Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1523876
BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM AUGUST 2024 11 UNDER THE DOME NOTRE DAME, TEXAS TO TIP OFF IN RARE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL MATCHUP Notre Dame women's basketball will face Texas for just the third time ever and the first since 1997 in the 2024-25 ACC/SEC Challenge, the schools announced June 12. The matchup will take place at Purcell Pavilion in South Bend on Thursday, Dec. 5. Notre Dame and Texas split the only two previous all-time meetings. The Longhorns beat the Irish 84-59 in Austin on Dec. 5, 1986, eight months after winning their first national championship. The Irish got the Longhorns back in 1997 with an 86-83 win in Austin. Vic Schaefer is going into his fifth season as the head coach of the Longhorns. He took them to the Elite Eight in three of his first four years, including this past March. Texas lost to North Carolina State with a berth in the Final Four on the line. It would have been the Horns' first trip to the national semifinals since 2003 and fourth in program history. Schaefer had head coaching stops at Sam Houston State from 1990-97 and at Mississippi State from 2012-20. As an assistant coach, he helped Texas A&M win a national championship in 2011 in between those two tenures. Mississippi State became a national powerhouse in the Schaefer era. He took the Bulldogs to back-to-back national championship games in 2017 and 2018. MSU lost the first of those games to South Carolina and the second to Notre Dame on Arike Ogunbowale's buzzer beater. Schaefer won 200 of his first 256 games at Mississippi State. That made him the second-fastest coach to get to that milestone. Georgia's Andy Landers reached his 200th win in 251 games. Tennessee legend Pat Summit needed 259 games to notch 200 victories, for reference. Schaefer is at the helm of a talented Texas team highlighted by Madison Booker, who was named the Big 12 Player of the Year, making her the first freshman to ever receive that honor. She was also an Associated Press second-team All-American. The 6-foot-1 forward, who took over point guard duties after Rori Harmon's knee injury, averaged 17.2 points, 5.1 assists and 5.0 rebounds per game. Notre Dame will counter with what might be an even more loaded lineup led by guards Hannah Hidalgo and Olivia Miles. Fighting Irish head coach Niele Ivey has plenty of frontcourt players to throw at Booker, too, in Maddy Westbeld, Cassandre Prosper, Liatu King and Liza Karlen. Both teams brought in top-10 freshmen. Notre Dame signed 6-foot-4 center Kate Koval, the No. 5 overall player in the class according to ESPN, and Texas landed 6-0 guard Jordan Lee, the No. 9 player in the class. Koval was Notre Dame's only signee. Texas also signed 6-2 forward Justice Carl- ton, the No. 12 player in the class and 5-9 point guard Bryanna Preston, the No. 38 player in the class. ESPN listed Notre Dame at No. 4 and Texas at No. 6 in its Way-Too-Early Women's Basketball Top 25 for next season. — Tyler Horka Notre Dame head coach Niele Ivey will lead the Fighting Irish against Texas for the first time since 1997 in the ACC/SEC Challenge. PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER MEN'S BASKETBALL TO TAKE ITS FIRST EVER TRIP TO GEORGIA Notre Dame men's basketball will get an unprecedented true road game in Georgia this upcoming season to face the Bulldogs in Athens, Ga., as part of the ACC/SEC Challenge on Tuesday, Dec. 3. Notre Dame and Georgia have matched up four times previously. Each one of those games was played at an off-campus location. The two met at The Omni in Atlanta as part of the Nike Super Shootout in 1994. Sixteen years later, they played for the second time at HP Field House in Bay Lake, Fla., in the Old Spice Classic. In 2011, Notre Dame and Georgia faced off at the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Mo., in the Progressive CBE Classic. Two years ago, the Irish and Bulldogs went head-to-head at State Farm Arena in Atlanta as part of Holiday Hoopsgiving. Notre Dame won the first two meetings, 88-85 in Atlanta and 89-83 in double overtime in Florida. Georgia has won the last two, 61-57 in Kansas City and 77-62 in Atlanta. Mike White is in his third season as the head coach at Georgia after seven at Florida. He coached the Bulldogs to that 15-point win in the Holiday Hoopsgiv- ing tournament two years ago. That Notre Dame team was coached by Mike Brey in what ended up being his final season in South Bend after nearly a quarter-century. White squares off against Micah Shrewsberry this time. The Irish went 13-20 (7-13 ACC) in Shrewsberry's first year at the helm, but they finished the season strong, winning six of their final 10 games after dropping nine of their previous 10. Georgia went 16-16 in White's first year and 20-17 last season. The Bulldogs posted a 6-12 conference record in each season. Georgia's roster was ravaged by the transfer portal after the Bulldogs made a run to the NIT semifinals last season. Seven players committed to new pro- grams. An additional three ran out of eligibility, leaving only three returning players. The Bulldogs reloaded with five transfer portal additions and three freshmen signees. Notre Dame, meanwhile, took in two transfer portal adds and three freshmen signees. Shrewsberry has been caught squarely in the midst of a full rebuild af- ter the program tapered off at the end of the Brey era. Going against a Georgia team that is trying to find footing early in the White regime offers the Irish a nice shot at a solid non-conference game early in the season. — Tyler Horka Notre Dame head coach Micah Shrewsberry gets the chance to take the Irish into Athens, Ga., for the first time ever as part of the ACC/SEC Challenge. PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER