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

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 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 →

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

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

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

Main article: 1980–81 NCAA Division I men's basketball rankings

^[7]

Players selected in NBA drafts

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

1. "1980-81 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Schedule and Results".
2. "1980-81 Box Scores" (PDF). UND.com. University of Notre Dame. (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.
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.