Comments on: Celebrating Our Own Success

By: Geoffrey '73

Geoffrey '73 — Thu, 23 Jan 2014 20:50:56 +0000

Digger had a huge mountain to climb. After Austin Carr, Collis Jones and Sid Catlett graduated, the cupboard was bare. When Digger came, he only had Gary Novak, and he kept spirits up in a very difficult season. Dwight Clay and John Shumate couldn’t play because they were freshmen. The home game against UCLA that season was specially difficult to watch. Digger almost got us to the top, and he started from very, very far down.

By: nchdomer

nchdomer — Wed, 22 Jan 2014 01:18:46 +0000

The show was very well done and made a number of points about the significance of the game. The point that we were like BC and simply kept UCLA from winning the title is wrong. NC State did that. ND was on the rise in basketball back then. ND did not settle for mediocrity until the top people changed. Once the new President took over, the decline began. And that decline included the football program. Football is not back to its level in the 60s and 70s. Is it no wonder that basketball has fallen so far off the sports radar? Now we are partnered with Under Armour and our AD talks about needing the edge new technology gives to teams competing for titles. Baloney. Get better athletes and coaches and you can win in street clothes. Ara and Digger got great talent and knew how to coach. Now we just want to win at the cash register. I knew we would change vendors the day Adidas gave Michigan a bigger contract than us. I liked it better when we beat our rivals on the playing field instead of on a balance sheet.

By: ShermanOaksND

ShermanOaksND — Tue, 21 Jan 2014 17:04:25 +0000

To answer your question, Mike, ND has spent exactly 5 weeks at No. 1 in the AP poll. The first was the poll right after the 1974 win over UCLA, and the other were in consecutive polls from January 16 to February 6, 1979. In both instances, losses to UCLA knocked ND out of the top spot. ND was in the top 10 in every poll from March 1977 (two polls after the upset of San Francisco) to February 1980, and never lower than 14th in any poll from March 1977 through the final poll of 1980-1981.

By: 2014

2014 — Tue, 21 Jan 2014 01:44:46 +0000

Last irish hoops player I remember being pretty good was Laphonso Ellis. Pretty much lost interest over the years, but will flip them on if they are on TV. I think BC is a fair comparison. The schedule guarantees about 15- 17 wins and a one and done in the NCAA or NIT, guess it could be worse.

By: Mike Coffey

Mike Coffey — Mon, 20 Jan 2014 22:42:00 +0000

In reply to Frank Johnson.

I know what the theme was. I watched the videos. As I said, they were very nice.

If you watched the 88-1 video (also well done), Trgovich talks about “the ND guys didn’t have any championships so they did this instead”.

That’s the kind of mindset I rail against. I want ND to win championships, not take pride in preventing others from doing so.

By: Frank Johnson

Frank Johnson — Mon, 20 Jan 2014 21:47:32 +0000

It’s obvious that you didn’t attend Digger’s honor ceremony. The theme was about belief. And I was there at the 1974 game. The vibe was so positive then as well.

It doesn’t surprise me though that you’ve twisted the ceremony to fit your cynical mindset. That’s what you NDNation people do.

By: jeff

jeff — Mon, 20 Jan 2014 21:08:00 +0000

I don’t want to agree with you about Mike Brey and the ND coaching job, Mr. Coffey, but I’m afraid I have to, which makes me very sad. Growing up in the 70’s, it was nice to hear ND’s name come up in the national championship discussion year after year. The Irish aren’t even in the discussion now. Digger broke our hearts many times, but at least we were at the doorstep. I don’t know where we are now and if we’ll ever get near the doorstep again.

By: Wally

Wally — Mon, 20 Jan 2014 21:07:00 +0000

Notre Dame has flashes of brilliance, if not championships and very consistent winning tradition, in other sports: Women’s basketball, Men’s & Women’s Soccer, Hockey, Lacrosse, Football to the title game in 2012, etc. I’m sure I’m leaving a deserving sport or two out, but the points are these: a) Men’s Basketball has been sooooo MEDIOCRE for such an extended period of time that it’s mind-boggling, and b) isn’t 13+ years long enough for a coach to “prove” he cannot get it done??? I’m not quite sure of the exact number, but hasn’t Mike Brey’s ND squad won only about 4 NCAA tournament games in his 13+ years?? Seems to be a consistent pattern of: play poorly enough that you don’t get invited to the NCAA tournament 1/3 of the time, lose your first tournament game another 1/3 of the time, and win just one game the remaining 1/3. With everything else on campus being gold-plated these days and standards set SO HIGH for students and educators, why are we willing to accept consistent mediocrity in Men’s Basketball, arguably the second most high profile sport we have??? Or is Mike Brey doing just fine based on the AD’s criteria, which must then be pretty ground floor LOW?

By: Tom Nash

Tom Nash — Mon, 20 Jan 2014 19:41:24 +0000

In reply to Mike Coffey. You nailed that reply, Mike. The lack of support is stupifying.

By: Boomer80

Boomer80 — Mon, 20 Jan 2014 17:42:48 +0000

The Irish in those days were perennial contenders, athough they never were able to pull a NC. “Nobody leaves ND #1” fit the pride in a program that was seen to be as strong as the football program, back then in the 70s. That was before basketball at ND devolved into a sick joke. Like it or not, we are BC in hoops now, and as you say, the Nobody leaves thing has a hollowness to it. So we beat Duke – then lose to the next three conference opponents. sigh.