Irish Catch Fire Late To Best Panthers

Let's look at the game by the numbers:

22 & 12: The numbers that the analysts will focus on during their game recap. Harangody put together another impressive line despite being hacked the entire game with no help from the refs.
9: The height difference in inches of 6'8" Luke Harangody and 5'11" Tory Jackson.
16 & 13: The scoring and rebounding of Bam Bam's sophomore in crime, who tied Pitt forward DeJuan Blair for the game high in rebounds.

Jackson, who has been steadily increasing the level of his play since the Providence game, once again provided enough constant energy to keep the Irish in the game against Pittsburgh. For the second straight home game, Tory rejected one of the opponent's starting forwards in the beginning of the game; three times Jackson stole the ball from Pitt to give life to his struggling team; and when the game was tied with 4:37 left, it was #2 who knocked down the big 3 to put the Irish up. Also adding 5 assists without turning the ball over, Jackson was Notre Dame's most valuable player of the night, but that doesn't mean his teammates didn't give him a little help.


There is 6:58 left in the game, Notre Dame is behind 59-55, and Pittsburgh is down to their last timeout. Jackson feeds the ball to McAlarney who ices what seems to be his first three of the night. After Pitt answers with a quick two point jumper, McAlarney (3-10 3pt) sinks another deep ball to tie it at 61. On the ensuing inbound, Harangody steals the ball in a play reminiscent of the Alabama game last year and takes it to the house for an electrifying dunk to give the Irish their first lead since the 4 minute mark of the first half.

When there was 4:23 left in the game and the Irish were only up 2, it was Luke Harangody and a clutch Ryan Ayers who stepped up to score the next 9 points in ND's final run that all but sealed the win.

And when the Panthers were down 9 with only 1:30 left, it was the experience of K-Mac and senior Rob Kurz shooting 100% at the free throw line to close out the game and earn Notre Dame its 35th straight win at the JACC.

Great Game. Go Irish!

Irish Down Demons

The Men's basketball team took down DePaul 89-80 last night behind a strong Luke Harangody performance. When Notre Dame started the game off with absolutely frigid shooting, Bam Bam found a way to keep the Irish in the contest, scoring his team's first 9 points. Zeller then came off the bench to sink a 3 which seemed to warm up the rim for ND's other shooters; in a very well rounded night, 6 of Notre Dame's players scored more than 8 points. Hillesland and Ayers are continuing to play well in their new roles, scoring 10 and 9 points respectively, and additionally, both guards brought the house down with powerful dunks. Tory Jackson played well for the second game in a row, scoring 8 points on 4-9 shooting and coming up with 6 assists, 4 boards, and 4 steals. ND's other point guard rebounded from a sub-par performance against Providence to score 17 points, including some important 3s that opened up the game. The brightest star on the court, however, was Luke Harangody, who scored in doubled figures (29) for his 18th game in a row. Also pulling in 14 rebounds, Luke is putting forth a strong case to be considered for Big East Player of the Year.

The JACC promotional crew dished out some free stuff for the second week in a row; last night, everyone in attendance received a 'Black Out' shirt. DePaul apparently got the memo and sported some flashy black alternates, but the crowd was able to remember which team to cheer for, and the winning streak at the JACC was extended to 33 straight. This coming Saturday will be a test to see just how well the Irish can play at home; ND will go up against the 16th ranked Marquette Golden Eagles.

Irish Tame Wildcats

I couldn't tell if it was inserting Hillesland in the starting lineup or if Brey put something in the water, but the Irish for the first time this season were able to establish a commanding rhythm on the road, shooting 50% from the floor and 43% from beyond the arc while taking down Villanova in the Wachovia Center.
The game started off fairly sloppily; Nova players especially seemed to have trouble handling the ball as they threw it away several times in the first half, and the Irish capitalized, jumping out to a quick lead that they held for almost the entire contest. K-Mac (30 pts) was soaking wet, at times pulling up 2 feet outside of the NBA 3-point line to stroke down 3's, and it seemed like all of Harangody's (25 pts 10 boards) points came from converting his own 3-point plays.

Mike Brey decided to start Zach Hillesland instead of Ryan Ayers, and it brought out the best in both of them. Ayers had 10 points and 5 rebounds; Hillesland only had 2 points, but they came on a fantastic putback dunk. Peoples also contributed, adding 2 points and playing some good defense. Brey finally got Nash into a Big East game, but it was only for 3 seconds at the end of the first half.

As the game winded down to the last 3 minutes and the Irish began to run the clock, things began to get sloppy, and Notre Dame surrendered some easy points and had some ugly turnovers that shouldn't have happened. However, the bottom line is that previously 18th ranked Villanova was handed its second Big East loss of the week while ND moved to 4-2 in conference play, putting them in a tie for second place.

Hat's off to the Irish, and hopefully they can continue to have good sex in the Big East.

Video compliments of withleather.com

Irish Down Bearcats

The officiating was bad, the shooting was ugly, and the defensive rebounding was God awful. When Cincinnati took a 34 - 27 lead going into halftime, it looked as if the Irish could not rebound from the beating they took against Marquette last weekend. However, the home crowd (which included Heisman winner John Lattner) and the Leprechaun Legion were able to wake up some echoes in the second half, during which ND scored 64 points to overcome the Bearcats of Cincinnati.

The key momentum swing in the game happened with about 18 minutes left in the second half, where the Irish sparked an 18 - 4 run over the next four minutes to take control of the game. The run began with a powerful three point play from Harangody. In an attempt to get his team back in the game, Brey switched to a full court press, which paid off minutes later when Ayers intercepted an inbounds pass and laid it in for two easy points. The Irish continued to execute the press well, forcing Cincinnati to turn the ball over on their next possession, capitalizing on their mistake with a McAlarney three. 13 of Harangody's game high 25 points came during the run.

The 91 - 74 victory, coupled with strong performances by McAlarney (22 points, 5-8 3pFGs) and Kurz (17 points, 10 boards) may seem like a very solid win for Notre Dame, but there were a few glaring weaknesses on display last night. Cincinnati's bench outscored the Irish 40 - 16, primarily because Notre Dame only brought 3 players off of the bench the entire game. Peoples, Hillesland, and Zeller all contributed about 10 minutes (and added some timely shooting and change of pace for the offense), but this game illustrated the need for Brey to start developing his freshmen quickly; in the event of an injury, foul out, or overtime, the squad is extremely thin.

Ball handling once again looked like a concern last night. McAlarney had more turnovers than assists, and while Jackson was able to pick up 8 dimes, he did so at the cost of 5 turnovers. All together, ND gave up the ball 15 times; better than their 24 against Marquette, but definitely an area to improve on in the near future.

Lastly, Cincinnati was seemingly able to grab offensive boards at will against the Irish, and the defensive rebounds we did come away with looked awfully sloppy. Especially against bigger teams, Notre Dame needs to learn how to box out and control the paint, or we could be in big trouble against Roy Hibbert and Georgetown on January 19th.