to the ledger this season with its victories at LSU and Boston College.

…But Sometimes You Have To Score If You Want To Win
Not resting solely on its defensive laurels, Notre Dame also seemingly has found the magic mark when it comes to outscoring its opponents. During the past 14 seasons (since 1995-96), the Irish are 116-4 (.967) when they score at least 80 points in a game. The only blemishes on that record are a pair of overtime losses to Texas A&M (88-84) and Michigan State (87-83) in 1995, a 106-81 loss to Connecticut in 1998, and an 81-80 loss to DePaul in 2008.

Notre Dame has notched its first two 80-point games of the season in its last two outings (96-61 vs. Evansville, 102-54 at Boston College). Last season, the Irish won 14 of 15 games when reaching the 80-point mark.

Now That’s A Home Court Advantage
One of the hallmarks of Notre Dame’s success has been its stellar play at home. In fact, the Irish have been virtually untouchable at home in recent years, winning 163 of their last 184 games (.886) at the 11,418-seat Joyce Center, including winning streaks of 51 and 25 games in that span. Notre Dame also has a 93-15 (.861) record in BIG EAST Conference play at the Joyce Center, sporting a 31-game league winning streak at home before it ended with a 48-45 loss to Villanova in the ’02 home finale.

The Irish have been particularly strong when it comes to non-conference games at home, winning 72 of their last 78 non-BIG EAST contests (.923) at the Joyce Center, dating back to the 1994-95 season. Four of the losses in that span came at the hands of Big Ten Conference opponents — Wisconsin in 1996 (81-69), Purdue in 2003 (71-54), Michigan State in 2004 (82-73 OT) and Indiana in 2006 (54-51) — with the other two defeats coming to Tennessee in 2005 (62-51) and 2008 (87-63). The Purdue loss also snapped a 33-game non-conference home winning streak which began after the UW setback.

Since its inaugural season in 1977-78, Notre Dame has played all of its games at the Joyce Center, posting a 313-82 (.792) record at the venerable facility. Three times (1999-2000, 2000-01 and 2003-04), the Irish went a perfect 15-0 at home, setting a school record for home wins in a season.

Irish Have New Home On The Dial
On Aug. 27, 2008, the Notre Dame athletics department announced it had partnered with the LeSEA Broadcasting Network, making Pulse FM (96.9/92.1) the new radio home of Notre Dame women’s basketball in the South Bend market.

LeSEA now originates all Notre Dame women’s basketball games, with those events carried on Pulse FM (96.9/92.1), marking the first time since the 1998-99 season that the Irish are heard on an FM station. Combined, these two stations blanket the nation’s No. 89 media market (South Bend-Elkhart), covering a 21-county area in northern Indiana and southwest Michigan that contains more than 1.35 million listeners (better than 800,000 in the greater South Bend area alone). All told, Notre Dame’s new women’s basketball network stretches from Kalamazoo, Mich., to the north, North Judson, Ind., to the west, Macy, Ind., (home of former Irish All-America center Ruth Riley) to the south, and LaGrange, Ind., to the east.

Women’s basketball game broadcasts also continue to be streamed live and free of charge on Notre Dame’s official athletics Web site (UND.com) through the Fighting Irish All-Access multimedia package.

The new agreement includes extensive Notre Dame athletics promotion aired on a combination of the LeSEA stations.

Bob Nagle, the voice of Notre Dame women’s basketball from 1996-97 through 1998-99 (including the program’s first NCAA Final Four berth in 1997), returns as the play-by-play voice of the Irish this season.

Notre Dame On The Small Screen
Notre Dame will have at least 19 regular-season games televised during the upcoming 2008-09 season. Highlighting this year’s broadcast schedule are eight nationally-televised Irish women’s basketball contests, including four games on the ESPN family of networks (beginning with the Nov. 16 State Farm Tip-Off Classic win at LSU, which aired on ESPN2 and ESPN360.com) and three others on CBS College Sports.

In addition, Notre Dame continues to expand its broadcast reach globally on the Internet. All 11 Irish regular-season home games that have not been selected for commercial TV coverage will air live on the official Notre Dame athletics web site, UND.com, via the site’s free multimedia package, Fighting Irish All-Access.

This year’s TV slate continues a recent trend that has seen the Irish become a regular fixture on television. Beginning with the NCAA championship season of 2000-01 and continuing through this year, Notre Dame has played in 117 televised games, including 67 that were broadcast nationally.

Oh Captain, My Captain
Senior guard Lindsay Schrader and junior guards Ashley Barlow and Melissa Lechlitner are team captains for the 2008-09 season. All three players are serving as captains for the first time in their careers, and each received the captain’s honor following a vote of their teammates prior to the season.

