Notre Dame basketball: Irish invited to Maui Invitational
By Brad Weiss
Notre Dame basketball will be taking on some of the best teams in the country to kick off the 2021-22 college basketball season in Maui.
It has been a pretty rough go for the Notre Dame basketball program in terms of the Men’s side, as they have failed to make the NCAA Tournament for many years in a row. This past season, they struggled to play consistent basketball all season long and were throttled in the ACC Tournament by the North Carolina Tar Heels.
As they enter the 2021-22 campaign, the Irish will be looking to change the narrative surrounding the program, and they have a bunch of talent returning. Notre Dame basketball has a tremendous point guard in Prentiss Hubb, and a scoring machine in forward Nate Laszewski, two guys who will be cornerstones for this team once again this year.
The party will get started for the Irish at the Maui Jim’s Maui Invitational, which will take place at the Lahaina Civic Center from November 22 through the 24th. The Irish will kick off their season against St. Mary’s on Day 1, and with a win, they would play the winner of the Houston vs. Oregon matchup.
Overall, it should be an exciting few days of Irish basketball.
Notre Dame basketball looking to get back to the dance
Notre Dame basketball has not been in the NCAA Tournament since the 2017 Dance, though they have had two 20-win seasons across the last four years. Last season, the combination of COVID-19 and injuries hurt their chances of returning to the Tournament, but things should look a lot different for the Irish during the 2021-22 campaign.
In fact, the Irish are of the top teams in the country in terms of how many minutes they have returning for the upcoming year.
Expectations are not that high by most national media companies in terms of the Irish this season, but that means absolutely nothing right now. This is a team that has a lot of talent returning, and some exciting players coming in, so hopefully, Mike Brey and his staff will have this program pointed back in the right direction this season.