As the college athletics world suffered through the upheaval of realignment in the early part of the 21st century, the common refrain was “it’ll be worth it when our networks come online”. Everyone saw the magic Jim Delaney was working with the B1G, and what’s-good-for-the-goose-itis ran rampant. The SEC was quick to jump on board, followed by the Pac-12, and even the Texas Longhorns figured they could pull it off (although the jury remains out). These networks, mostly coupled to the sports behemoth that is (or at least was) ESPN, sought to milk their own cash cows while (allegedly) bringing more of their content to their constituents who cared (and those who didn’t).

While perhaps late to the party, the Atlantic Coast Conference, home to at least some of your Fighting Irish squads, has shown up with what it thinks is good beer and hopes is quality content. On August 22, 2019, ACCN — a “new 24/7 national network dedicated to ACC sports” — will debut, and feature 150 men’s and women’s basketball games, 250 Olympic sports events, studio and original programming, and 40 football games including at least one featuring Notre Dame.

Not that folks may notice, of course. As of this writing, neither Comcast nor Charter is carrying the new network, which given the new rules and regs, will affect Irish fans a lot more than it did in the past.

What new rules, you ask? To wit:

In prior seasons, ND games on what was called “ACC Network Extra” (or ACCNE on our schedule pages) could be watched online via ESPN3, the website the WWL would use to broadcast all the games for which they had the rights. If you were an ESPN subscriber via your cable company, you could access those games online and watch them on your electronic devices.

In the world of the new ACC Network Extra — ACCNX — that’s no longer the case. While you still will be able to stream the games via ESPN and the app, if your provider doesn’t carry the ACC Network, you’re SOL. ESPN subscription isn’t enough anymore, and if you’re a cord-cutter, your ability to access the games remains to be seen.

And don’t expect Jefferson Pilot or any of the one-off stations to bail you out. According to the press release, all ACC-controlled games will be on ACCN, ACCNX, ABC, and the ESPN family of networks only. Syndication is a thing of the past. On the good news side, you don’t have to worry about games being preempted by a monster truck rally on your local UHF channel. On the bad news side, you may not be able to see the game at all.

We’ve all seen these negotiations before, and one can only hope within the next couple weeks, the ACCN has found a home on your cable monstrosity of choice. If you’re an Irish hoops fan, it’s probably worth your while to hit up the ACCN prompting page to see if you’re covered. If not … well, get those rabbit ears out.

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Even with injuries and defection, a 13-12/3-9 record is disappointing largely because none of the highly regarded young players have shown more than flashes of ACC ability with the possible exception of Prentiss Hubb who, while not playing star caliber basketball, is holding his own as the starting point guard. A 1.7 assist/turnover ratio in ACC games is solid for a freshman especially considering how few of his passes to perimeter shooters are converted to baskets.

Let me start with the three Notre Dame freshmen who have played a lot this season.

Prentiss Hubb – 32 mpg, 7.7 ppg, 3.0 rpg
Dane Goodwin – 23 mpg, 6.4 ppg, 3.0 rpg
Nate Laszewski – 19 mpg, 6.6 ppg, 4.0 rpg

Now let’s compare them to a selection of highly regarded (but not 5 star) ACC recruits who improved significantly from their first to second seasons. These players’ freshman stat lines resembled the production of Notre Dame’s rookies this season.

Louisville’s Jordan Nwora

Freshman – 12 mpg, 5.7 ppg, 2.2 rpg
Sophomore – 32 mpg, 17.5 ppg, 7.7 rpg

Miami’s Chris Lykes

Freshman – 21 mpg, 7.8 ppg, 1.2 rpg
Sophomore – 34 mpg, 17.1 ppg, 2.6 rpg

Virginia’s De’Andre Hunter

Freshman – 20 mpg, 9.2 ppg, 3.5 rpg
Sophomore – 31 mpg, 15.0 ppg, 5.5 rpg

Virginia’s Ty Jerome

Freshman – 14 mpg, 4.3 ppg, 1.6 rpg
Sophomore – 31 mpg, 10.6 ppg, 3.1 rpg
Junior – 32 mpg, 13.0 ppg, 4.3 rpg

Virginia’s Kyle Guy

Freshman – 19 mpg, 7.5 ppg, 1.7 rpg
Sophomore – 32 mpg, 14.1 ppg, 2.6 rpg
Junior – 34 mpg, 15.1 ppg, 4.3 rpg

UNC’s Luke Maye took three seasons to emerge, but he became a pretty fair player.

Freshman – 5 mpg, 1.2 ppg, 1.2 rpg
Sophomore – 14 mpg, 5.5 ppg, 3.9 rpg
Junior – 32 mpg, 16.9 ppg, 10.1 rpg

Notre Dame’s own John Mooney

Freshman – 4 mpg, 1.2 ppg, 1.6 rpg
Sophomore – 15 mpg, 5.6 ppg, 3.9 rpg
Junior – 28 mpg, 14.0 ppg, 11.0 rpg

Also consider the two ND guys who have a season of college basketball under their belts but also had to recover from injuries.

DJ Harvey

Freshman – 19 mpg, 5.8 ppg, 2.9 rpg
Sophomore – 26 mpg, 10.9 ppg, 4.5 rpg

Harvey has improved as the season has progressed, and he has not reached his peak by a long shot. An offseason building strength and regaining the physical gifts we saw last season instead of getting his knee healthy enough to be cleared for activityu before the start of the season will help him a lot as will additional passage of time from the injury itself.

Juwan Durham

Freshman – 8.3 mpg, 1.6 ppg, 1.5 rpg
Sophomore – 14 mpg, 5.6 ppg, 4.0 rpg

I also don’t believe Durham is a finished product. Is doubling his points and rebounds next season a preposterous notion?

My message to Notre Dame fans is simple. Young players get better.

This season has been a painful part of a journey. The young players on the Irish roster are talented. They will improve, some significantly next season; so don’t panic.

Women’s Basketball Notes

Several Notre Dame school records will fall over the next few weeks. Here is a rundown.

Points

Arike Ogunbowale now has scored 2,324 points in her college career. She passed Beth Morgan/Cunningham for second place last night and is 33 points behind Skylar Diggins. She’s capable of a 34-point outburst on national TV Monday, but it’s more likely that she will get the record Thursday at home vs Duke.

Three Point Shots Made

Marina Mabrey has 249, tied with Sheila McMillen for second place and 13 behind Alicia Ratay’s school record. If we figure 4 more regular season games, 3 ACC Tournament games, and 4 NCAA Tournament games, she has to average just a little more than 1 per game to get the record. Mabrey’s average made per game is 2.6 this season; so barring catastrophe, it’s a matter of when she will catch Ratay, not if. Senior day vs Virginia would be a nice time to get the record. 

Blocked Shots

Brianna Turner has 334 blocked shots, 36 short of Ruth Riley’s record 370. Using the 11-game model, she must average 3.3 per game to catch Riley. That is not a lock and not a long shot either. Add two more games by making it to the national championship contest and the necessary average falls to 2.8. Her season average is 2.7 blocks per game. 

Rebounds

Turner’s 935 rebounds trails Riley by 72. She must average 6.5 per game to catch Riley in 11 games. Her season average is 7.4, so I like Turner’s chances a lot.

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Outlined against a jet-black Easter Sunday evening sky, the Four Horsemen rode again.

Ninety-four years after Death, Destruction, Pestilence and Famine took the names of Stuhldreher, Crowley, Miller and Layden to cement the place of Notre Dame as the most iconic football team in America, Muffet McGraw, Carol Owens, Beth Morgan Cunningham and Niele Ivy took a willing and talented group of women and led them to their own iconic place in NCAA basketball lore.

And make no mistake about it. While the senior “glue” to Notre Dame’s national championship team may aspire to a modeling career, there was nothing pretty about the devastation and destruction the Irish left in their path. Just ask the heartbroken people in Storrs and Starkville.

While junior guard Arike Ogunbowale stunned number-two Mississippi State in Sunday’s championship game with a buzzer-beating game-winning shot – just as she had done two nights earlier in the national semi-final against number-one UConn – it was even more stunning that Notre Dame found itself in this position in the first place.

It is tempting to observe that God treated Muffet McGraw as a modern-day Gideon, continually depleting her troops until no rational person would have thought victory possible. But that would ascribe Notre Dame’s victory to the hand of God, and this championship was every bit the handiwork of the Hall of Fame coach, and her remarkable staff and players.

A 33-point shellacking at the hands of Louisville in January seemed cruel confirmation of that conventional wisdom, that nobody could sustain the losses to ACL injuries of four rotation players, including an All-American, and compete with the nation’s elite teams. A 23-point first-half deficit against Tennessee seven days later suggested that even McGraw and her team agreed.

The question wasn’t whether this Notre Dame team could win a national championship, get back to the Final Four after a two-year hiatus, or win a fifth straight ACC championship.  The question seemed to be whether this Notre Dame team could survive until the end of the season.

Little did anyone outside the Notre Dame locker room suspect that high-scoring shooting guard Marina Mabrey could thrive as a first-time point guard against the most intense defenses in the country.  Or that Jessica Shepard could be more than a scoring and rebounding machine for a middle-of-the-pack Big 10 team.  Or that Jackie Young could score against UConn as though they were just another Indiana high school team.  Or that Kathryn Westbeld was indestructible and possessed the heart of a lion.  Or that Kristina Nelson could turn from a caterpillar into a butterfly.  Or that Arike Ogunbowale is Mamba, 2018 style.

It seemed certain that the precipice that Grantland Rice described was at hand, but it looked for all the world that it was Notre Dame that was headed over it. Instead, a South Bend cyclone every-bit as powerful and destructive as Knute Rockne’s finest emerged from that Tennessee deficit.  The 2018 South Bend cyclone left favored opponents in its final three NCAA tournament games in its wake and secured Notre Dame’s second women’s basketball national championship in its grasp.

Every championship team has heroes.  Every championship team overcomes adversity.

But if the Notre Dame Victory March didn’t already include the lyrics, “what though the odds, great or small, old Notre Dame will win over all,” this team surely would have inspired those words.

At a place where championships are plentiful, legends are larger than life and ghosts are real (just ask Florida State’s 1993 football team), McGraw and her team claimed a seat at the head table.

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