HYPE BUILDS FOR ESPN GAMEDAY SHOWDOWN

The biggest challenge yet to the 45-game Notre Dame home winning streak could come this weekend when Connecticut comes into South Bend. The Irish Put 'Surprising' Streak on the Line (Post-Tribune) against the conference favorite who looks to be finding their stride with six straight wins after a conference-opening stumble.

The Irish will be extra primed for the affair with the ESPN Primetime audience of 'College Gameday' as well as the long-awaited match-up between Hasheem Thabeet and Luke Harangody following some brash preseason talk by the 7'3 Thabeet in a preseason ESPN The Magazine article where he refereed to the 2007-2008 Big East Player of the Year as 'not tough.' Immediately feeling bad for how the article came out, Thabeet Apologized to Harangody (NewsTimes) and to Irish coach Mike Brey. While the situated might be defused among the players and teams...expect the Irish fans to remember it well.

“We’re not going to do anything different with our routine just because it’s ‘College Gameday,’” Brey told reporters during this week's Big East coach's conference call.

While Brey and his team may not be doing anything different, the atmosphere likely will as ND is Channeling History (South Bend Tribune) to revive the atmosphere of the past that has brought some of the most remembered college upsets to the Joyce Center in the past.