November 30, 1998

Notre Dame (2-4) vs. Indiana (6-1)
Joyce Center (11,418), Notre Dame, IN
Monday, December 1, 1998, 8:00 p.m. EST

PROBABLE STARTERS

No. Name            Pos. Ht.  Wt. Year   Hometown            PPG   RPG  Ast.03  Troy Murphy      F  6-9  225   Fr.   Morristown, NJ     16.5   7.3    634  David Graves     F  6-5  211   Fr.   Lexington, KY      16.7   7.3    655  Phil Hickey      C 6-11  272   Sr.   Wellsboro, PA       9.7   6.8   1004  Antoni Wyche     G  6-5  196   Sr.   Ballston Lake, NY  13.7   2.8   1524  Martin Ingelsby  G 5-11  171   So.   Philadelphia, PA    5.8   1.2   31 (5.2)

TONIGHT’S GAME: The University of Notre Dame basketball team returns to action tonight as it takes on Indiana of the Big Ten Conference. Notre Dame enters the contest with a 2-4 record after finishing in seventh place at the Great Alaska Shootout during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Notre Dame dropped its first round game in the event to Duke by a 111-82 score and then lost to Alaska-Anchorage (88-82 in overtime) before beating Southern Utah (81-77).

Freshman David Graves (Lexington, Kent.) led Notre Dame with 29 points in the win over Southern Utah, scoring 22 points in the second half and shooting a perfect 10 for 10 from the free throw line. Fellow freshman Harold Swanagan (Hopkinsville, Kent.) had a career-high 10 rebounds to lead the Irish in that category.

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 before dropping a 68-63 contest at Vanderbilt on November 21.

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.

Indiana comes into today’s game with a 6-1 record and is ranked No. 16 in both the latest Associated Press and CNN/ESPN polls. The Hoosiers last action came with a 76-63 loss to Syracuse in the championship game of the Maui Invitational last Wednesday.

TELEVISION AND RADIO COVERAGE: Today’s game is being televised by ESPN Regional Television (Larry Beil, Bucky Waters). It is being seen in the South Bend area on WNDU-TV and is also being seen on WADL-TV in Detroit. Radio coverage of today’s game is provided by the Host Communications Network (Jack Lorri, Jack Nolan).

THE NOTRE DAME-INDIANA SERIES: Today’s game is the 62nd meeting between Notre Dame and Indiana and the Hoosiers lead the series by a 42-19 count. Indiana has won three straight games in the series and eight of the last nine. Since 1981-82, Notre Dame has defeated Indiana three times. The last time Notre Dame beat Indiana was on November 29, 1994 an 80-79 win in overtime at the Joyce Center.

NOTRE DAME VS. THE BIG TEN: Notre Dame has an overall record of 221-190-1 against the current members of the Big Ten Conference and a 109-46 mark against those teams at home. Notre Dame has a four-game losing streak against team from the Big Ten (three vs. Indiana and one vs. Michigan) and the last victory for the Irish against a Big Ten team was the victory over the Hoosiers in 94.

FRESHMEN SCORING: Graves and fellow freshman Troy Murphy are the two-leading scorers for the Irish this season at 16.7 and 16.5 points per game this season, respectively. Of the 437 points scored this season by the Irish, 45.5% of them (199) have been scored by that duo. In all, Notre Dame players have recorded double figure scoring 22 times this season and 11 have been from this freshmen duo.

MURPHY AND DOUBLE FIGURES: Murphy has started his collegiate career by scoring in double figures in all six contests the Irish have played this year, including a 21 points-17 rebounds performance against Alaska-Anchorage for his first career double-double and his career high in both categories.

The last time a Notre Dame played scored in double figures in his first six college games was LaPhonso Ellis in 1988-89. Ellis scored in double figures in his first nine college games and wound up averaging 13.5 points per game as a frosh. Ellis is the ninth-leading scorer in school history with 1,505 career points.

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.

GRAVES NETS FRESHMAN HIGH: Graves scored a career-high 29 points against Southern Utah in the Great Alaska Shootout. Graves 29 points is the most by a Notre Dame freshmen since freshmen were eligible to play varsity basketball in 1972-73.

TWO FRESHMEN STARTERS: Notre Dame had two freshmen start the opening game against Miami of Ohio with Murphy and Graves. 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.

