#33 Notre Dame loses to #42 ranked Louisville 2-1 in Big East sem-final after allowing 2 very early goals. The Irish are now 10-7-3. The question is do they get invited to the Big Dance?
Yes. Fairly easily. And, boy, I hope video of the disallowed goal that would've equalized it late shows up somewhere.
The TV clearly shows no offsides. What about the missed PK? Was Henderson in the box? Anyone at the game?
ND travels to Illinois in the first round, 2PM eastern on Sunday. Tough game but they're all tough this year and getting tougher! From the ND website: "It's definitely been a challenging season for us, but we're excited to be part of this year's NCAA tournament," Notre Dame head coach Randy Waldrum said. "We've had some anxious moments the past few days waiting for the bracket to come out, and in the end, we're pleased to have the opportunity to defend our championship on the field. Illinois is an extremely talented and well-coached team, as they showed by winning the Big Ten Tournament in overtime against Penn State yesterday, and it will be a test for us to go down there and play them at their place. I think we're all looking forward to getting back out on the practice field tomorrow and starting to prepare for this weekend's game."
Congratulations to Illinois, who end ND's season by beating the Irish 1-0 at Illinois. A disappointing season for Notre Dame. Take a deep breath, team, thank the seniors for their leadership, and plan for 2012.
Great career for the seniors but didn't seem like the same Irish team even with that group who won a championship. Seen them a few times and no spark on the field- only at each other. Can't wait to see who they have committed for 2012 and can't wait to end the speculation of Waldrum leaving. They have a great staff and Randy is a genius. They will be fine.
Lost a bunch of games early to great teams but never got confidence. @ UNC 1-2 ot, @ Duke 1-3, @ Stanford 1-2, @ Santa Clara 1-1, @ Marquette 2-3 ot. Then they fell apart in conference and never rebounded. Never won more than 3 in a row. They will be back but today was ugly. I see that Melissa Henderson did not get a shot?!?!?!?
Just got back from the game. First of all a very windy day in central Illinois. These are my opinions: This is not the Irish I'm accustomed top seeing all these years. They showed very little desire or want. Illinois wanted this game more. And gogogo, I saw no leadership from the seniors all season. Just my opinions. Lauren Fowlkes was a leader. You can say all you want about Kerri Hanks, but when the Irish were losing, Kerri Hanks got mad. And yes sometimes started voicing her displeasure and played even harder. She was a leader. I saw no mad in the Irish today at Illinois after the went down 1-0. Last year's irish were made a 4th seed and went on the road with heart and mad to prove people wrong and won. They got to the College Cup and nothing was going to stop them. Team leadership was going to make sure of that. I'm a Melissa Henderson fan, but she was non-existant today. I was sure they could get bye Illinois today. But someone had to step up and in my opinion no one did. Anyway, lets look to next year.
I hear you, MRAD, and you've undoubtedly identified a problem. The team and coaches will have to buckle down next year if they hope to get the program back to the highest levels. There is no free lunch. Re leadership, I recall watching ND at Georgetown in 2006 and sophomore K. Hanks seemed to be moping. At halftime she was sitting off by herself. Senior Jen Buczkowski came over, all but picked Kerri up by the scruff of the neck, and gave her a good talking-to/pep talk (take your pick). GWG in the 2d half by C. Dew off a wicked direct kick by Kerri. Jen was a leader (she also headed the ball off the line late in the game to preserve the win). Somebody will have to step up in 2012.
You never like to hear about the lack of leadership on a team, but this to me is the single biggest reason for a team's success or lack thereof. Way more than coaching, talent or facilities. How many times are we questioning or doubting a coach and they miraculously pull out a career-saving season? Yet they aren't any better of a coach that year. Senior leadership is so crucial. And without it teams face a tough year.
UPPRV, leadership is definitely the key. ND's 2010 National Championship team was blessed with five great senior leaders. They were all relentless competitors and never questioned their ability to win it all. Their confidence and toughness, both physically & mentally, helped inspire the underclassmen. Losing Fowlkes, Weiss, Scheidler, Augustin and Iantorno left ND with both a leadership and an experience void that was clearly difficult to fill this year. As an ND fan I expect them to get back on track in 2012.
Did Randy interview at TCU??? I understand they standed the process. Not a bad spot for Randy to land.
The game itself was not a pretty one to watch. The wind was blowing too hard to have much control. I bought a box of popcorn at concessions and when I opened it the wind took half of it right out of the box. Notre Dame should have taken more shots in the first half since they had the wind. Illinois did not hold ND to 3 shots, the Irish just didn't take them. They were trying to walk into the goal. A good shot from anywhere on that side of the field had a good chance of going in. That's how Illinois scored in the second half. It was a good, solid shot outside of the box. The wind picked it up, carried it and dipped it under the goalpost and diving arms of Maddie Fox, who BTW, IMO played the best of all Irish players. She kept them in the game with several excellent saves.
Sounds a bit like the reg season Maryland-UNC game at College Park this year with a big wind blowing the length of the pitch. I bought popcorn and the same thing happened. The light standards were swaying, which was weird. In that match, btw, the Terps came back to win 2-1 in OT, and every goal was scored by the team with the wind at its back. The "shoot a lot and use the wind" tactic can really work when it's blowing a gale. Good to hear about Maddie Fox - a junior, so perhaps ND will have stability at keeper next year.
You are right gogogo, ND is set with solid keepers for the next few years. And, theguru, what is this about Randy interviewing at TCU? Notre Dame is a prime school, why would he do that? Unless like supposedly, Chris Petrucelli, he wants to go to a warmer climate or go back home. Where did you hear/read that?
And didn't Ok offer major money to coaches at major programs four years ago? People that we all think are "set" with current job.
I hope hope hope Randy stays at ND for the foreseeable future. Stay, Randy - we love you big guy! On the other hand, it's not inconceivable that somebody at his level of experience could be looking for a new challenge. At ND Randy has already won a couple of national titles and been to multiple College Cups. He's been national coach of the year and president of the NSCAA. 2009 and 2010 were two of his finest coaching/motivational performances, but it's just possible that he's a little tired of doing it again. He's Texan and - news flash - Texas culture and weather differ significantly from northern Indiana culture and weather. He's a great recruiter, especially from Texas, but it might actually be easier to recruit Texans to a Texas school. And I suppose that gobs of warm money couldn't hurt (Of course, historically moves by ND coaches to Texas have not been satisfying from the hardware perspective (see Petrucelli, C)). So I hope this is all just an Internet rumor and that Randy will refresh and reload at ND for the 2012 season. But I can see where someone in his boots might be listening to offers.
It possibly could be true. I remember Petrucelli. I thought he was great and when he decided to leave, I was disappointed. Waldrum came in and I wasn't all that sure what to think of him, but he proved to be a very good coach and recruiter. Maybe Waldrum considers himself now a good recruiter and maybe he feels he has enough cred after winning a couple of National Championships that he may think he will be as successful no matter where he goes. I'm thinking Petrucelli may have felt the same way. However it doesn't always work out that way. Chris petrucelli came nowhere close to being as successful at Texas like he was at Notre Dame. Also, the Big East is a conference in turmoil. Teams are coming and going. You don't know what your schedule will be year to year. And I believe randy has voiced his concern on that on Twitter. I certainly hope Randy Waldrum stays at Notre Dame. But if he doesn't I will remain an Irish fan no matter what and try to embrace the new coach. We'll see.
I always thought Petrucelli was a jerk, but I thought he could coach. His results at Texas really show the amount of wind that the Notre Dame coach has at his back.
IMO, Petrucelli and even Waldrum were/are able to recruit so well because they were/are the coaches of Notre Dame. Some times it is the school. Notre Dame will always attract student athletes. Especially those that have gone to Catholic High Schools. It will not be difficult for a new coach to land good soccer players at Notre Dame. Having said that, both of them are good coaches and good recruiters. There was an old story where Petrucelli and Dorrance used to have "recruiting wars". The story goes, when Dorrance would go to a home to talk to an athlete he was targeting, Petrucelli had already been there. It's important to be a good coach. But it doesn't hurt your recruiting to be the coach of a school like Notre Dame. Somehow, I would think recruiting comes a little easier.