The Notre Dame Fighting Irish and The Kentucky Wildcats have agreed to resume playing against each other throughout the 2022 season. The two programs
announced on Thursday that they would be playing a 3 game series, 2020 at Kentucky, 2021 Neutral Site (TBD), and 2022 at Notre Dame.
The two teams haven’t played each other since the 2015 Elite Eight when the Irish almost took down the undefeated Wildcats at the time. Kentucky won the game 68-66 behind Aaron Harrison’s two clutch free throws sealing the win. The last time these two programs met in the regular season was in 2012 during the SEC/Big East Invitational. The unranked Irish upset #8 Kentucky 64-50 behind Eric Atkins’ 16 points.
Both teams have major question marks surrounding their teams. For the Irish it’s, can Notre Dame replace John Mooney and T.J. Gibbs? And for the Wildcats it’s, will Olivier Sarr be eligible, and will the #1 recruiting class produce like their supposed to? Yes that’s right. Kentucky has the #1 recruiting class in the nation headlined by players such as Brandon Boston (#4) and Terrance Clarke (#7), and Olivier Sarr a transfer from Wake Forest who put up 30 points and 17 rebounds in his most recent meeting against the Irish.
Beating Kentucky at Rupp Arena would be astronomical to the Notre Dame Basketball program who haven’t made the NCAA Tournament since the 2016-17 season. The Irish return 2 out of the 5 starters from last year’s team, but add Dane Goodwin, and Nate Laszewski both key players off the bench from last years team, and Stanford transfer Cormac Ryan who was ineligible last year.
The 2020-21 Irish who just lost their top 2 leading scorers are supposed to face a college basketball blueblood in Kentucky, who just brought in the #1 recruting class and a top 5 transfer off the portal, to most that would seem outright dumb to schedule…but not to Mike Brey.
The Irish know what happens in the dreaded 20-game ACC schedule having to face teams like Duke, FSU, UNC, Virginia, and Syracuse is not easy by any means, and adding Kentucky says a lot to what Mike Brey believes in. The Irish aren’t going to be skating by the non-conference opponents anymore, Coach Brey wants to win, and win big.
In a Mike Brey way he told the Tribune 3 words…”Here we go”
Most teams after losing their three top contributors might only schedule only 1 or 2 low tier power 5 opponents…but not Mike Brey.
He could have waited until 2021, let Hubb, Goodwin, and Laszewski get another year playing together, and wait for transfer Trey Wertz to be eligible, but no Mike Brey expects this Notre Dame team to make it back to the NCAA Tournament…this year.
The Irish now have Purdue, the Empire Classic (USC, UConn, and Vanderbilt), the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, and Kentucky on their 2020 non-conference schedule. That’s 5 power five opponents, last year the Irish only had 3
Will this be the new Notre Dame Basketball?
No more easy non-conference schedules. 5 power five opponents’ sounds like a lot of exciting basketball games, and don’t forget…we still play 20 ACC games.
If this is the new normal for Notre Dame Basketball, I look forward to what is coming for this Mike Brey led basketball team, and I bet the fans do as well.
Go Irish! #BeatBBN
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