Notre Dame Fighting Irish at Joyce Center
South Bend, Indiana, is home to one of the premiere teams in Atlantic Coast Conference basketball. The Fighting Irish play out of the Purcell Pavilion at Edmund P. Joyce Center, which first opened as the Athletic & Convocation Center in 1968, and has a capacity of 9,149. They are coached by Mike Brey, who has led Notre Dame men's basketball since 2000 after a successful run at Delaware.
Notre Dame Fighting Irish Men's Basketball History
The University of Notre Dame first fielded a men's basketball team from 1896 to 1898, before reestablishing themselves in 1907. The Irish had success early on, including two retroactive national championships awarded by the Helms Foundation for the years 1927 and 1936 under coach George Keogan. Notre Dame men's basketball had some of its greatest success under Digger Phelps, who coached the Irish from 1971 to 1991, and with such players as John Shumate, Bill Laimbeer and Hall of Fame small forward Adrian Dantley.
UCLA's incredible 88-game winning streak was bookended by losses to Notre Dame — on January 23, 1971, while the Irish were still coached by John Dee, and on January 19, 1974, with a 71-70 thriller between No. 1 UCLA and No. 2 Notre Dame, where the Irish scored 12 unanswered points in the final 3:22. The Irish reached the Final Four in 1978, losing to Duke in the national semifinals in St. Louis. Like their football counterparts, Notre Dame was long considered among the best independent teams in college basketball, before joining the Big East in all non-football sports in 1995. Upon the demise of the original Big East in 2013, Notre Dame aligned most of its non-football teams with the ACC. Notre Dame has continued the tradition of success under Mike Brey, with appearances in the NCAA tournament or the NIT in all but two of his first 19 seasons, and consecutive Elite Eight appearances in 2015 and 2016.