November 12, 1998

TONIGHT’S GAME: The University of Notre Dame basketball team opens the 1998-99 season tonight as it takes on Miami of Ohio of the Mid-American Conference. Miami had a 17-12 record last year, a 9-9 mark in MAC play and advanced to the championship game of the MAC tournament. Notre Dame had a 13-14 record last season and was 7-11 in the BIG EAST Conference.

The Irish return to action on Sunday at 2 p.m., when it takes on Yale. The Elis are coached by Dick Kuchen, who was an assistant coach at Notre Dame from 1975-78.

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.

Notre Dame (0-0) vs. Miami of Ohio (0-0)
Joyce Center (11,418), Notre Dame, IN
Friday, November 13, 1998, 7:30 p.m. EST

PROBABLE STARTERS

No.   Name            Pos. Ht.    Wt.    Year   Hometown          PPG   RPG    Ast.3     Troy Murphy     F    6-9    225    Fr.    Morristown, NJ     -     -     -34    David Graves    F    6-5    211    Fr.    Lexington, KY      -     -     -55    Phil Hickey     C    6-11   272    Sr.    Wellsboro, PA     10.7   8.0   284     Antoni Wyche    G    6-5    196    Sr.    Ballston Lake, NY 9.4    3.2   6224    Martin Ingelsby G    5-11   171    So.    Philadelphia, PA  6.6    2.5   150 (5.6)

TELEVISION AND RADIO COVERAGE: There is no television coverage for tonight’s game. Radio coverage is provided by the Host Communications Network (Jack Lorri, Jack Nolan). Notre Dame makes its first television appearance of the year on Thursday, November 26, when the Irish take on Duke in the first round of the Great Alaska Shootout. That game will begin at 8 p.m. Alaska time and midnight Friday South Bend time.

IRISH IN OPENERS: The Irish have an overall record of 76-17 in season-opening games. Notre Dame has won six-straight season opening games with a 52-50 win over Loyola Chicago in 1992, a 95-74 win over Valparaiso in 1993, a 77-69 win over the Crusaders in ’94, a 65-54 win over Akron in ’95, a 73-66 win over Monmouth in ’96 and a 72-53 win over The Citadel last year. John MacLeod has an 11-2 record in collegiate opening games with a 6-1 record at Notre Dame.

THE NOTRE DAME-MIAMI SERIES: Tonight’s game is the fifth game between Notre Dame and Miami of Ohio and the Irish lead the series by a 3-1 count. Notre Dame won games against Miami in the 1908-09 and 1944-45 seasons, had a victory in the 1957 NCAA tournament while the only Miami win in the series came in the 1969 NCAA tournament.

Notre Dame Basketball Notes

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, freshman Troy Murphy (Morristown, N.J.) led the way with 21 points and nine rebounds while a total of five Irish players scored in double figures. Freshman forward David Graves (Lexington, Ky.) had 16 points and six rebounds while senior center Phil Hickey 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.

IRISH OFF TO ALASKA: The Notre Dame basketball team will spend its Thanksgiving holiday in Alaska playing in the Great Alaska Shootout in Anchorage. Notre Dame will make the 3,760 journey to the 49th state on Tuesday, November 24, and play Duke in the first round of the event on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, November 26 at 8 p.m. Alaska time, which will be 12:00 a.m. EST Friday. Notre Dame will play either Fresno State or Alaska Anchorage in the second round of the event on Friday, November 27, and either Cincinnati, Iowa State, Southern Utah of St. Mary’s (Calif.) on Saturday, November 28. The games will 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.

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 projects to have two freshman start tonight’s opening game against Miami of Ohio. It will mark the first time since the 1982-83 opener that the Irish have two freshman 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 92-108 in his tenure at Notre Dame and an overall record of 182-177 in 13 year 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.

Notre Dame Basketball Notes

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 359-104 (.775) in the building. Of the 463 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.

Notre Dame basketball game on WMAQ this season include: Fri., Nov. 13, vs. Miami (Ohio); Sun., Nov. 15, vs. Yale; 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 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 teleconference this season. All teleconference are held in the Notre Dame sports information office and the next one will be held on Wednesday, November 18, to preview the Vanderbilt game. 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 Catholic5  *** 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. Joseph3      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 Prep44  *  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 Academy5      Chalres Thomas       G    6-0    147    Fr.    Flint, MI          Powers Catholic20  *  Leviticus Williamson F    6-6    194    So.    Spring, TX         Spring4  *** 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