SWANAGAN GETS CAREER HIGHS: Swanagan saw his playing time increase during the Great Alaska Shootout as he averaged 18.7 minutes per game in the tournament after playing just 6.7 minutes per game in the first three games. Swanagan scored a career high 17 points against Duke in the first round of the event and then had a career high 10 rebounds vs. Southern Utah.

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 94-112 in his tenure at Notre Dame and an overall record of 184-181 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 INK TWO: Matt Carroll, a 6-5 1/2 guard from Horsham, Penn., and Hatboro-Horsham High School, and Mike Monserez, a 6-5 guard from Moeller High School and Cincinnati, Ohio, signed National Letters of Intent on November 11, 1998, to enroll at the University of Notre Dame next fall and play for head coach John MacLeod’s basketball team.

Carroll averaged 23.6 points per game as a junior in high school and added 8.5 rebounds, 6.8 assists and 1.8 blocks per game. He is ranked No. 30 in the country among high school seniors by All-Star Sports and its publish Bob Gibbons and No. 67 by Future Stars.

Carroll was named all-area and all-league for his first three years in high school and was named the 1988 state player of the year in Pennsylvania.

In the summer of 1998, Carroll was a member of the USA Basketball men’s junior world championship qualifying team, which won the gold medal at the COPABA junior world championship qualifying tournament. Carroll averaged 6.5 points per game in the tournament and 2.0 rebounds.

Monserez led Moeller to an 18-4 reocrd in his junior year and the team finished ninth in the Associated Press Ohio Division I poll after losing in the sectional finals. Monserez led the team with 12 points per game as a total of five Moeller players averaged in double figures. Monserez also averaged 7.5 assists per game, shot 38.5 percent from the three-point distance and 78 percent from the foul line.

He was named firs team all-Southwestern Ohio by the AP, first team all-city by the Cincinnati Enquirer and co-player of the year in the Greater Catholic League of Cincinnati and Dayton.

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 espn2 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. Johns) 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: 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 at www.und.com. 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 Thursday, December 17. For more information, please call the Notre Dame sports information office.

1998-99 Notre Dame Basketball Roster
(with updated height and weights)

No.   Name                Pos. Hgt.  Wgt.  Cl.   Hometown            High School22    Dennis Carroll       F   6-5   207   Sr.   LaGrange, IL        Lyons Township21 ** Jimmy Dillon         G   6-2   171   Jr.   Philadelphia, PA    Holy Ghost Prep12    Mike Edwards         F   6-5   195   Fr.   South Bend, IN      Adams34    David Graves         F   6-5   211   Fr.   Lexington, KY       Lexington Catholic55*** Phil Hickey          C  6-11   272   Sr.   Wellsboro, PA       Wellsboro24  * Martin Ingelsby      G  5-11   171   So.   Philadelphia, PA    Archbishop Carroll11    B.J. Kloska          G   6-3   194   So.   Elkhart, IN         Marian35    Tom Krizmanich       G   6-4   198   So.   Warsaw, IN          Warsaw10    Matt MacLeod         G   6-4   181   Jr.   Granger, IN         St. Joseph03    Troy Murphy          F   6-9   225   Fr.   Morristown, NJ      Delbarton25    Peter Okwalinga      F   6-8   215   So.   Nairobi, Kenya      Greensteds School43    Skylard Owens        F   6-4   210   Jr.   Shreveport, LA      Loyola College Prep 44   *   Todd Palmer   F   6-6   220   Jr.   Harrington Park, NJ   Don Bosco Prep15  * Paul Rainey          G   6-1   191   Sr.   Hattieville, AR     Wonderview33  * Hans Rasmussen       F   6-9   219   So.   Portland, OR        Central Catholic42    Harold Swanagan      F   6-6   242   Fr.   Hopkinsville, KY    University Heights                                   Academy05    Charles Thomas       G   6-0   147   Fr.   Flint, MI           Powers Catholic20  * Leviticus Williamson F   6-6   194   So.   Spring, TX          Spring04*** Antoni Wyche         G   6-5   196   Sr.   Ballston Lake, NY   Notre Dame-Bishop                                   Gibbons
* - denotes number of monograms won

Head Coach: John MacLeod
Assistant Coaches: Fran McCaffery, Parker Laketa, Billy Taylor