Nov. 17, 1997
Notre Dame Prepares for The Citadel
Notre Dame vs. The Citadel
Monday, November 17, 1997, 7:30 p.m. EST
Joyce Center (11,418), Notre Dame, IN
PROBABLE STARTERS
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 -- -- --
 \
|
|
Pat Garrity. (File photo)
|
TONIGHT'S GAME: The University of Notre Dame basketball team opens the
1997-98 tonight as it takes on The Citadel of the Southern Conference. Last
season, The Citadel had an overall record of 13-14 last season and opened
its 1997-98 campaign with a loss to Francis Marion College, a Division II
team in Florence, S.C. Notre Dame posted a 16-14 record in 1996-97 and
advanced to the quarterfinals of the National Invitation Tournament. The
Irish had a 8-10 record in BIG EAST play. After tonight's game with The
Citadel, Notre Dame returns to action on Friday, Nov. 21, when it travels
to Milwaukee to play Marquette in the Bradley Center at 7:00 p.m. CST.
Notre Dame's 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.
TELEVISION AND RADIO COVERAGE: There is no television coverage for
tonight's game. Radio coverage is provided by the Host Communications
Network (Jack Lorri, Jack Nolan). Notre Dame makes its first television
appearance of the year on Wed., Dec. 3, when the Irish travel to Indiana to
face the Hoosiers on ESPN2.
EXHIBITION GAME: Notre Dame played its first exhibition game of the season
last Sunday as the Irish defeated Athletes in Action by a 78-77 count as
sophomore Keith Friel (Durham, N.H.) hit a three-point field goal at the
buzzer for the win. Notre Dame trailed by five at the half, 41-36, and was
down by six points with 40.9 seconds left in the contest, but three point
field goal by freshman Martin Ingelsby (Philadelphia, Pa.), junior guard
Antoni Wyche (Ballston Lake, N.Y.) and Friel helped the Irish pull out the
victory. Senior forward Pat Garrity (Monument, Colo.) led the Irish with 23
points and 12 rebounds while senior forward Derek Manner (Webster, Texas)
had 17 points and 11 boards. Junior center Phil Hickey (Wellsboro, Penn.)
had 16 points -- 15 in the second half -- and nine rebounds. Notre Dame also
plays an exhibition game on Tues., December 9, against Marathon.
IRISH IN OPENERS: The Irish have an overall record of 75-17 in
season-opening games. Notre Dame has won five-straight season opening games
with a 52-50 win over Loyola Chicago in 1992, a 95-74 win over Valparaiso
in 1993, a 77-69 win over the Crusaders in '94, a 65-54 win over Akron in
'95 and a 73-66 win over Monmouth last year. John MacLeod has a 10-2 record
as a collegiate head coach in season-opening games with a 5-1 record at
Notre Dame.
THE NOTRE DAME-CITADEL SERIES: This is the first meeting between Notre Dame
and The Citadel in the sport of basketball.
GARRITY TO TIE RECORD TONIGHT: Garrity is schedule to start tonight's game,
which will give him 85 consecutive starts in his collegiate career, dating
back to his freshman debut in 1994. Garrity has started and played in all
84 Irish games since coming to Notre Dame and will tie the school record
for consecutive games started tonight with Gary Novak (1971-74) and John
Paxson (1980-83).
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 Wed., Nov. 5, 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:
- the BIG EAST Player of the Year
- a first team GTE Academic All-America pick and now has a 3.703 grade point average
- a unanimous first team All-BIG EAST selection
- was named honorable mention All-American selection by the Associated Press and Basketball Weekly
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:
- one of five national player of the year candidates according to Street and Smith's yearbook
- a preseason All-American according to Street and Smith's yearbook
- a preseason first team All-American by Blue Ribbon yearbook
- a first team preseason All-American pick by Inside Sports magazine, selected by CBS announcer Billy Packer
- one of the top ten preseason candidates for the Naismith College Player of the Year award, given by the Atlanta Tipoff Club
- one of the top 25 preseason candidates for the John R. Wooden Award, given by the Los Angeles Tipoff Club
- the third-best power forward in the country according to The Sporting News yearbook
- the fourth-best power forward in the country according to Street and Smith's yearbook
- the BIG EAST preseason player of the year according to The Sporting News yearbook
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.
INGELSBY IN STARTING LINEUP: Ingelsby is scheduled to start tonight's game
against The Citadel in his collegiate debut. The last freshman to start at
Notre Dame in his collegiate debut was Wyche, who had 16 points against
Akron in 1995.
HEAD COACH JOHN MacLEOD: Notre Dame head coach John MacLeod (Bellarmine
'59) is entering his seventh season in charge of the Irish program and has
an overall record of 79-94 at the school and has a 169-163 mark as a
college coach, which also includes six seasons at Oklahoma (1967-73).
MacLeod was a head coach in the National Basketball Association for 18
seasons (Phoenix Suns from 1973-87, Dallas Mavericks from 1987-90 and the
New York Knicks from 1990-91). MacLeod had an overall mark of 707-657 in
the NBA. MacLeod was named the 1997 BIG EAST coach of the year as he led
his Irish to a 8-10 regular season mark in the league as Notre Dame was
tied as the second-most improved club in the conference.
THE JOYCE CENTER: The Joyce Center is in its 30th year of use by the Notre
Dame basketball team and the Irish have an 349-99 (.779) record in the
building. Of the 448 games played in the facility, 201 have been sellouts.
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.
