Notre Dame Fighting Irish - Official Athletics Website

Irish Gearing Up for Great Alaska Shootout

November 23, 1998

IRISH OFF TO ALASKA: The Notre Dame basketball team is spending the Thanksgiving holiday in Alaska playing in the Great Alaska Shootout. The games mark the third series of regular season basketball games played by Notre Dame outside the continental United States. Notre Dame played in the Maui Classic in Hawaii in 1993 and in the Rainbow Classic in Hawaii in 1966.

TONIGHT’S GAME:

  • The University of Notre Dame basketball team plays its first round game of the Great Alaska Shootout tonight against Duke. Notre Dame enters the game with a 1-2 record and is coming off a 68-63 loss to Vanderbilt on Saturday night.
  • Freshman Troy Murphy (Morristown, N.J.) was the leading scorer in that contest for the Irish with 18 points while classmate
  • David Graves (Lexington, Ky.) had 17 points. Two free throws by Graves cut the Vandy lead to one, 64-63, with 1:12 left to play, but the Irish could not convert on their final three trips down the floor for the loss.
  • Notre Dame opened its season by splitting a pair of home games with a 76-65 loss to Miami of Ohio on November 13, and a 64-62 win over Yale on November 15.
  • Notre Dame opens its fourth season of competition in the BIG EAST Conference on Tuesday, December 8, when it travels to Providence for a 7:30 p.m. EST game. The first BIG EAST home game of the season is on Tuesday, December 29, against Syracuse at 7:30 p.m.
  • Duke enters tonight’s game with a 3-0 record and is coming off a 120-56 win over South Carolina State on Saturday. The Blue Devils are the No. 1-ranked team in both the Associated Press and ESPN/USA Today poll.

Notre Dame (1-2) vs. Duke (3-0)
First Round — Great Alaska Shootout
Sullivan Arena, Anchorage, Alaska
Thursday, November 26, 1998, 8:00 p.m. AST

PROBABLE STARTERS

No. Name             Pos. Ht.   Wt.  Yr.  Hometown              PPG  RPG  Ast. 3  Troy Murphy       F   6-9   225  Fr.  Morristown, NJ       17.7  5.7    234  David Graves      F   6-5   211  Fr.  Lexington, KY        14.0  6.0    855  Phil Hickey       C   6-11  272  Sr.  Wellsboro, PA         5.7  7.3    6 4  Antoni Wyche      G   6-5   196  Sr.  Ballston Lake, NY    12.3  4.0   1024  Martin Ingelsby   G   5-11  171  So.  Philadelphia, PA      5.3  1.0    9

TELEVISION AND RADIO COVERAGE: Tonight’s game is being televised live nationally by ESPN. Radio coverage is provided by the Host Communications Network (Jack Lorri, Jack Nolan).

THE NOTRE DAME-DUKE SERIES: Tonight’s game is the 19th meeting between Notre Dame and Duke in the sport of basketball and the Blue Devils lead the series by a 16-2 count. The first meeting between the two teams came in 1964-65 and the Duke has won eight-straight meetings in the series. Notre Dame’s wins in the series came in 1973-74 and 1986-87.

NOTRE DAME VS. THE ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE: Notre Dame has an overall record of 22-49 against teams from the Atlantic Coast Conference. Notre Dame’s last win over an ACC team came on January 11, 1992, an 88-76 win over North Carolina in Madison Square Garden. Since that time, the Irish have lost six-straight games to ACC opponents.

IRISH VS. NO. 1: The last time Notre Dame played a team that was ranked No. 1 in the country was on February 1, 1992, a 100-71 loss to Duke in Durham. The last time Notre Dame defeated a No. 1-ranked team was on January 26, 1986, a 60-58 win over North Carolina at Notre Dame.

FRESHMEN SCORING: Murphy and Graves are the two-leading scorers for the Irish this season at 17.7 and 14.0 points per game this season, respectively. Of the 192 points scored this season by the Irish, 49.5% of them have been scored by that duo. In all, Notre Dame players have recorded double figure scoring eight times this season and five have been from this freshmen duo.

EXHIBITION WINS: Notre Dame kicked off the 1998-99 basketball season with a pair of exhibition wins over touring teams: a 97-87 win over One World Basketball on November 2 and a 105-93 victory over Team Fokus on November 8.

In the win over One World, Murphy led the way with 21 points and nine rebounds while a total of five Irish players scored in double figures. Graves had 16 points and six rebounds while senior center Phil Hickey (Wellsboro, Pa.) had 13 points and three rebounds.

In the victory over Team Fokus, Notre Dame trailed by six at halftime, 47-41, but took the lead for good with 12:16 left to play on a layup by sophomore forward Hans Rasmussen (Portland, Ore.). Rasmussen scored all nine of his points in the second half, while senior guard Antoni Wyche (Ballston Lake, N.Y.) had a game-high 25 points and Hickey had a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.

MURPHY HONORED BY BIG EAST: Murphy was named the BIG EAST Conference rookie of the week on November 16 for his performance in Notre Dame’s opening two games. The award marked the first time in Notre Dame’s four-year history as a BIG EAST member that an Irish player had been named the rookie of the week.

Murphy led or tied Notre Dame in scoring in each of its opening two games with 19 points against Miami of Ohio and 16 points against Yale and added six rebounds in each game.

