1980–81 Notre Dame Fighting Irish men's basketball team

1980–81 Notre Dame Fighting Irish men's basketball
1980–81 Notre Dame Fighting Irish men's basketball
NCAA Tournament, Sweet Sixteen
Conference	Independent
Ranking
Coaches	No. 9
AP	No. 7
Record	23–6
Head coach	Digger Phelps (10th season);
Assistant coach	Pete Gillen (1st season)
Captain	Kelly Tripucka
Home arena	Joyce Center
	Seasons ← 1979–80 1981–82 →

The 1980–81 Notre Dame Fighting Irish men's basketball team represented the University of Notre Dame during the 1980–81 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The team was coached by Digger Phelps and was ranked in the Associated Press poll for the entirety of the season. As a 2 seed, the Fighting Irish defeated the 10 seed James Madison in the second round, 54–45. Notre Dame would fall to BYU in the 1981 NCAA Division I Basketball Tournament.

1980–81 NCAA Division I men's basketball independents standings
v t e	Conf				Overall
Team	W		L	PCT	W		L	PCT
No. 1 DePaul		–		–	27	–	2	.931
No. 7 Notre Dame		–		–	23	–	6	.793
Southern Mississippi		–		–	20	–	7	.741
Cleveland State		–		–	18	–	9	.667
Stetson		–		–	18	–	9	.667
Tennessee State		–		–	17	–	9	.654
Marquette		–		–	20	–	11	.645
Penn State		–		–	17	–	10	.630
South Carolina		–		–	17	–	10	.630
Dayton		–		–	18	–	11	.621
Pan American		–		–	18	–	11	.621
Illinois State		–		–	16	–	11	.593
UNLV		–		–	16	–	12	.571
North Texas State		–		–	15	–	12	.556
Southeastern Louisiana		–		–	14	–	13	.519
UNC Wilmington		–		–	13	–	13	.500
New Orleans		–		–	13	–	14	.481
East Carolina		–		–	12	–	14	.462
Valparaiso		–		–	12	–	15	.444
Campbell		–		–	11	–	16	.407
Charleston Southern		–		–	8	–	19	.296
Northern Iowa		–		–	8	–	19	.296
Portland State		–		–	7	–	20	.259
Nicholls State		–		–	6	–	22	.214

Rankings from AP Poll

Roster edit

1980–81 Notre Dame Fighting Irish men's basketball team

Players

Coaches

Pos.	#	Name	Height	Weight	Year	Hometown
C	53	Tim Andree	6 ft 10 in (2.08 m)	230 lb (104 kg)	So	Farmington, Michigan
F	22	Kevin Hawkins	6 ft 5 in (1.96 m)	200 lb (91 kg)	Sr	Los Angeles, California
F	30	Tracy Jackson	6 ft 6 in (1.98 m)	210 lb (95 kg)	Sr	Silver Spring, Maryland
G	25	Marc Kelly	5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)	160 lb (73 kg)	Jr	La Crescenta, California
C	45	Joe Kleine	6 ft 11 in (2.11 m)	240 lb (109 kg)	Fr	Slater, Missouri
G	15	Mike Mitchell	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)	175 lb (79 kg)	Jr	San Bruno, California
G	23	John Paxson	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)	180 lb (82 kg)	So	Kettering, Ohio
C	55	Gilbert Salinas	6 ft 11 in (2.11 m)	215 lb (98 kg)	Sr	San Antonio, Texas
G	33	Tom Sluby	6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)	200 lb (91 kg)	Fr	Washington, DC
F	44	Kelly Tripucka	6 ft 6 in (1.98 m)	230 lb (104 kg)	Sr	Essex Fells, New Jersey
G	24	Stan Wilcox	6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)	180 lb (82 kg)	Sr	North Babylon, New York
F	32	Orlando Woolridge	6 ft 9 in (2.06 m)	215 lb (98 kg)	Sr	Mansfield, Louisiana

Head coach

Digger Phelps

Assistant coach(es)

