Notre Dame Athletics: The Inaugural Slappy Awards!
By J.P. Scott
Best Play
Carlee North: Clearly this one was a given for me. To win the national championship, Arike Ogunbowale hit a buzzer beater against Mississippi State to take home the title for the lady Irish for the second time in program history.
Nathan Erbach: Most of my colleagues will go with one the Ogunbowale’s buzzer beaters, but for sake of mixing things up I’ll choose a different play. Men’s basketball hasn’t deserved much love this year due to the disappointing season and Farrell and Colson injuries, but during the Maui Invitational Championship game against Wichita State we caught a glimpse of that Irish team could have been. Down big the majority of the game, Notre Dame clawed its way back. With 18 seconds left, down by three, and Wichita State’s ball, Farrell stole the inbound pass and dished to Colson for two.
Notre Dame went on to win the game with two clutch free throws from Martinas Geben, but without the Farrell play WSU is likely on the free throw line to go up 5 and Notre Dame loses. When looking back on the Notre Dame sports year and especially basketball, that play sticks out as one of the best.
Jack Leniart: Can I choose all of the game-winning plays that happened during the post season?
In case you lost count, there were eight of them – seven of which happened in the span of three weeks. Five came from the Men’s Hockey team, two were from the Women’s Basketball team, and the final one was from the Football team in the Citrus Bowl.
If I had to choose one, it would be Arike Ogunbowale’s game-winner against Mississippi State. Ogunbowale delivered her greatest moment on the biggest stage. After hitting a game-winning shot in the final seconds of overtime in the previous game, Ogunbowale was trusted with taking the final shot in the championship. This was not a simple catch-and-shoot. She caught the inbound pass, took one dribble, and then threw up a high-arching shot while fading away to her right. If you were just watching Arike and did not look at the trajectory of the shot, you would have thought the ball was heading five feet to the right of the basket.
You would have been wrong. Swish. Game.
Sonny Martinez: Arike’s Championship Winner. As mentioned earlier, this is the biggest shot in the program’s history. With 0.1 seconds left, Arike nailed a three from the left side, similar to the previous game. Adam Amin’s call made the moment even better, followed by the stunned silence and hearing the team celebrate the win. This will go down as one of the most memorable moments in Notre Dame history.
Connor McJunkin: Arike’s buzzer-beater against Mississippi State. C’mon. There was no bigger play by a Notre Dame athlete this year, besides Arike’s OTHER buzzer beater to take down UCONN in the Final 4. A fade away three as time expires to win a National Championship, the stuff of legends.
J.P. Scott: Sometimes the obvious choice is obvious. Arike Ogunbowale’s shot to win the national title is the obvious choice.
And the Slappy goes to: