Notre Dame: More Like West Virginia Than You Think, Hear Me Out

As the resident ND grad who grew up die-hard red & black around here, I’ll chime in. Sorry I’ve been incommunicado for the better part of the last 6 months, but work, new baby, yada yada, whatever.

Anyway, I agree about this year’s game – while it will be my first at the Bucket (though I did take the kids to the circus and TSwift) – I’m pretty blah about the matchup. Thanks to the loss of Abro and inexplicable decision of Carleton Scott to enter the Europ — er, NBA draft, this is by far the youngest ND team in a decade. As you mentioned, you’ll actually see Brey play more than 6 guys for once, and the style of play is much more loose and turnover-prone. I liken it to the football Cards – lots of young talent to be excited about for the coming years, but if ND can go .500 in the BE this year I’ll be shocked.

For once I fully expect UofL to dominate. While ND may have some nice moments and a run or two, this should be a 15 point win for the Cards.

While I will wear gold & blue and root politely for my Irish, by the end I’ll be happy if ND makes a good effort and moreso that the one of my two teams with legitimate post-season potential takes another step with a good win. Go Irish ;)

Them’s fightin’ words. I’ve detested ND for every bit as long as Pitt. When I was a kid and the TV options were limited, it was a struggle to find WVU highlights and even rarer still that a game was televised. Yet every Sunday I’d get home from church and there would be a replay of the previous day’s ND game. No one could explain to me why a Catholic school 500 miles away should be on tv every week and I had to settle for listening to my beloved Eers on the radio. Granted, it was Jack Fleming and Woody O’Hara- two all-time greats- but it just wasn’t as satisfying. Then, one Saturday, Notre Dame was playing USC on ABC. They were dominating the Trojans. Then Anthony Davis single-handedly destroyed the Irish and I was smitten. Even now, they’re my second-favorite school. Yeah, I know it’s a private, rich-kid school that has more in common with ND than WVU, but they opened my eyes to what college football could be. Notre Dame seemed a thing of the past, even in 1974. Famous for things 50 years before I was born, and an uninteresting style of play after watching AD, Pat Haden and JK McKay dazzle the nation.

I still despise Notre Dame. The fan’s sense of entitlement, the press’s laziness in participating in the semiannual “wake up the echoes” crap, and the school’s “we’re above the mundane conference model” attitude. And over the years I’ve seen some of those traits in Pitt, which has transformed my unquestioned generational hate into something more easily explained. They’ve won one national championship since leather helmets yet always act as if they’re one recruiting class from taking their rightful spot among the elites. Their fans (at least the ones that actually show for games) are every bit as awful as they would tell you WVU fans are. And after being so butthurt about VaTech, Miami and BC leaving, they had no problems walking away from the Big East. They’ve traded rivalries and tradition for money and mediocrity. I hope we get to continue playing them, although I doubt they’ll want to prolong the series. After all, why book a OOC game youo might lose when you struggle to win the yearly MAC tuneup game? I feel like we’re on an upward arc, and part of me is going to feel cheated out of stomping them for as long as that arc lasts. Too bad they’ll never be relevant enough for us to avenge 13-9.

This brings me, in a roundabout way, to the U of L. I honestly hope you guys get into the BIg 12 because we had a good thing going. From the Brohm/Bush/White/Slaton years to this year’s upset, UL was about to become our chief rival, because we’re similar schools- hardnosed, earn-what-you-have programs. We respect U of L. I know this post is about hoops but only the names change- the spirit is the same.

Beat the hell out of those 1%ers.

Yeah, they had some open looks against us, but it really was just their night in terms of shooting. They are a good 3-pt shooting team that is capable of that kind of night, but they have to regress to their average, and the odds of them shooting that way again against us would be very low.

I am still pissed about that loss, much more than the UK loss.