November 8, 1998

University of Notre Dame Basketball
Notre Dame vs. Team Fokus
Joyce Center (11,418)
Sunday, November 8, 1998, 7:30 p.m. EST

STARTING THE SEASON:
The University of Notre Dame basketball teams plays its final exhibition game of the season tonight as it takes on Team Fokus, a touring group of former collegiate players. The coach of Team Fokus is Mickey Walker, who was the AAU coach of Notre Dame senior guard and captain Antoni Wyche.

Scores in the current Team Fokus tour are losses to Massachusetts (84-82), Rutgers (109-96), Duke (118-65), Syracuse (96-85) and Seton Hall (101-71). Team Fokus began the tour with a 95-88 win over Providence College.

Notre Dame won its first exhibition game of the season on Monday, November 2, with a 97-87 win over One World Basketball. A pair of freshman led the Irish in scoring as forward Troy Murphy (Morristown, N.J.) had 21 points and nine rebounds while forward David Graves (Lexington, Kent.) had 16 points and six rebounds.

IRISH KICK OFF REGULAR SEASON
The Irish kick off the regular season on Friday, November 13, at 7:30 p.m. against Miami of Ohio. Last season, Miami of Ohio had a 17-12 record and advanced to the championship game of the Mid-American Conference tournament. Notre Dame opens its fourth season of competition in the BIG EAST Conference on Tuesday, December 8, when it travels to Providence for a 7:30 p.m. EST game. The first BIG EAST home game of the season is on Tuesday, December 29, against Syracuse at 7:30 p.m.

PROBABLE STARTERSNo. Name            Pos.    Ht. Wt. YearHometown            PPG     RPG     Ast.3   Troy Murphy     F       6-9 225 Fr. Morristown, NJ      --      --      --34  David Graves    F       6-5 211 Fr. Lexington, KY       --      --      --55  Phil Hickey     C       6-11272 Sr. Wellsboro, PA       10.7    8.0     284   Antoni Wyche    G       6-5 196 Sr. Ballston Lake, NY   9.4     3.2     6224  Martin Ingelsby G       5-11171 So. Philadelphia, PA    6.6     2.5     150 (5.6)

IRISH OFF TO ALASKA:
The Notre Dame basketball team will spend its Thanksgiving holiday in Alaska playing in the Great Alaska Shootout in Anchorage. Notre Dame will make the 3,760 journey to the 49th state on Tuesday, November 24, and play Duke in the first round of the event on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, November 26 at 8 p.m. Alaska time, which will be 12:00 a.m. EST Friday. Notre Dame will play either Fresno State or Alaska Anchorage in the second round of the event on Friday, November 27, and either Cincinnati, Iowa State, Southern Utah of St. Mary’s (Calif.) on Saturday, November 28. The games will mark the third series of regular season basketball games played by Notre Dame outside the Continental United States. Notre Dame played in the Maui Classic in Hawaii in 1993 and in the Rainbow Classic in Hawaii in 1966.

Notre Dame Basketball Notes, 222222

MURPHY RECOGNIZED BY BASKETBALL NEWS:
Murphy has been selected as the newcomer of the year in the BIG EAST Conference by Basketball News in the publication’s annual preseason yearbook. Murphy was named his team’s most valuable player last spring at the prestigious Capital Classic in Washington, D.C., where he had 18 points and 21 rebounds in the postseason game.

TWO FRESHMEN STARTERS:
With two freshmen projected to start Friday’s opening game against Miami of Ohio, it will mark the first time since the 1982-83 opener that the Irish have two freshman starting a season-opening game.

In that season, Notre Dame started Tim Kempton and Ken Barlow as the Irish beat Stonehill by a 74-60 count. Kempton scored nine points in the contest while Barlow had 14.

TICKETS NOW AVAILABLE:
A variety of options are available for Notre Dame fans who wish to purchase tickets this season. Season tickets in the upper arena for all 18 games (two exhibition plus regular season) are now on sale for $154.00. A premier mini-package season ticket is also available and contains tickets for the Indiana (Dec. 1), Seton Hall (Jan. 19), Providence (Jan. 30), Georgetown (Feb. 10), West Virginia (Feb. 21) and Boston College (Feb. 28) games. The mini-package is available for $60.00 for upper arena seats. Single game tickets for non-mini-package games are available. For more information, call the Notre Dame ticket office at 219-631-7356.

