Kelly Gruene

I’ll admit I don’t follow basketball (women’s or men’s) closely. But, it seems like people here have been concerned about the ability of women on this team. Losing two freshmen who were 5 star recruits makes me wonder a bit. I guess the team has enough talent returning to overcome the loss of two 5 stars?

3 freshmen transferring out. What’s going on with this team? https://www.wndu.com/2021/03/20/three-notre-dame-womens-basketball-players-enter-transfer-portal/

That's a really interesting letter. I have no idea what the issues were, but the signatories raise some good points.

Snowball fights! We used to play tic-tac-toe, throwing snowballs at Pasquerilla West windows after leaving the north dining hall. PW conveniently had groups of 9 windows, 3 rows and 3 columns. In March some of the windows were left open. Just too easy to pass up. Lots of great snow stories.

Probably even did the Review... ?

You must have been one of the first residents in Grace. "4 walks!"

Doesn't seem like ND wins too many recruiting battles with Alabama and Ohio State. Pretty impressive.

I'm guessing this relates to Burnham??

Just to be 100% clear, none of these vaccines are FDA approved. Not one. They are allowed under an Emergency Use Authorization by the FDA. The vaccines will still have to undergo the full approval process by the FDA, and that will likely take a year or two more.

Hmmm. I went to ND too. The dorky dorm.... Fisher? Pangborn? Keenan? St. Ed's? Howard? There was no East Quad or West Quad 30 years ago. Maybe something on the Mod Quad?

Really interesting. There must have been a long history of less-than-desirable behavior in Zahm.

Agree. I’ll give her three more years. I think that by the end of a coach’s 4th year the trajectory is set. This year to my untrained eye has been disappointing, but she certainly deserves a chance. ND has a pedigree in women’s basketball; hopefully Ivey can get ND back to where it competes for championships routinely. At this stage I’m sure Brey can’t.

I’ll admit I didn’t watch the game. But, being on the wrong end of a 37-2 run (https://247sports.com/college/notre-dame/Article/Tar-Heels-Bludgeon-then-Embarrass-Defenseless-Irish-in-101-59-Victory-162141767/) says a lot about a team. Coaches and players alike. Coaches gotta coach, players gotta play. If you could stomach watching the second half (and I give you major props if you continued watching after the first half) what did you see? The men’s and women’s program both seem headed in the wrong directions.

Just looking at the other schools involved, I'd say ND is not a likely final destination. Maybe a game day destination as a Hurricane when Miami plays at ND in 2024.

Happy birthday! Thank you for what and how you post. Great stuff always!

When I see a story like this it always makes me think of an old friend. A few years ago he just disappeared. Groups of us searched for days and days all over the area. He had committed suicide. Found in his car in a remote area. I truly hope Louis is okay. The story and my personal experience make me worry about the outcome.

Are there dbag specialty hospitals? Dbag-ectomy specialists? Those would never go out of business.

I had forgotten the Kim Dunbar story. Here’s a nice recap: https://bleacherreport.com/articles/353697-notre-dames-ncaa-infractions-ten-years-later She was sentenced to 4 years in prison for embezzlement, reduced to two years, then released after one.

While there's often disagreement about individual recruits and recruiting in general, I must admit that I truly appreciate the discussions. I'm pretty simple and never played football. I can't tell a good throwing motion from a bad one. Can't tell if a guy runs with his pads too high or if a guy runs good routes. All I see in recruiting is height, weight, position, star ranking, and offers. I base my thoughts primarily off that, coupled with the discussions that take place here. Recruiting insiders may have more insight into a player's character and GPA. Those are obviously considered by ND during recruiting too. Thanks to all of you for bringing all you do to the table in this forum.

I’d love to see them get Texas or TCU on the schedule. We need better recruiting out of Texas. Could play TCU at the Cowboys stadium as part of a home-and-home series; their own stadium is too small for ND to have an interest.

ND’s schedules are loaded in the coming years. Ohio State ‘22, ‘23 Texas A&M ‘24, ‘25 Alabama ‘28, ‘29 Florida ‘31, ‘32 Throw in a bunch of games with Clemson and the usual games with USC. The only thing I don’t like is that ND plays OSU in the first game of those two years. Probably out of playoff consideration after week one. Hopefully Saban retires before ‘28.

Of course only time will tell. According to 24/7, Clark was rated .87 coming out of high school and his best offers were from Clemson, ND, and North Carolina. He’s 6’2”. Pyne was rated .91 and had offers from Alabama, LSU, Auburn, Penn State, Michigan, Oklahoma, ND, and North Carolina. He’s 6’0”. I know I can’t evaluate high school quarterbacks. I believe major college programs are better at it than me. I like Pyne’s offer list a lot more than Clark’s. Clark could turn out to be the guy. It seems more likely to me, given his health history and the evaluations of other college programs, that Pyne will get more playing time than Clark. I do read that Clark has a stronger arm, and he has 2 inches on Pyne. DomerDomain has had its share of discussions about what characteristics are required to be a successful starting QB at ND. A strong arm and a little height are sought-after commodities. If he can merge those attributes with everything else that’s required, and stay healthy, then great for him and great for ND.

I believe this is at least a 9 win regular season team. More likely 10 or 11. But you’re of course right. O-line will determine a lot. I think Rees’ development as O coordinator will be even more important than that though.

If no injuries between now and then, it almost has to be Coan. Wouldn't surprise me to see Pyne play a bit in the first game. Poor Clark. Doubt he plays a game at ND other than in the Senior Day game. Pyne, Coan. Gotta have a little fun with names...

I agree. ND won a lot of games with Book as QB. Haskins, with the same players and coaches and schedule, might have won a game or two more. Of course he could have lost a close game here or there. Eason? Maybe the same as Haskins. Possibly. I don’t believe ND has had a sophisticated offense or a QB who could run one. That point was made clear to me as I watched Alabama dismantle OSU. I had completely underrated ‘Bama’s QB until I saw him make the perfect reads as his receivers went in motion. Rees doesn’t have the ability yet to design that type of offense, Book probably couldn’t have run it as efficiently, and ND did not have five star talent all over the field like ‘Bama did. LSU set the low standard for a team winning a cfp-era championship with only having 10 five star players on their roster. ND is lucky to have one or two in a given year. I think that makes a bigger difference than having a guy like Book at QB. Was he the greatest to ever play QB at ND? Of course not. But all he did was win. Until he ran up against teams with five to seven times the numbers of five star players on the field as his team had.