Legend

(C) Team captain
(S) Suspended
(I) Ineligible
(W) Walk-on

Injured
Current redshirt

Schedule and results edit

Date time, TV	Rank^#	Opponent^#	Result	Record	Site city, state
Regular Season
November 29*	No. 10	No. 6 UCLA	L 81–94 ^[1]	0–1 ^[2]	Pauley Pavilion Los Angeles, CA
December 2	No. 13	Montana State	W 89–68 ^[2]	1–1	Joyce Center Notre Dame, IN
December 4	No. 13	TCU	W 79–63 ^[2]	2–1	Joyce Center Notre Dame, IN
December 6	No. 13	Cal Poly (Pomona)	W 76–50 ^[2]	3–1	Joyce Center Notre Dame, IN
December 9	No. 9	at No. 7 Indiana	W 68–64^[2]	4–1	Joyce Center Notre Dame, IN
December 22	No. 8	Valparaiso	W 69–56	5–1^[2]	Joyce Center Notre Dame, IN
December 27	No. 8	Kentucky^[2]	W 67–61	6–1	Freedom Hall Louisville, Kentucky
January 4	No. 4	at Davidson	W 87–67	7–1^[2]	Johnston Gym Davidson, NC
January 6	No. 5	at Villanova	W 94–65	8–1^[2]	Villanova Field House Villanova, Pennsylvania
January 10	No. 5	Marquette	L 52–54	8–2^[2]	MECCA Arena Milwaukee, WI
January 13	No. 7	San Francisco	L 63–66	8–3^[1]	War Memorial Gymnasium San Francisco, California
January 17	No. 7	Hofstra	W 65–55	9–3^[1]	Joyce Center Notre Dame, IN
January 19	No. 13	Fordham	W 67–61	10–3^[1]	Joyce Center Notre Dame, IN
January 21	No. 13	at San Francisco	W 80–75	11–3^[1]	Joyce Center Notre Dame, IN
January 24	No. 13	at No. 10 Maryland	W 73–70	12–3^[2]	Cole Field House College Park, Maryland
January 27	No. 8	Cornell	W 80–58	13–3^[1]	Joyce Center Notre Dame, IN
January 31	No. 8	at South Carolina	W 94–84	14–3^[2]	Joyce Center Notre Dame, IN
February 2	No. 9	Saint Mary's	W 94–63	15–3^[2]	Joyce Center Notre Dame, IN
February 4	No. 9	at La Salle	W 60–59	16–3^[2]	Joyce Center Notre Dame, IN
February 8	No. 9	at UCLA	L 50–51	16–4	Joyce Center Notre Dame, IN
February 10	No. 12	at Boston	W 89–63	17–4^[2]	Joyce Center Notre Dame, IN
February 14	No. 12	N. C. State	W 71–55	18–4^[2]	Reynolds Coliseum Raleigh, NC
February 16	No. 11	Fairfield	W 57–55	19–4	Joyce Center Notre Dame, IN
February 22	No. 11 ^[1]^[2]	No. 1 Virginia	W 57–56	20–4	Rosemont Horizon Rosemont, IL
February 26	No. 6	Saint Francis	W 87–71 ^[2]	21–4	Joyce Center Notre Dame, IN
February 28*	No. 6	Dayton	W 70–57 ^[2]	22–4 ^[2]	Joyce Center Notre Dame, IN
March 8	No. 6 ^[1]	at No. 2 DePaul	L 64–74 ^[2]	22–5^[3]	Rosemont Horizon Rosemont, Illinois
NCAA Tournament
March 14	(2 E) No. 5	(10 E) James Madison NCAA Tournament • Second Round	W 54–45 ^[2]^[4]	23–5	Providence Civic Center Providence, RI
March 19	(2 E) No. 5	at (6 E) No. 16 BYU NCAA Tournament • Sweet Sixteen	L 50–51 ^[2]^[5]	23–6	Omni Coliseum Atlanta, Georgia
*Non-conference game. ^#Rankings from AP Poll. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses. E=East.

^[6]

Rankings edit

^[7]

Players selected in NBA drafts edit

Round	Pick	Player	NBA Club
1	6	Orlando Woolridge	Chicago Bulls
1	12	Kelly Tripucka	Detroit Pistons
2	25	Tracy Jackson	Boston Celtics
8	167	Gilbert Salinas	Atlanta Hawks

^[8]

References edit

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h "1980-81 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Schedule and Results".
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q ^r ^s ^t ^u ^v ^w "1980-81 Box Scores" (PDF). UND.com. University of Notre Dame. Archived (PDF) from the original on August 28, 2020. Retrieved April 18, 2022.
^ "BRADSHAW LEADS DEPAUL VICTORY". The New York Times. March 9, 1981. Retrieved December 5, 2021.
^ "BYU GAINS IN EAST, AS DOES NOTRE DAME". The New York Times. March 15, 1981. Retrieved December 5, 2021.
^ "B.Y.U. DEFEATS IRISH, 51-50; NORTH CAROLINA OUSTS UTAH". The New York Times. March 20, 1981. Retrieved December 5, 2021.
^ "1980-81 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Schedule". sports-reference.com. Retrieved March 26, 2019.
^ *ESPN College Basketball Encyclopedia: The Complete History of the Men's Game. Random House. 2009. pp. 899–900. ISBN 978-0-345-51392-2.
^ "Notre Dame draft history at basketball-reference.com". Retrieved July 10, 2019.

[sports-reference_1981-1] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h "1980-81 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Schedule and Results".

[und_scores-2] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q ^r ^s ^t ^u ^v ^w "1980-81 Box Scores" (PDF). UND.com. University of Notre Dame. Archived (PDF) from the original on August 28, 2020. Retrieved April 18, 2022.

[3] "BRADSHAW LEADS DEPAUL VICTORY". The New York Times. March 9, 1981. Retrieved December 5, 2021.

[4] "BYU GAINS IN EAST, AS DOES NOTRE DAME". The New York Times. March 15, 1981. Retrieved December 5, 2021.

[5] "B.Y.U. DEFEATS IRISH, 51-50; NORTH CAROLINA OUSTS UTAH". The New York Times. March 20, 1981. Retrieved December 5, 2021.

[6] "1980-81 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Schedule". sports-reference.com. Retrieved March 26, 2019.

[ESPN-7] *ESPN College Basketball Encyclopedia: The Complete History of the Men's Game. Random House. 2009. pp. 899–900. ISBN 978-0-345-51392-2.

[8] "Notre Dame draft history at basketball-reference.com". Retrieved July 10, 2019.

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