Notre Dame Fighting Irish Basketball Tickets

South Bend is one of college football’s legendary destinations. But don’t sleep on the Notre Dame basketball team, which possesses a rich tradition of its own.

Notre Dame first played basketball in 1896. Since then, it has reached a Final Four, made more than a dozen Sweet Sixteen appearances, and appeared in three dozen NCAA Tournaments.

The Fighting Irish boast a handful of national players of the year in their history. One of them was Adrian Dantley in 1976. Dantley was a six-time NBA All-Star, and is a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Notre Dame basketball’s coaching lineage includes Walter Halas – brother of Chicago Bears founder George Halas; Hall of Famer George Keogan; Digger Phelps, whose 20 seasons in South Bend included 14 NCAA tourney appearances, along with a Final Four berth in 1978; and all-time Fighting Irish wins leader Mike Brey, who took the reins of the program in 2000.

Notre Dame had been an independent for most of its existence, but joined the Atlantic Coast Conference in 2013 (for all sports except football).

Home games are played at Purcell Pavilion at the Edmund P. Joyce Center. The arena seats a manageable 9,149 fans, and has a reputation as a giant killer. The Irish have defeated multiple No. 1-ranked teams at home, including a 1974 victory that broke UCLA’s 88-game winning streak.

The Notre Dame Band always gets the home crowd fired up, though the student section – located behind the basket – usually doesn’t need much encouragement.