Notre Dame

NOTRE DAME, Ind. - The Notre Dame men's basketball team will be part of a record number of national broadcasts by the BIG EAST Conference during the 2008-09 regular season. The Irish will appear on the ESPN family of networks (ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNU) 14 times and will have two nationally-televised games on CBS Sports. In addition, ESPN's College GameDay will pay a first-ever visit to the Joyce Center on Sat., January 24 when Notre Dame plays host to Connecticut.

AUSTIN, Texas -- On Wednesday, ESPN announced the eight sites for ESPN's weekly "College GameDay Driven by State Farm" men's college basketball series and the "Saturday Primetime" game-of-the-week telecast.

NOTRE DAME, Ind. - University of Notre Dame men's basketball coach Mike Brey has announced that sophomore guard Ty Proffitt (London, Ky.) has left the basketball program, withdrawn from the University and will transfer to another school.

As a freshman in 2007-08, Proffitt appeared in eight contests and averaged 1.0 points and 0.4 rebounds.

Like civilizations, all great basketball programs eventually fall.. replaced by an upstart newcomer. In this week's Rise & Fall series, we'll take a look at which BCS programs are rising, falling, or merely treading water. Up today, the:

BIG EAST

A few days after the 2008 NCAA Championship game, I made an early projection of the 08-09 All-Americans to go along with Top 50 and All-Freshman projections. Now that players have officially entered or withdrawn from the Draft, we have a much better sense of how next year's landscape will look:
First Team
G - Brandon Jennings - Arizona
G - Stephen Curry - Davidson
F - Kyle Singler - Duke**
F - Luke Harangody - Notre Dame
F - Tyler Hansbrough - North Carolina

Following my projected 2009 Field of 65, here is an early look at the 2008-09 All-Americans.

First Team
G - DJ Augustin - Texas
G - Stephen Curry - Davidson
G - Brandon Jennings - Arizona
F - Luke Harangody - Notre Dame
F - Tyler Hansbrough - North Carolina

Second Team
G - James Harden - Arizona State
G - Terrence Williams - Louisville
G - Tyrese Rice - Boston College
F - Kyle Singler - Duke