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No surprise that this is where Notre Dame basketball is at with one game to go
SOUTH BEND – You could see this coming.
It was there on the horizon and getting closer out the front window as the days and the games ticked by. As January and its 65 days unfolded with so few wins and too many losses, you could see this coming. As February arrived and Notre Dame basketball still seemed stuck in neutral in Atlantic Coast Conference play, you could see this coming.
It was bound to be this.
One game. One final conference game. One game to decide whether Notre Dame goes home for the rest of the month or goes on to Charlotte as the 15th and final team in the conference tournament. That’s where this season hangs for this Irish basketball team.
Even then, even if Notre Dame does something that it hasn’t done since the first game of league play in late December– win away from home - there’s no guarantee that it will get to Charlotte. That’s where we are. That’s where this Notre Dame basketball team is.
The Irish are here because they couldn’t do something that they’ve been unable to do all season. League play. Non-league play. It doesn’t matter. Slide even a sliver of success in front of this program, turn on the feel-good vibes and it turns its back on the slight chance that it might turn one win into two, turn opportunity into something more than something missed.
Here we are again with Notre Dame, which did little right all night in a game against Stanford that it trailed for nearly 30 minutes. It couldn’t build off an impressive overtime win over North Carolina State, a win that left everyone around the Irish program feeling good and feeling something they haven’t felt much of in the last three seasons under head coach Micah Shrewsberry.
That would be optimistic. That the Irish had found something. That better days were imminent. That that one league win might morph into two in a row. Maybe three. That this season of struggles was finally in the rearview.
Instead, on an unseasonably warm, drizzly night outside, inside a cold, drafty, and empty Purcell Pavilion, it was more of the lethargic/lackluster same from this program, from this roster that, for whatever reasons, prefers to play Peter Pan.
As in, they refuse to grow up. They prefer to stay forever young. In this league, that means forever bad.
Unable to take a step toward Charlotte, Notre Dame (13-17; 4-13 ACC) finds itself forced to go to Boston College this weekend and win. Win, and then hop back on the charter, head back home, and pray as they’ve never prayed before that Syracuse beats Pittsburgh later that afternoon in whatever the Carrier Dome is now called.
Syracuse does that, and Notre Dame extends its season, if only for a few days. Syracuse doesn’t do that, and Notre Dame, for the first time since conference affiliation began in 1995-96, will be forced to watch the league tournament from home.
As painful as it was to watch Notre Dame drift through this one, where the Irish allowed Stanford to get comfortable from 3 (.522 percent), get comfortable at the rim (34 points in the paint), and play with a nice pace, it was more excruciating to sit through the post-game presser of Stanford coach Kyle Smith.
Smith talked of how the Cardinal refused to be all happy and high about beating SMU late last week in Northern California. It was a big win. It was a statement win. From the head coach to freshman sensation Ebuka Okorie (game-high 24 points) right down the team text chain, the Cardinal talked of handling success, talked of building on that success, talked of not being satisfied with success.
In other words, doing everything that this Notre Dame program still cannot do.
What traits does a team that can handle success own? Smith rattled off four, each one cutting a bit deeper if you follow/believe in Irish basketball. He talked of culture. He talked of attitude. He talked of pride. He talked of work ethic.
“We’ve got a pretty special group,” Smith said.
Notre Dame is still woefully deficient in all. Culture? Attitude? Work ethic? Pride? All of that’s a foreign language around this Irish program that will go a full calendar year without winning consecutive league games. How is Notre Dame ever going to go and win double-digit games in the ACC when the best it can do is one in a row? A question/concern for another day.
On a night when we needed culture and attitude, work ethic and pride, what did Notre Dame offer?
“I thought our focus sucked. I thought our discipline sucked. I thought our awareness sucked,” Shrewsberry said. “When your back’s against the wall, you gotta come out and better than that.”
Instead ...
“You get what you deserve,” Shrewsberry said.
Why?
“I don’t know,” Shrewsberry said. “I’ve tried a bunch of different things. At some point in time, it shouldn’t matter what happened the game before. We won a game and we’ll take our foot completely off the gas. You can’t. If you want to be a good team, you’ve got to be more mature.”
As bad as it all felt stepping back out into the soft rain early Thursday morning, a sliver of optimism remains. Win and Notre Dame just might see Charlotte. It might get in as the No. 15 seed. It might have a trick or two up its shooting sleeve. Why Notre Dame? Why not Notre Dame?
Before answering those questions, let’s ask a third: given how this season has gone, given how this week has gone, given what’s required this weekend in Boston.
Do you trust Notre Dame?
To compete, to deliver, to win.
Thought so.
Follow South Bend Tribune and NDInsider columnist Tom Noie on X (formerly Twitter): @tnoieNDI. Contact Noie at [email protected]
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Notre Dame basketball needs help to get to Charlotte for ACC tournament
‘Happy with what we did’ – Slot defends summer transfer business amid Liverpool squad concerns
Arne Slot has insisted that he’s ‘happy’ with the transfer business that Liverpool completed last summer and that it was impossible to predict the extent of the injury problems which have affected his squad this season.
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Despite an outlay of almost £450m on new players in 2025, the Reds find themselves sixth in the Premier League table with only nine matches remaining to salvage Champions League qualification, falling woefully short of expectations at the outset of the campaign.
Between a spate of long-term injuries and some simultaneous absences in certain positions, the LFC head coach has felt compelled to deploy players in unfamiliar roles to try and plug the gaps, and it’s evident that a few core names have been badly missed in recent weeks and months.
Slot ‘happy’ with Liverpool’s summer transfer business
In his pre-match press conference ahead of Liverpool’s FA Cup clash against Wolves, Slot was asked if he has any regrets over not ensuring that he’d had a deeper squad by the end of last summer’s transfer window.
The 47-year-old insisted (via Liverpool Echo): “I’m happy with what we did last summer. We signed so many great players but you can’t predict that so many would be injured. Adaptation you can predict.
“It’s the model we are having that we don’t have 25 players over here. It hurts even more if you have three or four long-term injuries. I knew when I came in this was the model and I’m happy with that.”
Bad luck has played a part, but lessons to be learned for Liverpool
Nobody could accuse Liverpool of not being ambitious in the transfer market last summer, and as Slot says, no-one could’ve legislated for the extent to which the Reds have been hampered by injuries this season.
Don Hutchison made the point that the Dutchman had vastly superior strength in depth last term compared to now, highlighting how the exits of several big-name players have contributed to the shortage of options in reserve during the current campaign.
Injury issues are an inevitability in football, especially in an era where such intense demands are placed on those at the highest level, but LFC have been unlucky to lose Giovanni Leoni, Conor Bradley, Wataru Endo and Alexander Isak to long-term setbacks.
That’s not to mention the likes of Jeremie Frimpong, Alisson Becker, Joe Gomez and Florian Wirtz being sidelined at times throughout the season, although Slot hinted that the German could make a brief substitute outing at Molineux tomorrow night.
Liverpool would undoubtedly be a different beast if they had a fully-fit squad, although the travails of this campaign must be taken into account in the composition of transfer policy for the upcoming summer so that we don’t find ourselves in the same unwelcome scenario in 2026/27.
Harry Maguire 'refused chances to pay £43,500 bribe to Greek police to make his Mykonos assault case go away' - days before being handed 15-month suspended sentence
The England and Man United defender was on Wednesday found guilty of non-serious assault, resisting arrest and attempted bribery six years after a brawl on a family holiday in August 2020.
Raducanu to 'tap into a few people' over coaching
British number one Emma Raducanu says she is going to be "tapping into a few people" as she tries to rediscover her natural way of playing.
The 2021 US Open champion says she remains open to the idea of having another full-time coach - as long as they do not dictate the way she should play - but is wary of the scrutiny they will attract.
Raducanu's partnership with Francisco Roig ended after January's Australian Open because of a disagreement over her playing style.
The Spaniard was the seventh full-time coach Raducanu had worked with.
"Right now, it's more about bringing my instincts back out, getting back in touch with myself," Raducanu told BBC Sport after a two-hour practice session before her first match at Indian Wells in California.
"I have had a lot of people telling me what to do, how to play, and it hasn't necessarily fit.
"So I want to come back to my natural way of playing. That takes time to relearn because that's something that has been coached out of me a little bit.
"I don't necessarily want to have one coach in the role because anyone I bring in is straight away going to be scrutinised - even if it's a trial.
"I might feel the pressure to stick with them, even if it's not necessarily the right decision.
"I would love to have a coach that works well, but I don't think it's necessarily going to be easy to find one person and they are going to check every box.
"I definitely have my mind open to it. It's just that I would rather someone not come in and tell me 'let's do this', and I disagree with it but have to listen to them.
"So far Alexis [Canter] has been really good, but I am definitely going to tap into a few people here and there."
Petchey helping in day-to-day role
Mark Petchey is at the top of that list. His day job with the Tennis Channel brings him to Indian Wells anyway, and he has answered the call for assistance.
He has been on court regularly this week and, even though the arrangement with Raducanu is on a day-to-day basis, it is possible that Petchey could resume the ad hoc role he had last spring.
Petchey, who coached Andy Murray at the start of his career, joined Raducanu's team in Miami last March as she reached the quarter-finals.
He was also a regular presence throughout the clay-court season, when Raducanu reached the fourth round in Rome.
Raducanu said she asked for Petchey's help as she felt uncomfortable about her game, and has noticed an improvement over the past few days.
"I work really well when I'm with him," she said.
"I'm really happy to be on the court and just really enjoy it overall. I'm not sure, going forward, what it will look like."
Raducanu aims to bounce back from Middle East swing
Canter has limited coaching experience and very much takes a back seat when Petchey is also on the court.
But Canter was with Raducanu as a hitting partner in Washington last summer when she made the semi-finals, and also in Cluj last month when the world number 24 reached only the second final of her career.
Raducanu did not win a match in Doha or Dubai, where she had a chest infection, but is healthy again for Friday's second-round match - following a first-round bye -against qualifier Anastasia Zakharova.
Raducanu has had a full week of practice to get used to the thin desert air and the Californian sun.
She thinks the best way to climb the rankings is by trusting her natural instincts - irrespective of who is in the coaching box.
What is Raducanu's natural way of playing? - analysis
Remember when Raducanu caused a seismic shock by winning the 2021 US Open as a teenage qualifier who had barely played a professional tournament?
She managed to achieve the unthinkable by playing with a freedom which she has not been able to replicate consistently since.
Almost five years later and having reached the last 16 of a Grand Slam tournament only once since, Raducanu is determined to get back to basics.
That means rediscovering her natural instincts to be an aggressive baseliner. Her early success was built around not being afraid to take returns early in a bid to hustle opponents.
First serves were put back deep in the court to instantly put her rivals on the back foot and second serves were swatted away with impunity.
Raducanu's power off both wings was impressive, although it was clear her forehand needed more work than her solid and stylish backhand.
Over the next year or so, the forehand deteriorated to a place where it lacked any punch and, following the wrist surgery which ruled her almost completely of the 2023 season, is what Roig tried to remodel.
The lack of trust in what Raducanu was being asked to do, though, was clear at the Australian Open.
In a demoralising second-round exit, she made 19 unforced errors off that wing and spoke afterwards about returning to a simple philosophy - "hitting the ball to the corners and hard".
There is another aspect to Raducanu's ambitions of returning to the top 10 and challenging the very best players - her body and mind.
She must continue to build fitness and durability, and have the heart for a scrap in tough moments, to implement the style she wants.