Irish Take on Wake For NIT Title
Frank Vitovitch
March 30, 2000

New York, NY - Wake Forest advanced to the title game with an overtime win over North Carolina State while the Irish eased past Penn State with a 21 point victory.  The two teams will now meet in the NIT Championship game on Thursday night at Madison Square Garden at 7 PM. 

Notre Dame and Wake Forest have never played each other before this will be the first ever meeting between the schools.  Wake comes into the game with a 21-14 record.  The Deacons upset Vanderbilt in the first round of the tourney and followed that up with wins over New Mexico and defending champion California before beating NC State in overtime Tuesday night to advance to the championship game.   Vanderbilt was considered by many to be good enough to get into the NCAA Tourney, but instead they were paired with Wake Forest in the first round of the NIT and lost.

Notre Dame's road to the championship game can be called easier since they played three home games before the meeting with Penn State on Tuesday night.  The Irish beat Michigan, Xaiver, and BYU each by 12 points before their meeting with Penn State when they beat the Nittany Lions by 21 for an average margin of victory of 14 points a game.  Wake Forest isn't that far behind however as they have won by an average of 11 points a game.

The Irish are lead by Troy Murphy's 22.5 points per game and David Graves' 7.75 rebounds a game during the NIT.  Graves has also contributed with 13.75 points a game during the 4 games the Irish have played in the NIT.  Matt Carroll and Jere Macura have both also chipped in on the scoring end in the tournament.   Macura has especially done a nice job coming off the bench for Notre Dame.

Notre Dame may have to face Wake Forest without their starting point guard however.  Jimmy Dillon went down with a sprained ankle in the second half of the Penn State game.  Dillon wanted back in the game, but there was no sense is further injuring the ankle wth a 20 point lead so he was kept on the bench.   If Dillon has anything to say about the matter, you can count on him playing.

If Dillon is unable to play, the Irish will look to Martin Ingelsby to be their court general against the Deacons.  Ingelsby is a former starter so the position and role will not be foreign to the Philadelphia native.  Ingelsby is the best free throw shooter on the team and can be deadly from three point range when left open.  He is also a solid ball handler who can get the job done if needed.

With their win over Penn State, the Irish won their 22nd game of the season, the most since they went 24-8 in the 1986-87 season under then coach Digger Phelps.  It also gave the Irish their 5th win in their last six games after a three game loosing streak at the end of the regular season that crushed their tourney hopes. 

The Irish bench has really started to come around the second half of the season.  Reserves Ivan Kartelo, Mike Monserez, Martin Ingelsby, and Jere Macura have all given quality minutes this season, especially in the NIT.   Macura has come up with more than a couple key baskets in the NIT and the Big East Tournament when opponents were either making runs or when Notre Dame was making a run of its own.  When Dillon went down with the sprained ankle, Martin Ingelsby stepped in and played well at point guard.  Monserez hasn't seen a whole lot of minutes, but when he has seen them he's been coming up with some nice shots. 

Notre Dame will the advantage of coming off a rather easy victory over Penn State while Wake Forest needed overtime to put NC State away.  In theory the Irish should have fresher legs, but the Deacons will come to play.  They beat the defending NIT champion and one of the better bubble teams from the NCAA Tournament to get to this game and will not go down without a fight. 

Look for Notre Dame to spread the ball around again as they did against Penn State Tuesday night.  If they can spread the ball around and not allow Wake to focus on Murphy, the Irish will be able to win this one comfortably.   If Notre Dame doesn't hit its shots early on however and have to depend on Murphy, the game will become very interesting.  None the less, I expect to Irish to bring their first NIT Championship back to South Bend with a win Thursday night.

Go Irish!!!!!