Notre Dame

SOUTH BEND - Can working on Legos as a kid help shape what your job is as an adult? Maybe some local middle school students will now consider careers in engineering after working with Notre Dame students and professional engineers to build a Lego engine. The Lego build happened in January, but the students who participated are still talking about it. It was part of an Automotive Road Show held at Notre Dame. The event seeks to recruit talent to stay in Indiana and work in the automotive industry.

Because of the plummeting number of European Catholics and rising number of African Catholics, a University of Notre Dame political scientist says an African pope would best reflect the reality of current Church demographics. “In the eight years of Benedict's papacy alone, the number of Catholics in Africa grew by 21 percent and the number of priests by 16 percent,” says Naunihal Singh, who specializes in African politics. “The election of Ghana's Cardinal Peter Turkson  by the College of Cardinals, most of whom still come from Europe, would be a clear acknowledgment that the leadership of the Church has to reflect this shifting center of gravity.” Singh says Turkson probably wouldn't make significant doctrinal changes in the church, but his style would differ greatly from Benedict.

It is a storied rivalry between prominent Midwest Catholic universities. It is a rivalry defined by amazingly close margins. It is a rivalry that, again, will offer critical rewards for the winner. No. 2 Notre Dame (24-1 overall, 12-0 Big East ) and DePaul (18-8, 7-5) renew their women's basketball rivalry on Sunday at 3:30 p.m. EST at DePaul's McGrath-Phillips Arena. The contest is a sellout, one of four sellouts that the Irish have played in on the road.

It counts as just one win on the resume.  But Notre Dame's victory in five overtimes Saturday feels like it's worth a whole lot more!   Somewhere between 11:00 Saturday night... and 1 am Sunday morning, Mike Brey's team put the fight, back in the Fighting Irish! Nothing about the first 39 minutes of regulation against 11th ranked Louisville suggested the Irish would walk-off the court victorious on Saturday.  They shot the ball so poorly, that at one stretch in the 2nd half, they went ten full minutes without a single basket!

NOTRE DAME - The college basketball spotlight Saturday was on Notre Dame as ESPN's College GameDay was on campus for the big matchup with Louisville. This was only the second time that the basketball version of ESPN 's popular show was on campus. The first was in 2009.     WSBT's Denise Bohn was there.

The Irish men's basketball team will be in the national spotlight today. Number 11 Louisville comes to South Bend, and so does College GameDay! This will be only the second time that the basketball version of ESPN's popular show is coming to campus. The first was in 2009.     It'll be quite a game this time around too. It's a matchup of two of the top 25 teams in the country... both of whom are trying to keep pace in a log-jammed Big East.   But tip-off isn't until 9 p.m., o the Irish are planning to take in all the sights of the pre-game show this morning.

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - The Notre Dame grad Indiana native who's commanding the International Space Station said Thursday he's looking forward to a visit back home after he returns from his five months in orbit. Astronaut Kevin Ford spoke via video hookup to the Indiana Senate in the Statehouse, where his older brother, David, was a state senator when he died of cancer in 2008. Ford wore a blue shirt with a large Indiana flag emblem as he floated inside one of the space station's modules for the 20-minute conversation that was shown on a large video board above the Senate's rostrum.

NOTRE DAME - Wednesday marked the 7th annual Day of Man fundraiser for students in Siegfried Hall at Notre Dame. They wear minimal clothing to raise awareness and money to help the homeless. The guys say doing it in the middle of winter helps stress the importance of helping people and gets them a lot of looks. “We look a little ridiculous being out here in the cold weather like this, so plenty of people do see us and we, and we also like to be loud and obnoxious so that people know what we're doing and so that we do raise more awareness,” said student Andrew Ritter.

NOTRE DAME - One month removed from playing for the BCS national championship, Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly and his staff are adding to the foundation of the Irish football program by signing several highly rated high school seniors to national letters of intent. "It's an exciting day at Notre Dame", Brian Kelly said.  "It's exciting because it's centered upon our future, and our future is predicated on the last game that you play.  I've made it pretty clear, that after the last game you play, you want to begin taking that next step forward, and for us, taking that next step forward is to continue to build our football program within and developing football players, so when they get back on that field in 2013, we finish it. We finish it off. And this class is that first step towards finishing off 2013 the right way. " So far, Notre Dame has received national letters of intent from the following 17 players, in addition to the five players who enrolled in the university as freshmen for the spring semester.