Dec. 21, 2004
100 Years Remembered In 100 Days
The 12 Days Of A Notre Dame Basketball Christmas
As www.und.com continues its tribute to the 100 Years of Notre Dame Basketball celebration, the week-day feature (which appears on the front page of www.und.com and the sidebar of the men’s basketball home page) will change slightly for the next two weeks.
While the University shuts down operations over the Christmas and New Year holidays, 100 Years Remembered In 100 Days will shift into a different form – The 12 Days Of A Notre Dame Basketball Christmas
Similar to the daily updates which we have posted so far this season, The 12 Days Of A Notre Dame Basketball Christmas will serve as updates for the 100 Years Remembered in 100 Days feature until January 3, 2005.
From all of us at www.und.com, College Sports Online and the University of Notre Dame Sports Information Department – Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
100 Years Remembered in 100 Days will return to its usual form on Monday, Jan. 3, 2004 with #40. Until then, enjoy #27 – #39.
#27 (Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2004)
12 Days Of A Notre Dame Basketball Christmas – #1
Father Figure – John Smyth
John Smyth came to Notre Dame as a non-scholarship basketball player in 1953, although he had full-ride offers elsewhere. Once the financial burdens became too much to overcome, he turned to Notre Dame head coach John Jordan for help.
Jordan came through by placing Smyth on scholarship, and Smyth never forgot how that action changed his life. Notre Dame’s 25th all-time leading scorer, Smyth eventually captained the 1956-57 squad that finished 20-8 and advanced to the regional round of the NCAA Tournament.
After touring with a college all-star team, Smyth eventually entered the priesthood and developed a scholarship program at Maryville Academy in Des Plaines, Ill. He has played in integral role in sending at-risk children to college, helping more than 100 students attend free of charge.
At its 2002 commencement exercises, Notre Dame honored Smyth with the Laetare Medal, the oldest and most prestigious honor given to American Catholics.
Also – on this date in Notre Dame Basketball history –
Dec. 21, 1955 – Michigan State’s Julius McCoy finishes with 45 points as the Spartans defeat the Irish in overtime in East Lansing, 84-78. It remains the highest point total recorded by an individual against Notre Dame.
#28 (Wednesday, Dec. 22, 2004)
12 Days Of A Notre Dame Basketball Christmas – #2
Pipeline to the Pros – Part I
Notre Dame has sent a vast number of players into the ABA, BAA, NBL and NBA over the years. Here is a look at some of the Irish players that have appeared for professional teams (alphabetical by last name, A – D).
Bob Arnzen
Three ABA Seasons
New York Nets (1969-70), Indiana Pacers (1972-73, ’73-’74)
One NBA Season
Cincinnati Royals (1970-71)
Career Averages: 5.5 ppg, 2.8 rpg
Leo Barnhorst
Five NBA Seasons
Chicago Stags (1949-50), Indianapolis Olympians (1950-51, ’52-’53), Baltimore Bullets/Fort Wayne Pistons (1953-54)
Career Averages: 9.4 ppg, 5.4 rpg
Dave Batton
Two NBA Seasons
Washington Bullets (1982-83), San Antonio Spurs (1983-84)
Elmer Bennett
Three NBA Seasons
Cleveland Cavaliers (1994-95), Philadelphia 76ers (1995-96), Houston Rockets/Denver Nuggets (1996-97)
Vince Boryla
Five NBA Seasons
New York Knicks (1949-50 through 1953-54)
Career Averages: 11.2 ppg, 3.7 rpg
Gary Brokaw
Four NBA Seasons
Miwaukee Bucks (1974-75 through 1976-77), Cleveland Cavaliers (1976-77), Buffalo Braves (1977-78)
Career Averages: 8.0 ppg, 3.0 apg
Austin Carrr
10 NBA Seasons
Cleveland Cavaliers (1971-72 through 1979-80), Dallas Mavericks/Washington Bullets (1980-81)
Career Averages: 15.4 ppg, 2.8 apg
Matt Carroll
One NBA Season
Portland Trailblazers/San Antonio Spurs (2003-04)
Sid Catlett
One NBA Season
Cincinnati Royals (1971-72)
Ray Corley
Four NBA Seasons
Syracuse Nationals (1949-50), Baltimore Bullets/Tri-City Blackhawks (1950-51), Fort Wayne Pistons (1952-53)j
Frannie Curran
One NBL Seasons
Toledo Jeeps (1947-48)
Two NBA Seasons
Rochester Royals (1948-49, ’49-’50)
Adrian Dantley
15 NBA Seasons
Buffalo Braves (1976-77), Indiana Pacers (1977-78), Los Angeles Lakers (1977-78, ’78-’79), Utah Jazz (1979-80 through 1985-86), Detroit Pistons (1986-87 through 1988-89), Dallas Mavericks (1988-89, ’89-’90), Milwaukee Bucks (1990-91)
Career Averages: 24.3 ppg, 5.7 rpg, 3.0 apg
William Davis
One NBA Season
Chicago Stags (1946-47)
#29 (Thursday, Dec. 23, 2004)
12 Days Of A Notre Dame Basketball Christmas – #3
A BIG EAST First
Notre Dame achieved a first in the history of the BIG EAST Conference in March of 2002 when Irish point guard Chris Thomas earned the league’s rookie of the year award on the men’s side while Jacqueline Batteast collected the same honor for the women’s team.
In addition, both players earned national recognition with freshman of the year honors. Thomas earned accolades from both Basketball Times and Basketball News, while Batteast was named the top women’s freshman play in the country by the United States Basketball Writers Association.
#30 (Friday, Dec. 24, 2004)
12 Days Of A Notre Dame Basketball Christmas – #4
Big Crowds
Notre Dame has played in front of some of the largest crowds in college basketball history, especially due to the fact that a number of college games have been moved to domed venues in recent years.
Among the largest crowds for a Notre Dame game: 45,214 (Dec. 3, 1988 vs. Kentucky in the Hoosier Dome), 44,233 (Jan. 20, 1990 vs. LSU in the Super Dome), 43,601 (Dec. 5, 1987 vs. Louisville in the Hoosier Dome) and 40,128 (Dec. 2, 1989 vs. Louisville in the Hoosier Dome).
Of the 10 highest single-game, regular-season paid attendance figures in NCAA history, four have been games involving Notre Dame.
#31 (Saturday, Dec. 25, 2004)
12 Days Of A Notre Dame Basketball Christmas – #5
Knocking Off The Defending Champions
When the Irish men’s team defeated 2003 national champion Syracuse 84-72 on Feb. 16, 2004, at the Carrier Dome, Notre Dame became just the fourth school since the inception of the women’s NCAA tournament in ’82 to have both its men’s and women’s basketball teams defeat the defending national champions in the same season.
On Jan. 13, 2004, the Irish women’s team beat Connecticut 66-51 in the Joyce Center. The other three schools to accomplish this feat are Duke (1998-99), Tennessee (1999-2000) and Michigan State (1999-2000).
#32 (Sunday, Dec. 26, 2004)
12 Days Of A Notre Dame Basketball Christmas – #6
Isolation Offense
Former Irish assistant coach Gene Sullivan helped design and implement the isolation, or double stack, offense in 1969-70 to take advantage of the talents of Austin Carr – especially his ability to move without the ball.
The Irish eventually played 58 games using the strategy and Carr scored 20-plus points in all of those games while reaching 30 in 46 of them, 40 points in 23 games and 50 points in nine games.
#33 (Monday, Dec. 27, 2004)
12 Days Of A Notre Dame Basketball Christmas – #7
Shadow Star – Collis Jones
Collis Jones is known as one of the most underrated players in Notre Dame Basketball history. With his spot on the program’s all-century team, perhaps Jones will get the attention his play on the court deserved.
Playing alongside the greatest scorer in Irish history (Austin Carr), Jones averaged 23.1 points and 13.2 rebounds per game during his senior season for Notre Dame. Only one other Irish player, Tommy Hawkins, was able to match those averages for a single year.
Taking on Butler during their junior seasons, Jones and Carr ran into a Bulldog team which thought it could out-run a thin Notre Dame roster (due to players arriving late for the bus trip, only seven Irish players were available for the game). Jones piled up 40 points in the contest, helping the Irish to a 121-114 victory. In typical fashion, Jones was lost from the headlines of the game because his teammate Carr had put up 50 points. Those 90 points are by far the most by two Irish players in the same game and the only documented Division I game in NCAA history in which one teammate had 50 and another 40 in the same game.
In the end, Jones scored at least 30 points six times and grabbed a minimum of 20 rebounds five times in his career.
Also – on this date in Notre Dame Basketball history –
Dec. 27, 1980 – Notre Dame’s six-game losing streak to Kentucky is snapped as Kelly Tripuka’s 30 points lead a 67-61 victory over the #1 ranked team in the UPI poll.
#34 (Tuesday, Dec. 28, 2004)
12 Days Of A Notre Dame Basketball Christmas – #8
Justin Moloney
Notre Dame had not fielded a varsity basketball team in eight years when Justin Moloney scored 34 points in the 1907-08 team’s second game against the Kalamazoo YMCA. Moloney’s 34 points led Notre Dame to a 78-8 victory. Few people probably realized how impressive a performance it was. It would be 45 years before an Irish player would score more points in a single game.
Joe Bertrand’s 35 points in a 1953 victory over Loyola finally broke one of the longest-held records in Irish history.
Also – on this date in Notre Dame Basketball history –
Dec. 27-28, 1957 – Notre Dame sweeps the Hoosier Classic for the first and only time in nine tries by defeating Purdue (68-61) and then Indiana (89-74) at the Butler Fieldhouse.
#35 (Wednesday, Dec. 29, 2004)
12 Days Of A Notre Dame Basketball Christmas – #9
On this date in Notre Dame Basketball history –
A number of memorable moments have occurred on this date in Notre Dame Basketball history –
Dec. 29, 1934 – To help aid victims of the Great Depression, New York’s Madison Square Garden hosts its first college basketball doubleheader. More than 19,000 people attend the preliminary game (Westminster vs. St. John’s) and the main event, Notre Dame vs. NYU. Thereafter, doubleheaders become commonplace across the country.