IRISH RADIO NETWORK:
Host Communications, Inc., originates the Notre Dame basketball radio network for the 11th year in 1998-99. Jack Lorri will once again handle play-by-play duties and this season will mark his 30th year of announcing Irish games. Jack Nolan handles the color commentary.

WMAQ-AM radio will carry Notre Dame basketball games in the Chicago market for the next two seasons as part of the network originated by Universal Sports America, an affiliate of Host Communications, Inc.

Notre Dame basketball game on WMAQ this season include:

Fri.        Nov. 13         vs. Miami (Ohio) Sun.        Nov. 15         vs. Yale Thurs.      Nov. 26         vs. Duke in first round of                                 Great Alaska Shootout Fri.        Nov. 27             Great Alaska Shootout TBA Sat.        Nov. 28             Great Alaska Shootout TBA Tue.        Dec. 1          vs. Indiana Sat.        Dec. 5          vs. Central Michigan Sun.        Dec. 27         vs. St. Francis (N.Y.) Tue.        Dec. 29         vs. SyracuseSat.        Jan. 2          vs. Villanova Sat.        Jan. 16         at  Villanova Tues.       Jan. 19         vs. Seton Hall Sat.        Jan. 23         vs. Rutgers Sat.        Jan. 30         vs. Providence Sat.        Feb. 6          at  Seton Hall Sun.        Feb. 14         vs. West Virginia Sun.        Feb. 28         vs. Boston College Wed.-Sat.   March 3-6           BIG EAST Tournament TBA.

WMAQ-AM (670), with its 50,000-watt clear channel signal, covers a larger geographic area than any other radio station in Chicago. WMAQ’s other sports properties include the Chicago Bears and the Chicago Blackhawks — and WMAQ is also affiliated with CNN Radio.

Others stations on the network include: WNDU 1490 AM and 92.9 FM in South Bend and WLUV 96.7 FM and 1520 AM in Rockford, Ill.

1998-99 Notre Dame Basketball Roster (with updated height and weights)

No.     Name                    Pos.Hgt.Wgt.Cl. Hometown                High School22      Dennis Carroll          F   6-5 207 Sr. LaGrange, IL            Lyons Township21  **  Jimmy Dillon            G   6-2 171 Jr. Philadelphia, PA        Holy Ghost Prep12      Mike Edwards            F   6-5 195 Fr. South Bend, IN          Adams34      David Graves            F   6-5 211 Fr. Lexington, KY           Lexington Catholic55  *** Phil Hickey             C   6-11272 Sr. Wellsboro, PA           Wellsboro24  *   Martin Ingelsby         G   5-11171 So. Philadelphia, PA        Archbishop Carroll11      B.J. Kloska             G   6-3 194 So. Elkhart, IN             Marian35      Tom Krizmanich          G   6-4 198 So. Warsaw, IN              Warsaw10      Matt MacLeod            G   6-4 181 Jr. Granger, IN             St. Joseph3       Troy Murphy             F   6-9 225 Fr. Morristown, NJ          Delbarton25      Peter Okwalinga         F   6-8 215 So. Nairobi, Kenya          Greensteds School43      Skylard Owens           F   6-4 210 Jr. Shreveport, LA          Loyola College Prep 44  *   Todd Palmer             F   6-6 220 Jr. Harrington Park, NJ     Don Bosco Prep15  *   Paul Rainey             G   6-1 191 Sr. Hattieville, AR         Wonderview33  *   Hans Rasmussen          F   6-9 219 So. Portland, OR            Central Catholic42      Harold Swanagan         F   6-6 242 Fr. Hopkinsville, KY        University Heights                                         Academy5       Chalres Thomas          G   6-0 147 Fr. Flint, MI               Powers Catholic20  *   Leviticus Williamson    F   6-6 194 So. Spring, TX              Spring4   *** Antoni Wyche            G   6-5 196 Sr. Ballston Lake, NY       Notre Dame-Bishop                                          Gibbons

* – denotes number of monograms won

Head Coach:         John MacLeodAssistant Coaches:  Fran McCaffery,                     Parker Laketa,                     Billy Taylor