Notre Dame men's basketball announced Wednesday its non-conference schedule for the 2024-25 season.

The headliner is the previously reported Players Era Festival in Las Vegas during Thanksgiving week. The event has promoted itself by highlighting the opportunity for each team to engage in at least $1 million of NIL activities. The event will have two four-team tournaments of round-robin play. Notre Dame will be joined by Alabama, Houston and Rutgers in its tournament.

Notre Dame will only play against two other Power Five opponents in non-conference play: at Georgetown on Nov. 16 and at Georgia on Dec. 3.

Notre Dame will open its season by hosting Stonehill College on Nov. 6.

Here's the full non-conference schedule with notes provided by FightingIrish.com

Nov. 6 – vs. Stonehill College

• First meeting as Division-I opponents.

Nov. 11 – vs. Buffalo

• First meeting in program history.

Nov. 16 – at Georgetown

• Notre Dame trails in the series 13-17, with a 5-7 record in Washington D.C.
• November 16 will be circled on the calendar as a revenge game for the Irish, after suffering a 72-68 overtime loss in Purcell Pavilion last season.
• The Hoyas went 9-23 in the first year under Head Coach Ed Cooley.

Nov. 19 – vs. North Dakota

• Notre Dame and North Dakota haven’t met on the hardwood since Feb. 4, 1941. The Irish won that contest, 46-38.
• North Dakota produced an 18-14 record last season, with a 10-6 mark in the Summit League.

Nov. 22 – Elon

• The Irish lead the series, 2-0, with both contests occurring at home. The two last met on Dec. 16, 2006.
• Elon recorded a 13-19 overall record last season with a 6-12 mark in the Coastal Athletic Association.

Nov. 26-30 – Players Era Festival in Las Vegas – vs. Alabama, Houston and Rutgers

• Order of play is still TBD.
• In ESPN’s Way Too Early Top-25 rankings, Alabama is No. 2, Houston is No. 4 and Rutgers is No. 25.
• Notre Dame leads the series, 4-2, against Alabama, with a 2-2 record at neutral sites. The Irish defeated Alabama, 78-64, in San Diego, in the first round of the 2022 NCAA Tournament.
• Notre Dame and Houston are tied 4-4 in the overall series. The two haven’t clashed on the hardwood since Feb. 10, 1990.
• ND leads the overall series with Rutgers, 21-13, with a 6-2 record on neutral courts. The last meeting between the two was a memorable one – an 89-87 double-overtime victory at the First Four round in Dayton to propel the Irish into the first round of the 2022 NCAA Tournament.

Dec. 3 – at Georgia – SEC/ACC Challenge

• Notre Dame’s first appearance inside Stegeman Coliseum.
• Notre Dame and Georgia have squared off four times, with the series tied at 2-2. All four matchups have gone down on neutral floors.
• The two last squared off on Dec. 18, 2022, in Atlanta, with the Bulldogs taking that one 77-62.
• The Irish are seeking their first SEC/ACC Challenge win after falling to South Carolina a season ago.
• Georgia went 20-17 overall last year with a 6-12 record in SEC play.

Dec. 11 – vs. Dartmouth

• Notre Dame has never lost in the series, owning a 6-0 advantage.
• The series began in 1946 with a neutral site showdown in Cleveland. The remaining five games have all taken place inside Purcell Pavilion, with the most recent being a 97-87 win on Dec. 19, 2017.

Dec. 22 – vs. Le Moyne

• First meeting in program history.
• Former Irish player Robby Carmody transferred to Le Moyne ahead of the 2024-25 season.
• Le Moyne went 15-17 overall last year with a 9-7 record in the Northeast Conference.

Dates for Notre Dame's conference games have not yet been shared. The ACC previously a
nnounced the home and away opponents for Notre Dame.

Home: Boston College, Georgia Tech, Syracuse, Cal, Stanford, SMU, Pitt, UNC, Virginia Tech and Louisville

Away: Boston College, Georgia Tech, Syracuse, FSU, Miami, Clemson, NC State, Wake Forest, Duke and Virginia


Photo credit: Michael Clubb/South Bend Tribune/USA Today Network
Pictured (from left to right): Brady Stevens, Nikita Konstantynovskyi, Braeden Shrewsberry, Julian Roper II, Markus Burton, Garrett Sundra and Burke Chebuhar

I didn’t like it. I was as upset and frustrated about the missed throws as anyone. But they weren’t going to replace Leonard, so what are the boos conveying?:

1. “We are with you coach and QB, unless things don’t go well.”

2. Some subjective intentions that the players, team and coaches can’t discern.

I don’t think the booing increases the chance that we win gling forward. The coaches and players probably think we have some good time fans.

It’s looks like Arnold might be out at OU. ND had him on the QB board, but ND went in a different direction. Who knows, maybe another PORTAL GRAB next year.

Eric Hansen's game balls go to Boubacar Traore and Riley Leonard.

Trent Sisley was scheduled to make an official visit to Notre Dame this coming weekend. Instead, he committed to Indiana on Monday.

Login to view embedded media
Story from our Indiana site:

Notable change on this week's depth chart for Notre Dame:

No TE Cooper Flanagan, who played only four offensive snaps against Miami (Ohio).

Availability report still to come.

Notre Dame head football coach Marcus Freeman met with the media on Saturday evening, following No. 17 Notre's 28-3 victory over Miami (Ohio) at Notre Dame Stadium. Here's everything Freeman had to say.

Answers are largely verbatim. Questions may have been edited for brevity and clarity.

OPENING STATEMENT

“Proud of the way our guys competed. You know, it wasn't pretty. It wasn't clean. But to beat that football team, 28-3, I told them, that's a really good victory. I think they are going to be a really good team.

“I told Coach [Chuck] Martin after the game, that's a good football team. I'm really impressed with their offense, their quarterback. So to hold that offense to three points, man, was a huge, huge sign of how the way our defense had played. But battled.

“Again, we got down 3-0. Didn't start the way we wanted to. You know, we had too many penalties that we had to clean up, that we've got to clean up and see why they occurred, and make sure that we don't continue to allow that to happen. That's on coaches, and we've got to own it and make sure we drill it and we fix it, and put our guys in positions to have success.”

“So I'll just open up for questions.”

Q. With three different starters on your offensive line today compared to what you opened camp with, and two different from even a week ago, how much does this offense need a dual-threat quarterback like Riley Leonard that can help open up things both ways?

MARCUS FREEMAN: “I think there's benefits no matter who your quarterback is. To me, you have to call things around the strengths of your players. And, obviously, Riley, one of his strengths is the ability to run the ball. And they showed today that we can run the ball and they had a lot of success. I'm proud of the way those two guys stepped up. Pat and Rocco really performed well. It felt like they performed well. Obviously, the rushing yards showed they performed well. We'll go back and watch it and continue to get those guys to improve, but I'm really proud of our offense, being able to run the ball. But also [proud of] those guys being able to step up and get their job done.”

Q. Are your special teams generally clean through the week on the practice field and then these issues are popping up on game day, or what is keeping them from playing clean?

MF: “I think the first one was the muffed punt. I kind of saw it when we were watching on the iPad — one of our players was trying to get away [from the punt] and kind of ran right into [Jordan] Faison. We've got to be better there. We've got to peel off earlier. You know, the block in the back on the reverse was unacceptable, and, obviously, we weren't clear enough as coaches. I'm not going to blame the player. We've got to hold them accountable, but we've always got to own it as coaches. We can't do that. We can't block in the back.

“And then the field goal. We had a new guy doing short snaps. And after that one snap, we put Rino [Monteforte] back in, who had been our short snapper. So again, that's what happened. Can't happen. We've got to make sure we are continuing to attack those issues in practice and perform better on that football field.”

Q. As you continue to work on offensive game plan moving forward, how much does Riley's ability to break off the big play at random times factor into how strongly you guys feel about him?

MF: “It definitely factors into it. We have a lot of confidence in him making the right decision in the run game and the pass game. We had, what, 270 yards rushing? Yeah, 270 yards rushing, which, again, a lot came from [Leonard] running the ball. I don't think we design plays to say, ‘OK, this one is going to go for 50. But he has the ability to — if you mis-fit or if he makes you miss a tackle — to take it all the way.”

Q. Thinking about the game as a whole, how do you balance a 3 1/2-touchdown win, which looks comfortable, with the fact that it wasn't comfortable, and there were a couple critical early mistakes that could have changed this?

MF: “It's the same way you really look at every game, except for the only thing that's different between a win and a loss is the 24 hours from now until you get back together. Our guys are going to celebrate. They won a tough game and did a good job. We are not going to shy away from that. It's hard to win. You get 12 guaranteed opportunities, and you can't take any win for granted.

“So I told them to celebrate. But when we get back together, we own it. We evaluate the film. We own it. We come up with a plan to attack the issues that we've had. We come up with a plan to enhance the things that we did well and then we move forward throughout the week. That process won't change. It's just the 24 hours from now until we get back together that changes.”

Q. I may be stepping on your answers here, and let me preface this by saying you obviously believe in Riley Leonard because you think he provides you with the highest upside and gives you the best chance to win. But what gives you the confidence to stick with him when he's struggling like he is, and when you can obviously feel in the stadium that the sentiment is that they are looking for a change at the quarterback position?

MF: “Yeah, we don't make decisions based off what the sentiment of the stadium is.”

Q. I understand.

MF: “So that's to answer that part of the question. But again, I don't know how many yards Riley led our offense to, through rushing and passing, but there's always parts to clean up. And we've got to continue to look at the mistakes that he made and say, ‘OK, how do we do a better job of not putting him in a position to make mistakes? And where was the disconnect? But we've got a lot of confidence in our quarterback that led us to a great victory today.”

Q. You did a great job with Miami QB Brett Gabbert. He was 14-for-35, just 119 yards and two interceptions. What was the overall game plan going in against a guy that had thrown for a lot of yards in his college career?