Dec. 29, 1955 – At the Sugar Bowl Tournament in New Orleans, John Jordan’s Irish post a 86-80 win versus Alabama, directed by fourth-year head coach Johnny Dee, who would later coach the Irish (1964-71). Dee would lead the Crimson Tide to 16 consecutive wins thereafter for a 21-3 finish.
Dec. 29, 1964 – A nine-game losing streak to Kentucky is snapped as Dee’s first Irish team upends the Wildcats in Louisville, 111-97. It is the most points every scored by a team in a victory against Kentucky.
#37 (Thursday, Dec. 30, 2004)
12 Days Of A Notre Dame Basketball Christmas – #10
Basketball Hall of Fame
Five former representatives of the University of Notre Dame’s basketball program have been inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass.:
George E. Keogan, 1961
Elmer H. Ripley, 1973
Edward “Moose” Krause, 1976
Raymond J. Meyer, 1979
J. Walter Kennedy, 1981
Keogan spent 20 seasons as Notre Dame’s head coach between 1923 and 1943 and amassed 327 victories, more than any other coach in Irish basketball history.
Ripley served Notre Dame as head coach in only one season, finishing 17-4 in ’45-’46. He played for the Original Celtics and coached at Georgetown, Yale, Columbia, Army and Regis. He also coached the ’60 Canadian Olympic Team and the Harlem Globetrotters for three seasons.
Krause began as a three-time All-American as Notre Dame’s center in the early 1930s, won 98 games as an Irish head coach and spent 32 years as Notre Dame’s athletic director.
Meyer, a 1938 Notre Dame graduate, was a two-time captain for the Irish and was named head coach at DePaul in 1942. He retired after the 1983-84 season with a 724-354 career record.
Kennedy, a ’34 Notre Dame graduate, served as Notre Dame’s sports information director prior to a 12-year stint as commissioner of the National Basketball Association.
#38 (Friday, Dec, 31, 2004)
12 Days Of A Notre Dame Basketball Christmas – #11
Olympians
Three Notre Dame basketball players have earned berths on the prestigious United States Olympic team.
Vince Boryla was on the 1948 London team after leading the Irish in scoring during the 1944-45 season. After playing for the Irish over two years, he enlisted in the Army and earned a spot on the Olympic squad through his play with the Denver Nuggets AAU team. The ’48 team easily won the gold medal, trouncing France 65-21 in the gold medal match.
Adrian Dantley became Notre Dame’s second Olympian in 1976. The two-time All-American played a key role on the gold medal winning team in Montreal. Dantley scored 30 points in the gold-medal winning game against Yugoslavia.
Bill Hanzlik was selected for the 1980 Olympic team that did not compete in Moscow due to the U.S. boycott. He did play with the team on a series of five contests against teams comprised of NBA talent, helping the Olympic team go 4-1 in those contests with 11 points, seven assists and five steals.
Also – on this date in Notre Dame Basketball history –
Dec. 31, 1931 – Sophomore Moose Krause tallied 12 points off the bench during a 22-21 victory at Northwestern. Later that season, Krause becomes the program’s first consensus All-American.
Dec. 31, 1935 – The annual New Year’s Eve clash with Northwestern in Chicago ends in Notre Dame’s lone basketball tie, 20-20. A scorekeeper’s error omits a Ray Meyer free throw, so the teams leave the court believing Northwestern won 20-19.
#39 (Saturday, Jan. 1, 2005)
12 Days Of A Notre Dame Basketball Christmas – #12
Draft Picks
Notre Dame has produced three overall #1 picks in the NBA draft. Kevin O’Shea was the first, selected by Miwaukee in 1950. Dick Rosenthal was picked first in 1954 by Fort Wayne, while Austin Carr was selected #1 by Cleveland in 1971.
Since the round-by-round results are available through 1957 – 16 Notre Dame players have been selected in the first round: Austin Carr (1st, 1971, Cleveland), Collis Jones (17th, 1971, Milwaukee), John Shumate (4th, 1974, Pheonix), Gary Brokaw (18th, 1974, Milwaukee), Adrian Dantley (6th, 1976, Buffalo), Bill Hanzlik (20th, 1980, Seattle), Orlando Woolridge (6th, 1981, Chicago), Kelly Tripuka (12th, 1981, Detroit), John Paxson (19th, 1983, San Antonio), Ken Barlow (23rd, 1986, LA Lakers), David Rivers (25th, 1988, LA Lakers), LaPhonso Ellis (5th, 1992, Denver), Monty Williams (24th, 1994, New York), Pat Garrity (19th, 1998, Milwaukee), Troy Murphy (14th, 2001, Golden State) and Ryan Humphrey (19th, 2002, Utah).
NEXT UPDATE:
#40 (Monday, Jan. 3, 2005)
Legend of the Hardwood – Leo Klier