Notre Dame senior swingman Ryan Ayers blogged for Irish Insights during the Irish's summer trip to Ireland and has been blogging for Insights throughout the 2008-09 basketball season. This is Ayers' sixth and final entry of the 2008-09 season. His first five entries are here, here, here, here and here.
I know it has been awhile since my last entry, but a lot of exciting things have been going on and we've been really busy lately with games in the Big East tournament and in the NIT. Even though we didn't make the NCAA tournament, the NIT has given us an opportunity to play for something. We hope to cut down the nets next week in the Big Apple! For my last in-season entry I kind of wanted to do something special, a tribute to this year's team.
As a senior Domer, I want to go out in style. I remember my senior yearbook in high school on how the editors had a huge tribute to the graduating class with its own section. The section included senior candids, superlatives, wills, and my favorite seniors in 2025. For this edition of my blog I am going to do a Team Notre Dame in 2039.
So enjoy what my teammates will be like in twenty years, oh, it should get interesting….
Notre Dame Basketball Team 2008-09, 20 Years Later:
Zach Hillesland (Z): Probably living in Hawaii, not married, but not for lack of options. He has an obsession with food, so I see him having his own restaurant on the island, and moonlighting as a stand up comedian on the weekends.
Kyle McAlarney (K-MAC): Working for the FBI as an undercover agent. He is really into the show '24.' He will still be the king of Staten Island, obviously, but think of a Jason Bourne (Bourne Identity) lifestyle for the sharpshooter.
Luke Zeller (Big Smoof): The big fella is living back in Washington running the local drug store. After a great stint as a professional, Luke settled in with his wife and 8 kids back in southern Indiana.
Luke Harangody (Gody): The human Double-Double is living in his high-rise apartment in downtown Chicago, probably with his sidekick Tim Andree. He still reminisces about the glory days at ND. He has season tickets to White Sox games. Look for him there.
Tory Jackson (T-Jack): After playing professional basketball, Tory settled down in Detroit and had a family (He is one of 14 children by the way). He is an AAU coach.
Jon Peoples (Peeps): At 40, I see Peeps still single running things in Chicago. He will never leave the Windy City. He sees Gody occasionally downtown, but Jon is living off his stock market investments on the West Side of Chicago. He looks like Ruben Studdard, just kidding.
Tim Andree (The Rocket): The Rocket is living in his beloved Jersey, working in the Big Apple. He now has 4 children. He is still bitter that he has not received any money from his Dad's trust fund. You can find him also coaching the local girls' high school team.
Ben Hansbrough (Ole Ben): In jail for stealing the NCAA championship trophy from his brother. No, Ben is still living the dream.
Scott Martin (Smart): Scott is still living in his parent's house in Valpo, watching Seinfeld episodes.
Tim Abromaitis (Abro): The CEO of Goldman Sachs. He is very smart with the books, just not very street savvy. Sorry Tim.
Ty Nash (TNash): Working at Finish Line and taking of the 30% percent discount. He loves NY, so I assume he will live there in the future.
Carleton Scott (C): Continually doing dunks in his adult summer league games at the YMCA. The kid has an obsession with dunks for some reason.
Tom Kopko (Dewey): I see Kopko being a high profile lawyer who loves Notre Dame. He will be on the school board at the University and attend every football and basketball game. He will definitely be a guy to know in the Notre Dame community.
And as for me, Diddy (it's what some call me), I see myself settling down somewhere warm. I hope to be a coach, and go to plenty of Final Fours. I will have to tell AD Jack Swarbrick to hire me 20 years from now.
Thanks for reading,
Ryan