MF: “Yeah, he's a really good player. He's talented. He's experienced. You're not going to confuse him. We tried to get pressure up the middle and make him uncomfortable. We tried to give him some different looks but we still have to do what we do well. Our defense did a really good job of competing. We had some drives where they had some yards, but they stuck their cleats in the ground and didn't let them into the end zone, which is a huge credit to coach [Al] Golden and our defense and the players.”

Q. The run defense gave up a couple plays early. How did they regain their composure and stop the run for the rest of the game?

MF: “Yeah, I think as you look at how the game started, the muffed punt didn't hurt. Our defense did a good job. All of a sudden we muff a punt, and then we're able to get an interception [near] the goal line. That's a heck of a job by our defense. I can't remember the drive they ended up getting a field goal, but we're greedy. We don't want to give up any rushing yards. We'll look at it and see where they had the ability to run the ball and we'll attack it and fix it.”

Q. This was James Rendell's best punting day so far by a wide margin. You mentioned some of the things you're going to do this week. How did you see them work on the field?

MF: “They did a good job. Our job, as coaches, is to put our players in position to do what they do well on Saturday. And we tried to call some punts that he felt comfortable with in the stadium. We were able to do some different things in practice, as I talked to you guys about on Monday. But at the end of the day, he went out there and performed. Coach [Marty Biagi] did a good job of getting his head into a place that was confident, and he booted the ball. And we're going to continue to build on that.”

MORE

I’m sure Denbrock didn’t forget to coach. The scheme being dictated by MF looks just like the same offense the past few years. Predictable offense. Conservative offense.

-Dont question everything
-pray the defense saves you
-sound humble when talking at press conferences but the reality is Freeman has no clue wtf he is talking about.

The blame also falls on Leonard’s shoulders. The guy doesn’t know the playbook. His accuracy is way worse than any point at Duke which leads me to believe Riley didn’t put in the work this off-season on learning the playbook and schemes.
Riley came to ND as a mediocre passer. Riley has shown through 4 games that he is a horrendous passer. He has regressed

ND will need to be able to pass the ball at some point. We already have two explosive runners in Love/Price - we need a passer now! Time to put in Angeli and move forward. ND is playing with a hand tied behinds its back.

Unshackle the offense, start Angeli and let Denbrock get creative with the offense.

Cryptic tweet from Notre Dame target Brady Koehler. He made official visits to Notre Dame and Wake Forest the past two weekends. He also made OVs to Northwestern and Iowa.

Login to view embedded media
Login to view embedded media

Ball was clearly out before Love crossed the goal line. Big guys don't get enough credit as it is. Give the man his touchdown.

I understand that the on site replay does not review such a play when it doesn't affect the end result, but I believe there is a mechanism for making corrections like this, at least there is in the NFL.

And below is my ballot for the AP poll, submitted about 3 a.m. (See, told you, Football Never Sleeps) ... And yes, the AP still hasn't changed its voting software to reflect the current conference affiliations.

@Eric Hansen and I discuss the biggest takeaways from No. 17 Notre Dame's 28-3 win over Miami (Ohio).

Login to view embedded media
Click here to subscribe to Inside ND Sports on YouTube.

Michigan quarterback Alex Orji attempted 12 passes and gained 32 yards through the air.

Miami was never going to pull a Northern Illinois with the way Notre Dame's defense played Saturday.

We all saw it. Muffed punt, botched field goal, Riley fumble, love fumble, penalties… It’s fine against Miami O. As we are 4 games into this season, I wonder… Who are the true leaders on this team? Is it really someone like Rylie Mills? Or one of the captains. I don’t see any leadership on game day, there must be but I don’t see it.

I like our chances against Louisville, there immediately is a different “ tone” from the players and coaches that they know who they are playing next week. Great, I would like us to be prepared every week. I think we limit mistakes and do enough, and will be motivated and get it done. But when we return from the bye, I could see us sleep walk against Stanford.

This is a team you can’t trust. There is no consistency, the talent will make up for a lot, but 4 games in now, being inconsistent is the most consistent feature of this team, it’s a reflection of Freeman.

Hasn’t thrown for 200 yards yet in a game
Averages less than 150 yards passing per game

Averages 5.6 yards per attempt which is 120th in college football

He’s thrown for 587 yards through 4 games which ranks him 95th in college football(some of those ranked ahead of him have played 2 or 3 games)

He’s thrown 1 TD which is ranked 133 behind multiple backups including Notre Dames

But hey he can run the ball. It’s like we have another RB back there. Basically our offense is just a version of the wildcat

USC is 16th, Louisville 17th, Texas A&M 24th among Irish opponents.

Link to full coaches poll: HERE

I'll share my AP ballot when the AP poll comes out at 2 ET.

They had no 1st downs in the 2nd half, heading into their final drive. On said game winning drive, they just run it, not completing a meaningful pass. Maybe I should stop watching games 😂

James Madison leads North Carolina 53-21 at halftime in Chapel Hill.