PROBABLE STARTERS                                    1996-97
No. Name            Pos.  Cl.  Ht.  Wt.  Hometown            PPG  RPG  Asst.
 3  Derek Manner      F   Sr.  6-6  206  Webster, TX         7.0  5.1    43
53  Pat Garrity       F   Sr.  6-9  231  Monument, CO       21.2  7.4    84
55  Phil Hickey       C   Jr.  6-10 252  Wellsboro, PA       3.6  3.2     7
 4  Antoni Wyche      G   Jr.  6-4  193  Ballston Lake, NY   5.5  1.3    24
24  Martin Ingelsby   G   Fr.  5-11 169  Philadelphia, PA    --    --    --

NOTRE DAME VS. ATHLETES IN ACTION: The University of Notre Dame basketball team plays its first exhibition game of the 1997-98 season Sun., November 9, as it takes on the touring Athletes in Action team. This AIA team is currently on a 15-game tour around the country and had an overall record of 6-2 entering Saturday night's game at St. John's. Recent action for AIA includes a 95-93 win over Michigan, an 86-73 loss to Michigan State, an 85-70 loss to Maryland a 94-77 win over Indiana. AIA's next game is against Valparaiso Monday night.

Notre Dame's regular season opener is on Mon., November 17, against The Citadel at 7:30 p.m. EST and its BIG EAST Conference opener is on Sat., December 6, at Pittsburgh for a 4:00 p.m. EST game. Notre Dame's first BIG EAST home game is Tues., December 30, against St. John's at 7:30 p.m. EST. The Irish also play an exhibition game against Marathon on Tues., December 9 at 7:30 p.m.

FAMILIAR FACE ON AIA: Former Notre Dame guard Ryan Hoover is in his first year as a member of the Athletes in Action team. Hoover played at Notre Dame from 1992-96 and is the 20th-leading scorer in school history with 1,269 points. Hoover holds nearly all the Irish three-point field goal records with a 248-680 career mark and made 80 in his sophomore year of 1993-94.

Pat Garrity

GARRITY NAMED PRESEASON BIG EAST PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Irish senior forward Pat Garrity was named the 1997-98 BIG EAST Conference preseason player of the year at the league's annual media day, which was held last Wednesday in New York City at the Grand Hyatt Hotel.

Garrity, who was the 1996-97 BIG EAST player of the year, was a unanimous choice for the award and was named to the all-BIG EAST preseason first team joined by St. John's senior center Zendon Hamilton, Miami junior forward Tim James, Pittsburgh junior guard Vonteego Cummings and Seton Hall sophomore guard Shaheen Holloway.

The second team was Richard Hamilton of Connecticut, Jamel Thomas of Providence, Felipe Lopez of St. John's, Todd Burgan of Syracuse and Damian Owens of West Virginia. Ron Artest of St. John's was the preseason rookie of the year.

For just the second time since 1985, the BIG EAST Conference has a returning player of the year in Garrity. The last returning BIG EAST player of the year was Villanova's Kerry Kittles, who won the award in 1994-95. Previously, Patrick Ewing of Georgetown and Chris Mullin of St. John's shared the award in 1983-84 and returned for their senior season.

In the preseason coaches poll, Syracuse was picked to win the BIG EAST 7, while Connecticut was the pick in the BIG EAST 6. Notre Dame was picked fifth in the BIG EAST 6.

GARRITY'S HONORS IN REVIEW: Last season, Pat Garrity was:

GARRITY GARNERS PRESEASON HONORS: Garrity has earned preseason honors from virtually every publication and preseason team that has been announced thus far. They include being:

GARRITY LEADS USA TEAM: Garrity spent this past summer as a member of the United States Under-22 National Team. Coached by Utah's Rick Majerus, the team played exhibition games in the beginning of the summer against National Basketball Association rookie teams and then traveled to Australia for the World Under-22 Championship from August 1-10. The United States team finished fifth at that event, losing to host Australia in the quarterfinals by an 81-63 score and then beating Lithuania and Turkey in the consolation bracket. In the preliminary round, the United States beat Yugoslavia, New Zealand, China and Lithuania and lost to Puerto Rico.

Garrity was the leading scorer on the United States team, averaging 11.8 points per contest and was the second-leading rebounder at 4.5 boards per game. Garrity was the leading scorer for the team in three games and tied for the lead in another.

Other members of the team included Mike Jones from TCU, Cory Carr from Texas Tech and Sam Jacobson from Minnesota.

TICKET PLANS: Tickets are now on sale for the 1997-98 Notre Dame basketball season. Season tickets for all games, including the two exhibitions, are sold out in the lower arena, but remain in the upper bleacher seats for $146 each.

Notre Dame is offering two other ticket plans this season, all of which are in the bleacher seats. The gold package includes tickets for the St. John's (Dec. 30), Rutgers (Jan. 11), Villanova (Jan. 28) and Connecticut (Feb. 17) games while the blue package includes the Syracuse (Jan. 21), Boston College (Feb. 11), Miami (Feb. 22) and Georgetown (Feb. 25) games. Both packages are priced at $32 apiece.

Individual tickets for games not included in the blue and gold packages are also now available.

IRISH ON TELEVISION: Notre Dame will make once again make a number of appearances on national and local television this season. Notre Dame will appear on NBC twice (Jan. 31 at St. John's and Feb. 28 at Providence), ESPN twice (Jan. 21 vs. Syracuse and Feb. 25 vs. Georgetown) and on ESPN2 twice (Dec. 3 at Indiana and Feb. 17 vs. Connecticut).

Notre Dame will make six appearances on SportsChannel Chicago (soon to be FOX Sports Chicago) as part of the ESPN-Plus package: Dec. 6, at Pittsburgh; Dec. 14, vs. Drexel; Jan. 3, at Connecticut; Jan. 11, vs. Rutgers; Jan. 28, vs. Villanova; Feb. 14, at Miami. Two games, in addition to the NBC games, two ESPN-Plus games will be shown on WNDU-TV in South Bend (Jan. 17 at Seton Hall and Feb. 7 at Georgetown) and two others on WBND-TV in South Bend (Jan. 15 at West Virginia and Feb. 5 at Rutgers).

IRISH ON THE RADIO: Host Communications, Inc., originates the Notre Dame Basketball Radio Network for the 10th year in 1997-98.

Jack Lorri will handle the play by play of all Notre Dame games and this season will mark his 29th year announcing Irish games. Lorri spent his first 14 years with Notre Dame as sports director of WTRC-AM in Elkhart, Ind., and then five doing games on WGN-AM in Chicago before teaming up with Host Communications. He served as sports director for WSJV-TV in Elkhart for 13 years beginning in 1967 and did play by play for Kentucky football and basketball on WLAP in Lexington in 1961-63. Lorri also served as sports director of the Tribune Radio Network in Chicago.

Jack Nolan handles the color commentary on the network. He has been a sports anchor at WNDU-TV, the NBC affiliate in South Bend, for over a decade. He has done play by play of Irish basketball on both television and radio as well as combining on various live telecasts of Notre Dame football. He is also the host of WNDU's highly-successful Saturday and Sunday morning news broadcasts.

Stations scheduled to be on the Notre Dame Basketball Radio Network this season in the South Bend area are: WNDU 1490 AM and 92.9 FM in South Bend, WEFM-95.9 FM in Michigan City, WGOM-860 AM in Marion and WLUV 96.7 FM and 1520 AM in Rockford, Ill.

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