Quote

While perusing the web instead of finishing my last midterm paper, I came across a quote that was too good not to put up:

"Pick him up once he gets off the bus"

Louisville head coach Rick Pitino's response when asked how to guard Kyle McAlarney.

Go Irish. Beat Cardinals!

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!

Quick Quote

Thanks to everyone for the compliments on the '08 recruiting picture. I'm actually about to hit the books pretty hard for the first round of tests starting tomorrow, so I won't be able to write much about the Seton Hall game other than:

1. Notre Dame was lights out. Remember the second half of the Cincinnati game? Yeah, the shooting was something like that. 55% from the floor and 47% from deep - that's some serious nylon splashing.

2. Brey was finally able to work in the freshmen at the end of this game. Nash still needs to get more PT in order to shake the deer-in-the-headlights syndrome, although I think that when he gets comfortable, he'll be a great player.

3. Notre Dame landed high school recruit Jack Cooley (picture a smaller version of Harangody) after he had a great visit to campus.

"I was really impressed with how the team was one cohesive unit," Cooley said of the Irish. "No one complained if someone else took a shot. They all got together as a team, the coaches were great, everyone came up and introduced themselves. It was a great experience. I just want to be a part of that."

4. K-Mac, among other Irish players, is a beast. This week's quotes come from some of the previous coaches that got burned by some of his 3-balls.

"He was unstoppable against us," the Wildcat coach said of McAlarney's 30-point, five-assist performance. "He came out and made a couple of threes from 25 feet, and when we got out on him he started making runners, floaters. We really could not stop him."
Villanova Coach Jay Wright

"He's one of the best players in this conference. He's got game, and shtick and attitude," Gonzalez said. "He can just play. He reminds me of Scott Skiles and Gerry McNamara and all those tough guards who could beat you in so many ways."
Seton Hall Coach Bobby Gonzalez

Go Irish. Beat 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.

JACC Forced to Incur Huge Maintenance Expenses

The Notre Dame service staff was hard at work, beginning early this morning and continuing for the next several days, replacing the light fixtures in the basketball arena. This is of course because juvenile Kyle McAlarney and several accomplices shot the lights out during the Irish's record breaking 25th consecutive win at the Joyce Center (the previous home win record was set in the 1970's). Shooting 62% from the field and 56% from beyond the arc, Notre Dame overwhelmed its lesser opponent, Northern Illinois University. Senior Rob Kurz and Junior Kyle McAlarney each dropped 17 points, and every player (except red shirt freshman Carleton Scott) was able to score in the route.

Fans were treated to a very stylish Notre Dame Basketball calendar. My favorite picture was actually the month of April, which has an absolutely classic picture of Brey and his staff.
Also on display was super sophomore Luke "Bam-Bam" Harangody, who registered a double double while only playing for 21 minutes. Throwing down for several monster dunks, there were times that I thought Luke might bring down the backboard. Even though the Irish won by over 40 points (108-62), the student section was electric as most everyone stayed until the end to witness a chapter in Notre Dame history.
After suffering through such a tough football season, it was refreshing to be able to sit back and watch a good old fashion beating; all of the players were having fun getting after it, and Brey was pretty pleased as well. Here's his response (courtesy of the Observer online) when asked if he had seen anything like the squad's performance in the first six minutes (22 points before the first media timeout).

"The first six minutes of the game, have you ever seen anything like that?" Irish coach Mike Brey said. "I mean, are you kidding me? That was a clinic. I'm hitting [assistant coach Sean Kearney] and going, 'This is fun.' See I would've bought a bunch of tickets for tonight if I knew that was going to happen. You got your money's worth."

As mentioned before, several of the recruits (and a few current players) were in attendance, although they somehow got stuck with seats up in the bleachers. They seemed to have fun despite being removed from the action, and Weis looked strangely similar to Santa Clause as a chain of fans (children and adults) lined up to shake his hand at halftime. Even though the game was likely one of his only breaks during this busy football weekend, Charlie was still doing the good old PR act.

That it for now Nasties fans. Go Irish.