Irish In The Pink (Zone) All Season Long
Notre Dame is proud to be a participant in the second annual Pink Zone initiative, created by the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) in order to heighten breast cancer awareness and raise money for research towards finding a cure for the disease.

Throughout the 2008-09 season, the Irish will take part in several activities centered around the Pink Zone initiative, including:

• Open Practice/Tip-Off Luncheon – On Oct. 19, the Irish open the doors to one of their preseason practice sessions and allowed approximately 600 season ticket holders to watch the team prepare for the upcoming season. A luncheon with the team followed and a total of $3,311 was raised.
• Three-Point Pledge – Fans can pledge an amount to donate for every three-pointer the Irish make this season. Pledge cards are available at the Joyce Center Gate 10 marketing table prior to each home game.
• Beanie Bears/Calendars – The Irish are collecting a $5 donation for every special-edition Notre Dame women’s basketball beanie bear and team calendar sold during the season.
• T-Shirt Sales – Specially-commissioned “Irish Believe” pink t-shirts are on sale in the Hammes Bookstore and Varsity Shop on the Notre Dame campus. Proceeds from the sales of the t-shirt will go to breast cancer awareness and research.
• Brittany and Becca’s Class – Sophomores Brittany Mallory and Becca Bruszewski currently are taking a management class in Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business under the guidance of Chuck Lennon, an Irish women’s basketball season ticket holder, as well as Associate Vice President for University Relations and Executive Director of the Notre Dame Alumni Association. This class has been focusing on ways to help promote and enhance the Pink Zone initiative on the Notre Dame campus and will debut their ideas at the Purdue game on Dec. 7.
• Pink Zone Challenge – The Irish women’s basketball program has challenged some of the other top-drawing teams in the country to a friendly fund-raising competition to see which school can raise the most money for breast cancer awareness and research during the WBCA’s designated Pink Zone games (Feb. 13-22, 2009). A total of 15 schools from among the top 20 in last year’s final NCAA attendance rankings have committed for this inaugural challenge — Baylor, Connecticut, Duke, LSU, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri State, New Mexico, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Penn State, Purdue, Tennessee, Texas Tech and Vanderbilt. The school raising the most money during their specific Pink Zone game will earn the first-ever Pink Zone Challenge Trophy, to be commissioned by Notre Dame and awarded during the WBCA National Convention, to be held April 3-7, 2009, at the NCAA Women’s Final Four in St. Louis.
• Game Day (Feb. 8 vs. DePaul) – The Irish have selected their Feb. 8 home game against DePaul as Notre Dame’s Pink Zone game, presented by Saint Joseph Regional Medical Center. The Irish will take the court in white, pink and navy uniforms, specially-designed by the school’s official athletics apparel provider, adidas. The first 2,000 fans in attendance will receive a free pink Irish t-shirt, compliments of Saint Joseph Regional Medical Center, and pink pom-poms, balloons and posters will fill the crowd. In addition, breast cancer survivors will be recognized on the court during a special halftime ceremony. What’s more, should Notre Dame sell out this game, the Irish will donate an additional $10,000 to the Pink Zone initiative.

Proceeds from all of Notre Dame’s Pink Zone events this season will go to the Kay Yow/WBCA Cancer Fund, as well as three local charities — Women’s Task Force, Young Survivors Group and Secret Sisters Society. For more information on the WBCA’s Pink Zone initiative, log on to the WBCA’s official web site at www.wbca.org.

ND To Host NCAA Tourney Games in 2009
Notre Dame’s Joyce Center will serve as one of 16 host sites for first- and second-round games in this year’s NCAA Championship on March 22 & 24.

All-session tickets for this year’s NCAA Championship games at the Joyce Center are available by contacting the Notre Dame athletics ticket office (574-631-7356).

Notre Dame has played in the NCAA Championship on its home floor five times before, most recently defeating Southwest Missouri State (now Missouri State) and Middle Tennessee in 2004 to make the program’s sixth NCAA Sweet 16 appearance. All told, the Irish are 6-1 in NCAA tourney play at the Joyce Center, winning six in a row since an 81-76 first-round loss to Minnesota in 1994.

Irish Fans Crave Another Big Mac Attack
After a wildly-successful debut last season, Notre Dame is bringing back its “Big Mac” promotion for 2008-09, offering fans a coupon for a free Big Mac from South Bend-area McDonald’s restaurants if the Irish score at least 88 points in a game.

It hasn’t take long for the burger watch to fire back up again this year, as Notre Dame topped the 88-point mark in both its lone exhibition game (96-30 win over Gannon on Nov. 5) and its regular-season opener (96-61 win over Evansville on Wednesday night).

Last year, the Irish reached the magic number eight times, doing so in both exhibition wins, along with regular-season victories over Miami (Ohio), Boston College, Canisius, Valparaiso, Marquette and South Florida.

It should come as no surprise that in the short history of the promotion, the Notre Dame player with the most “Big Mac” baskets shares the same initials with the tasty burger — sophomore guard Brittany Mallory, who was sent the crowd home happy (and presumably with full bellies) four times.

This season, it’s been the Irish freshmen who have taken on the “Big Mac” mantle of responsibility, with guard Natalie Novosel doing the honors in the Gannon exhibition win and forward Erica Solomon putting Notre Dame over the top against Evansville.

The Final Countdown
Less than 500 tickets remain for the Dec. 7 game with in-state rival Purdue at the Joyce Center (2 p.m. ET tipoff). Should that allotment be exhausted, it would represent the sixth women’s basketball sellout (11,418 capacity) in school history and the third in the past two seasons.

Last year, Notre Dame sold out its games against Tennessee and Connecticut, and nearly did the same for the Michigan contest, drawing 10,825 fans for that game.

Joyce Center Arena Renovation Underway
On Sept. 13, 2008, groundbreaking ceremonies for the new Purcell Pavilion, including the Joyce Center arena addition and renovation, were held to kick off the first phase of the two-year project to upgrade the home for Notre Dame basketball and volleyball.

The first phase of the project, that began in September 2008, involves construction of a new three-story structure at the south end of the arena. That structure will include a new three-story lobby, the Notre Dame ticket operations (approximately 4,500 square feet) and a varsity shop to sell apparel and souvenirs (approximately 3,000 square feet), in addition to a new club seating and hospitality area.

Replacement of the existing Joyce Center arena seating, including installation of chair-back seating throughout the arena, is expected to take place after the University’s Commencement Exercises in May 2009. The entire project is scheduled for completion in January 2010. The arena is expected to re-open by mid-October 2009, in time for the start of the basketball season and the end of the volleyball season.

The University announced in October 2007 that this $26.3 million project had received a $12.5 million leadership gift from Notre Dame alumnus and Trustee Philip J. Purcell III, the retired chairman and chief executive officer of Morgan Stanley.

Exterior changes to the Joyce Center that began taking shape in September include a new, three-story addition on the south end of the current structure. The third floor area will include the stadium club/hospitality area. The first-floor addition will include almost 4,500 square feet for ticket offices (including four exterior and 10 interior tickets windows), 3,000 square feet for the varsity shop, as well as a completely new main entrance and lobby situated between Gates 8 and 10. The new entrance will feature graphics and theming that highlight Notre Dame’s competing athletic programs.

Changes to the interior of the Joyce Center arena include:

• New, blue chair-back seating from top to bottom of the arena, including all-new upper-arena sections. All seating will be replaced in the lower bowl (including platform seats), and the wooden bleachers in the upper bowl will be removed and replaced with treads and risers and permanent arena seats. The exchange of the bleacher sections for chair back seats will change the capacity from the current 11,418 to approximately 9,800.
• A stadium club/hospitality area (approximately 16,500 square feet) in the south end of the arena, with a separate, private entry and with premium club seating for nearly 800 fans (that figure is part of the projected 9,800 capacity). Included in this area will be food service and restroom facilities.
• New fixed concession areas, increased numbers of women’s restrooms and increased handicapped seating options.
• The interior seating changes provide an opportunity to consider new options for student seating. Students currently sit in both lower- and upper-arena sections behind the basket on the east end of the arena.

Next Game: Michigan State
Notre Dame returns from the Thanksgiving holiday with the back end of its brief two-game homestand on Saturday, playing host to Michigan State in a 2 p.m. (ET) matinee at the Joyce Center. It will be the first meeting between the Irish and Spartans since Dec. 2, 2004, when MSU edged Notre Dame, 82-73 in overtime at the Joyce Center, after erasing a six-point deficit in the final 30 seconds of regulation to force the extra period.

Michigan State (5-0) is ranked 24th in this week’s Associated Press poll, moving into the media’s Top 25 after winning the TD Banknorth Classic title last weekend at Vermont with victories over Dartmouth (60-52, ot) and Quinnipiac (81-48). The Spartans are slated to play host to No. 23 Old Dominion Wednesday night before heading down to South Bend this weekend.

— ND —