Notre Dame Fighting Irish News: J.R. Konieczny growing despite losses, more

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are still struggling but there are some aspects of the basketball team that shows there is some growth.

The Notre Dame basketball team found the same problems on Saturday that have plagued Micah Shrewsberry’s squad since the start of the season. The Irish have some serious offensive problems.

In its ACC opener, Notre Dame actually gave 8th-ranked Miami all it could handle. However, a complete and total lack of offense led to a 62-49 loss.

Schrewsberry’s crew was truly terrible from the field. They shot 18-of-63 (.286) from the floor and 6-of-32 (.188) from beyond the arc. However, not everyone was awful on Saturday.

J.R. Konieczny has shown real growth over the last few weeks. Yesterday, he led the offensive charge with 14 points, shooting 4-for-7 from three, as he’s put up double figures in four of his last five games. That, of course, means the rest of the team was just 2-for-25 from 3-point land.

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are now just 3-4 on the season and 0-1 in the ACC. Next up, they’ll get what should be a bit of a breather against Western Michigan on Tuesday. Next Saturday, they face off against Marquette.

Notre Dame Fighting Irish women looking for defense

Women’s basketball coach Niele Ivey is having a better season than her male counterpart but she’s also finding some things wrong with her squad’s approach. For her, it’s been the defense more than the offense that’s been the problem.

Despite a 6-1 start and a Top 25 ranking, Ivey said after he team’s win over Tennessee that the team has to stop trading baskets and get some shutdown games.

Other Notre Dame Fighting Irish news

• The Notre Dame Hockey team had a decent weekend against conference Rival Michigan, though not as quite as good as they might have hoped. After winning Friday’s contest against the Wolverines, the Irish dropped Saturday’s contest, 2-1.

• Notre Dame Fighting Irish soccer on the other hand, is having itself a run. On Saturday evening, they beat Indiana in the Elite Eight on penalty kicks in order to advance to the College Cup, which is the soccer version of the Final Four.

• The Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team will find out their bowl assignment on Sunday afternoon. There’s no chance for a New Year’s Six Bowl at this point and if things get the shakeup that many expect in the CFP rankings, they might get relegated to a pretty minor bowl.