Archive for the ‘Spanning the Dome’ Category

As you all know, we aired the podcast every Wednesday live at 10pm (ET), 7pm (PT). Because of scheduling, this week’s show will air tonight and we have decided to start it an hour early to enable our east coast listeners a chance to listen without staying up too late.

So tune in live, tonight at 9pm (ET), 6pm (PT) for the podcast. Frank and I will discuss a short Air Force recap, a Duke preview and some interesting news that has yielded itself this week, including the thoughts of former Irish player, Bob Kuechenberg and why he dislikes Charlie Weis so much.

You can also throw your questions at us in the chat room live, so be sure to join in the fun.

LINK: UHND CHAT ROOM.
LINK: UHND’s Podcast Home Page

Missed yesterday’s post due to a little bit too much poker, but I’m back tonight with a bunch of links on the baseball and basketball teams and some more articles on the upcoming draft.  Sorry about the repeats in dome pics, I received a bunch through email that I just haven’t gotten a chance to post yet.  I’ll get to them this weekend.

• The bball team concludes its season tomorrow against Rutgers on the road.  Here’s a preview of the game I stumbled across.  If the Irish are to make a run in either the BE Tourney or in the Big Dance, this is the kind of game they HAVE to win.
• Speaking of this being a must win, here’s an article about Brey keeping his team focused.
• Tomorrow’s game in Jersey is a sellout despite Rutgers having a pretty terrible year in basketball this year.
• And as if we didn’t know this already, the Irish are a lock for the Tourney.
• The baseball team will play a double header on Sunday after Saturday’s game was scratched.
• Nice article from Eric Hansen on the coaches for the Notre Dame Spring Game.
• Just how fast will Jeff Samardzija be pitching in Wrigley Field?  Sooner than you make think according to this mlb.com article.
• Good post from HerLoyalSons about why Notre Dame’s linemen don’t seem to be too strong (at least based on their lifting numbers at last weekends combine).
• This guy thinks the Raiders should avoid drafting a quarterback.  And you know what?  I agree with him.  That team, in its current state, has quarterback killer written all over it.
• Just another article with some quotes showing Quinn knows how to say all the right things and that he’s got his head screwed on straight.

Today’s edition of Spanning the Dome features what is becoming a common mix - little bit of Brady Quinn draft news, little bit of news on the other Notre Dame players in the draft, and a couple basketball links.  By the way, what am I going to link to at this time next year without Notre Dame having one prospects in the draft?

• I haven’t given much love to Victor Abiamiri’s draft status in these posts, so let’s start off with a post from the Patriots website which mentions him as a potential outside linebacker in their 3-4 defense.
• Michael Rothstein has a good article up about Rhema McKnight’s path to the NFL.  If Rhema can turn in a good 40 time at the Notre Dame pro day, I think he can move into the third round.
• Another post from a Dolphins blog on Brady Quinn.  It seems like Miami fans are really warming up to the idea of Quinn and I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Dolphins trade up for him.
• Meanwhile, this guy thinks that neither Russell or Quinn should go first and his arguments are pretty good - both Calvin Johnson and Adrian Peterson are sick athletes.
• Seriously, this is the last draft link for today - Jason Kelly weighs on Quinn and the draft.  On a side note, how nice is it to have Jason Kelly and Eric Hansen at the SBT after having say… David Haugh a few years back?
• Remember when Notre Dame ended the season in the NIT?  The Irish won’t be there this year, but the SBT talks to Russell Carter and Collin Falls about ND’s recent NIT trips.
• The observer has a good article on the basketball team’s regular season finale against Rutgers and how much it can mean for their chances in the Big East and NCAA Tournaments.
• Another good article from the Observer about adding some size and muscle to the offensive and defensive lines.

After a brief hiatus, Spanning the Dome returns.  Sorry for the lack if updates the past couple of days, I’ll try to keep the Spanning the Dome posts a little more frequently, especially on weekdays moving forward.

• Here’s a nice article on the myth of Quinn dropping in the draft from Eric Hansen.  Some good points made by Hansen about Quinn’s big game performance and how the combine has only added to the rumors of Quinn failing down the draft board - another great article from Hansen.
• While I’m on the topic of Quinn and the draft… here’s a decent article from SI.com about JaMarcus Russell and Quinn battling for the top spot in the draft.  I’ll have a post a bit later on how the combine hurt Russell’s stock some.
• And here is Brady’s latest blog entry from his XBOX community blog (hopefully more on this later)
• Despite a weekend split with Ferris State, the hockey team remained #1 in the polls for the 4th straight week. St. Cloud State, who recruiting fans will remember as a player for John Carlson a few years back, nearly passed the Irish.
• Here’s a photo gallery of this past week’s ND baseball games.
• Great post from Mike at BGS about the coaching class of 2004.  Weis, Urban Meyer, and Spurrier were the headliners and this post gives a good look at how each has faired.
• Will ND run the ball more?  That is the question posed by the latest Rock Report.

Today’s links are a little late.  I don’t really have a good excuse either as I sat this Friday night at home.  I was messing around with some really cool new features I’m hoping to roll out for UHND this off-season though.  Anyway - here’s today’s links.

• Quinn isn’t conceding the top spot in the draft according to this MSNBC article.
• Darius Walker is still confident after leaving Notre Dame early.  It’s good to see Walker remain confident, but with most draft experts projecting him as a late first day/early second day draft pick, he might not stay that way.
• This guy thinks Russell should be the #1 pick, but someone should tell him that Russell and LSU beat Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl, not the Orange Bowl as he references at one point.
• Here’s a preview of the Notre Dame-Marquette basketball game tomorrow.  The game is a national telecast on ABC at 3:30.  Should be a great game.
• A good, fairly balanced look at Russell and Quinn.  The Leaf-Manning comparisons which we’ve mentioned here for a while seem to be picking up steam.
• The Vikings will interview Brady Quinn.  I’ve been saying for a while I will be surprised if Quinn makes it past Minnesota.  Brad Childress was groomed under Andy Reid whom he watched build the Eagles around a franchise quarterback.  Minnesota would be one of the best destinations for Quinn amongst the top 10.
• Great recap of Quinn’s media day at the combine.  For those interested, he measured in at 6′ 3 3/4″ and 232 lbs.
• Rich Rodriguez from West Virginia actually had some nice things to say about Quinn as well.  He concedes that he’d pick Russell over Quinn, but he gives a pretty fair assessment of both.
• Nice quote from Walker regarding Weis and how he doesn’t like when you are late.
• A good look at all of the position battles on the offensive side of the ball this spring from Domer Law Blog

Sorry guys, I accidentally deleted yesterdays links.  I’ll have some new ones up for Friday in a little though.

Man is it a slow day.  I’ve been searching for links for at least an hour now and haven’t come up with a whole hell of a lot.  I did find a couple decent links about the combine and Quinn’s draft status and the BGS link is great, but other than that, it was slim pickin’s today.

• BGS posted their top 10 plays of the year.  They have videos embeded for each play so enjoy.  The only play that missed their cut that I was quite partial to was Quinn’s 60 yard scramble against ‘SC, but you can’t argue with the ones they picked.
• Lou Somogyi has an article up about the top 4 offensive line classes since ‘92.  Something tells me that last year’s crop of freshman will be making, an possibly toping, this list in a couple years.
• A very good run down of the Weis malpractice case and mistrial from yesterday.
• In case anyone missed Brady Quinn’s XBOX blog post from last week, take a look.  It’s a pretty good read about how he has been working out in preparation for the combine.
• Speaking of Quinn and video games, Sports Gamer takes a look at who might be gracing the cover of NCAA Football 2008.  Ever since the deal between Quinn and XBOX was announced I figured he was a lock for the cover next year and I still think so.  Btw, EA officially launched the site for NCAA ‘08 and will announce their cover boy on March 2.
• ArmChairGm.com has their latest mock draft up and surprisingly they have Quinn going #1 to Oakland.  It’s been a while since a mock draft had Quinn going #1.  Quinn is, however, the only ND prospect in their first round.
• Nice overview of the combine from USA Today with a couple mentions of Quinn.
• BigEastHoops.com thinks Notre Dame will secure the 4th seed in the Big East Tourney and get the last bye.  The Irish are tied for fourth right now and can take over possession of the 4th position with a win over Marquette Saturday.

Lots of basketball links tonight after the bball team’s nice win over DePaul. The Irish looked pretty impressive in beating up on DePaul and set up a really nice showdown with Marquette on Saturday. The win also pretty much makes the Irish a lock for the tourney. As always, there are also a few links on Brady Quinn and the draft.  Today’s dome pic come froms Kyle.

• The USA Today has a good article on Quinn’s goal of being the first overall selection. Scott Wright of NFL Draft Countdown called Quinn a “potential franchise quarterback in the mold of (Cincinnati’s) Carson Palmer.”
• Meanwhile, MSNBC has an article stating that the Raiders should draft JaMarcus Russell with the #1 people. Maybe the Notre Dame detractors are right, NBC promotes Notre Dame just a little too much.
• BGI has a nice preview of all of Notre Dame’s draft prospects with some expert analysis on each. Rhema McKnight as a 4th or 5th round pick would be a very nice pick up for someone.
• Good post from Black and Green Irish Men’s Basketball blog on tonight’s win over DePaul as well as an overall look at Big East basketball from the last week.
• Rakes of Mallow has another good general overview of the bball team that they posted before tonight’s game. They also have a nice side by side of the coaches from tonight.
• Irish Round Table had a live blog during tonight’s DePaul game. A different look at tonight’s win.
• We also had a recap of tonights game from Ryan over on the main site here at UHND.
• Good article from Forde Minutes analyzing who will make the field of 65. Notre Dame is mentioned a number of times for its quality wins as well as its weak strength of schedule.
• One last basketball link tonight. IE had a nice article on Tory Jackson yesterday that I missed and figured I’d include today after his nice game tonight.
• BGS has a list of nine top plays from 2006 that just missed their top 10 which they’ll be releasing soon.

Sorry for today’s late edition. After a weekend spent over coming a stomach virus, I went out and had a little fun tonight. Anyway, here are Monday’s links - better late than never. Today’s picture of the dome seen through some foliage courtesy of Jeff.

• We Are DePaul has a good preview of Tuesday’s Notre Dame-DePaul basketball game. After dropping last week’s game to DePaul, this one is almost a must win for the Irish for the NCAA Tournament resume. The game is on ESPN2 tomorrow so I will try and have a rare basketball report over here after the game. Notre Dame’s official site also has a more comprehensive preview.
• Collin Falls was named to the Big East Weekly Honor Roll for the third time Monday after averaging 19.5 points and 4.5 assists this past week. Falls also set the Notre Dame career mark for three pointers this week.
• The Sun-Times Newsgroup has a good article with 5 burning questions surrounding the hoops team.
• Irish Round Table also has a nice status of the basketball team post today.
• Yet another mock draft, and another possible landing spot for Brady Quinn. In this mock from a Houston Chronicle blog, Quinn ends up going 8th to the Texans.
• Some more Quinn musings, this time with regards to whether or not he participates at the combine. Personally, I’d like to see Quinn participate and put and end to some of the ridiculous scenarios that people are coming up with.
• The baseball team did not have a strong open to the season, but here is a photo gallery from this past weekend’s games.
• Little more info on the ND hockey team in a press release from USA Hockey.com.

Here are the links for Sunday, February 18th - a nice collection of some moron bloggers who are doing their best to add fuel to the Brady Quinn draft stock dropping fire as well as some quality links.

• Meyer vs. Weis Round II - the guys over at Orange and Blue Hue have a series of posts going on comparing Weis and Meyer after two seasons.  Here is also part I in case you missed it.
• I don’t know why I link to AOL Blogs because I think let pretty much anyone willing to post write them but…. this clown seems to think Quinn could conceivably drop all the way to 29th to the Ravens… and this guy seems to think there’s no way the Panther draft Quinn 14th to replace 32 year old Jake Delhomme’s 43 INTs over the last four seasons.
• Meanwhile, the Rock Report has a nice piece today on the pressure myth surrounding Quinn.  The more I think about it, the more I keep thinking that the Quinn-Manning comparison (in terms of their draft stock after returning for a senior season) is legit.  People are looking to find flaws in Quinn’s game just as they were Manning’s.
• The bball team got hot from 3 point range and beat Cinci 76-64 today.  Collin Falls set the Notre Dame career 3pt mark and the Irish got their first 20 win season in four years.
• Jim Leyland visited Notre Dame this week and had a great time.  Leyland is one heck of a baseball coach and for the life  of me I still cannot fathom why my Phillies went with Charlie Manuel over Leyland a few years back - that one hasn’t backfired on us at all.
• The baseball team lost back to back games this weekend to Texas State after a 6-0 defeat Sunday.  The Irish also lost 2-1 to the Bobcats on Saturday.
• There is a nice discussion going for a Sunday over the football board in response to today’s 5 Things I’d Like to See in 2007 post by yours truly.