MURPHY RECOGNIZED BY BASKETBALL NEWS: Murphy has been selected as the newcomer of the year in the BIG EAST Conference by Basketball News in the publication’s annual preseason yearbook. Murphy was named his team’s most valuable player last spring at the prestigious Capital Classic in Washington, D.C., where he had 18 points and 21 rebounds in the postseason game.

TWO FRESHMEN STARTERS: Notre Dame had two freshmen start the opening game against Miami of Ohio. It marked the first time since the 1982-83 opener that the Irish have two freshmen starting a season-opening game. In that season, Notre Dame started Tim Kempton and Ken Barlow as the Irish beat Stonehill by a 74-60 count. Kempton scored nine points in the contest while Barlow had 14.

TICKETS NOW AVAILABLE: A variety of options are available for Notre Dame fans who wish to purchase tickets this season. Season tickets in the upper arena for all 18 games (two exhibition plus regular season) are now on sale for $154.00. A premier mini-package season ticket is also available and contains tickets for the Indiana (Dec. 1), Seton Hall (Jan. 19), Providence (Jan. 30), Georgetown (Feb. 10), West Virginia (Feb. 21) and Boston College (Feb. 28) games. The mini-package is available for $60.00 for upper arena seats. Single game tickets for non-mini-package games are available. For more information, call the Notre Dame ticket office at 219-631-7356.

HEAD COACH JOHN MacLEOD: Notre Dame head coach John MacLeod, the 1997 BIG EAST Conference coach of the year, is in his eighth season in charge of the Irish program. MacLeod, who has lead the Irish to the championship game of the National Invitation Tournament in ’92 and the quarterfinals of that event in ’97, has an overall record of 93-110 in his tenure at Notre Dame and an overall record of 183-179 in 13 years as a collegiate head coach as MacLeod was also the head coach at Oklahoma for six seasons from 1967-73.

MacLeod was a head coach in the National Basketball Association for 18 seasons (Phoenix Suns from 1973-87, Dallas Mavericks from 1987-90 and the New York Knicks from 1990-91). MacLeod has an overall mark of 707-657 as an NBA coach.

THE JOYCE CENTER: The Joyce Center is in its 31st season of use by the Notre Dame basketball team and the Irish have an overall record of 360-105 (.774) in the building. Of the 465 games played at the Joyce Center, 202 have been sellouts.

IRISH ON TELEVISION: Notre Dame will once again make a number of appearances on national and local television this season. Notre Dame will appear on ESPN at least twice (November 26 vs. Duke in Great Alaska Shootout with two other possible GAS games on ESPN and February 10 vs. Pittsburgh) and epsn2 once (January 5 vs. Pittsburgh). Notre Dame games will also be televised on WNDU-TV in South Bend (Dec. 1 vs. Indiana, Jan. 16 vs. Villanova, Jan. 23 vs. Rutgers, Jan. 30 vs. Providence, Feb. 6 at Seton Hall and Feb. 14 at West Virginia), WBND-TV in South Bend (Jan. 9 at Miami and Feb. 28 vs. Boston College) and TCI of Michiana (Dec. 29 vs. Syracuse, Jan. 2 vs. Villanova, Jan. 12 at Connecticut, Jan. 19 vs. Seton Hall, Feb. 17 at Syracuse, Feb. 21 vs. West Virginia and Feb. 24 at St. John’s) as part of the ESPN Regional television package.

IRISH RADIO NETWORK: Host Communications, Inc., originates the Notre Dame basketball radio network for the 11th year in 1998-99. Jack Lorri will once again handle play-by-play duties and this season will mark his 30th year of announcing Irish games. Jack Nolan handles the color commentary.

WMAQ-AM radio will carry Notre Dame basketball games in the Chicago market for the next two seasons as part of the network originated by Universal Sports America, an affiliate of Host Communications, Inc.

Remaining Notre Dame basketball games on WMAQ this season include: Thurs., Nov. 26, vs. Duke in first round of Great Alaska Shootout (Great Alaska Shootout games on Fri., Nov. 27, and Sat., Nov. 28, TBA); Tue., Dec. 1, vs. Indiana; Sat., Dec. 5, vs. Central Michigan; Sun., Dec. 27, vs. St. Francis (N.Y.); Tue., Dec. 29, vs. Syracuse; Sat., Jan. 2, vs. Villanova; Sat., Jan. 16, at Villanova; Tues., Jan. 19, vs. Seton Hall; Sat., Jan. 23, vs. Rutgers; Sat., Jan. 30, vs. Providence; Sat., Feb. 6, at Seton Hall; Sun., Feb. 14, vs. West Virginia; Sun., Feb. 28, vs. Boston College; Wed.-Sat., March 3-6, BIG EAST Tournament, TBA.

WMAQ-AM (670), with its 50,000-watt clear channel signal, covers a larger geographic area than any other radio station in Chicago. WMAQ’s other sports properties include the Chicago Bears and the Chicago Blackhawks — and WMAQ is also affiliated with CNN Radio.

Others stations on the network include: WNDU 1490 AM and 92.9 FM in South Bend and WLUV 96.7 FM and 1520 AM in Rockford, Ill.

IRISH ON THE NET: Complete information on all Notre Dame athletic teams can be found on the World Wide Web. For basketball, access to a Real Audio radio broadcast of the game is available for all games and for home games, a “live” box score is updated every 15 seconds.

MacLEOD TELECONFERENCE: Notre Dame head coach John MacLeod once again has a series of teleconferences this season. All teleconferences are held in the Notre Dame sports information office and the next one will be held on Monday, November 30, to preview the Indiana game. For more information, please call the Notre Dame sports information office.