Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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UNDER THE DOME and Brendan King were both off of the board in the first 30 picks of the MLS Super- Draft. Toronto FC selected Maund 12th over- all, and the Portland Timbers took King 27th overall during the second round. Fifth-year senior Greg Klazura also got his shot at the pros a week later when Vancouver picked him in the league's supplemental draft. • Notre Dame's Gerry Byrne was named their names called during drafts for Major League Soccer and Women's Professional Soccer this winter. Irish senior Melissa Hen- derson, a two-time All-American, was se- lected No. 2 overall by the WPS's Sky Blue FC, based in New Jersey. Henderson's future with Sky Blue and the WPS is still uncertain as the league struggles to deal with legal and financial issues. WPS officials cancelled the 2012 regular season Jan. 30 with hopes of playing again in 2013. On the men's side, seniors Aaron Maund • Four Notre Dame soccer players heard MISCELLANEOUS NOTES PHOTO BY STEVE FRANZ/LSU SPORTS INFORMATION was a gentleman from Indiana that thought about coming to the Bayou State. He did not necessarily have the chest and the ability to lead a program, so you know." LSU head coach Les Miles on Gunner Kiel "We needed a quarterback. We lost two. We needed a quarterback in this class. There THEY SAID IT out, it will have nothing to do with athletic ability. He's got a lot of talent. I will be very interested to track his intangibles, his competitiveness, once he arrives on campus in South Bend." — ESPN recruiting analyst Tom Luginbill on Colin Cowherd's radio show "The addition of quarterback Gunner Kiel, in my opinion, is a nice addition. But if he does not pan would've bet the house I was wrong. They're not going to win it this year. The schedule's brutal. Oklahoma, USC and Michigan State on the road, and Michigan at home. But as I said last week, they expect a run for the national title in 2013. The administration expects it, and I think [Brian] Kelly's go- ing to have to make a run, at least get to a BCS bowl. But I think it's a matter of time before they win again." — Beano Cook, ESPN coach Tony Levine when asked about incoming freshman Deontay Greenberry, who previously made a verbal commitment to Notre Dame "If I said to you in 1988 Notre Dame is not going to win a national title in the next 20 years, you the 2011 Division I Assistant Lacrosse Coach of the Year at a banquet in December. Last season, Byrne tutored an Irish defense that allowed 6.57 goals per game — the second- lowest total in the country. Byrne's defenses have consistently been among the NCAA's best during his past five seasons in South Bend. • Irish sophomores T.J. Tynan and Ste- "There's more buzz about the University of Houston football than ever before." — Houston head was kind of over myself. I wasn't thinking right, and I just thought I could get away with anything. But having that incident, it really opened my eyes to the fact that I'm just like everyone else, and what you do can influence your future." — Former Irish wide receiver Michael Floyd in the Chicago Tribune on his drunken driving arrest last March game [a 73-53 loss], I'd have fallen off the stool into the shower, believe me. I really got on the guys that day about their mental and physical toughness and told them, 'If Ben Hansbrough was in this locker room, he'd strangle all of you.' But it's what's so neat about our sport. It's a long season and teams have a chance to get better." — Irish basketball coach Mike Brey in an interview with Yahoo! Sports "If you would have told me we'd eventually be 6-3 in the league in the locker room after the Gonzaga 12 MARCH 2012 "When you're at that stage of being at Notre Dame and being the star athlete there … I think my head the Big East Athlete of the Week award dur- ing the past three months. The underclass- man duo of freshman Emma Reaney and sophomore Kelly Ryan have won four out of the five times the award has been handed out since Nov. 15. Ryan won most recently on Jan. 24. Reaney, who set a conference record by winning three weekly awards, was also featured in Sports Illustrated's "Faces in the Crowd" section in its Jan. 16 issue. • Freshman George Atkinson III finished phen Johns played for Team USA during the World Junior Hockey Championship Dec. 26-Jan. 5. The tournament brings to- gether the world's top young hockey players and was held north of the border in Calgary, Alb., and Edmonton, Alb. The Americans finished with a disappointing 1-3 record in round-robin play and failed to make the medal round. • The women's swimming team hijacked seventh in the 60-meter dash at the Indiana Relays on Jan. 28. Atkinson III, who also played running back and returned kickoffs for the Irish football team in the fall, was running in his first collegiate track meet. Fellow football players Bennett Jackson (a sophomore cornerback) and Josh Atkinson (a freshman cornerback and George's twin brother), who finished 12th in the 60-meter dash, also competed at the meet. BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED