Brey / Bam Bam Interview

I already posted my thoughts on the upcoming ND WSU game, but for those of you that want an opinion straight from the experts, here's a copy of CBS's interview with Mike Brey and Luke Harangody that took place during halftime of the Duke WVU game today. If that isn't already enough to convince you to watch it, there's some great awkwardness near the end of the interview.

Go Irish! Beat Cougars!

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!

Excuses, Excuses

For everyone that has been regularly checking Charlie's Nasties last week in hope of a new post only to be disappointed, I must apologize. After my first round of tests, I was compelled to take a long study break, so I flew to the land down under to party with this kid for a day or two.



But now that I'm back, it's time to at least partially recap two big games played by the men's basketball team.

Notre Dame proved that they could protect this house against 16th ranked Marquette in a game that showed very solid performances from everyone on ND's roster. Out of everyone who played, Rob Kurz's 5 points was the lowest total; 5 players notched double figures, Ayers contributed 9, and The People's Court dropped 7, including some clutch free throws down the stretch. Jackson continued his streak of superb play, accumulating 8 assists and coming up with some unlikely boards. Tory once again showed his ability to give the team an energy boost when he started off the game by blocking one of Marquette's 6'8" forwards, setting the tempo for the rest of the game.

The student section also helped set the tempo; by Saturday morning, the line to get in Gate 11 stretched all the way down the old Juniper Street. Some students began camping out in one of the heating ducts adjacent Gate 11 as early as Thursday afternoon to score some premo seats. By Friday night, 4 of these ducts were filled to capacity with sleeping students. The inpromptu campground was dubbed 'Breytopia' in honor of the coach who hooked them up with some free za after noticing the large turnout.
Breytopia would also like to thank the members of ND Nation who were kind enough to stop by with food and drink

None of the dorm rooms near me have ESPNU, and at first, things looked bleak for getting a chance to watch the UConn game, but lo and behold, I was invited to one of those fancy "meet and great" informal dinners at Legends.... where they were showing the game on a 15' projection screen. Unfortunately, ND's inability to capitalize on many Huskie mistakes late in the game prevented me from witnessing a win.

Harangody and Jackson both played very well, but the lack of production from anyone else on the team (except for McAlarney who scored 12 points with a very inefficient 4-14 shooting) ended up costing them the game. On the bright side, ND did take a top 20 team down to the wire on the road (which is considerably better than getting blown out by 30 points), held their star player to only 4 points, and best of all: the loss was on the road...

Go Irish. Beat Knights!

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.

Happy Birthday

Harangody had a monster 31 points and 14 rebounds, Kurz dropped 11, and Ayers added 10 with his much needed energy off the bench, but Tory Jackson was the player of the game tonight. Jackson, who turned 20 years old yesterday, scored 14 points and dished out seven assists, adding some key hustle plays to help the Irish extend their home winning streak to 32 games.

Harangody made two clutch free throws to tie the game with 18 seconds to go; the fans would have held their breath for the Friar's last possession if they weren't screaming. Focused on not allowing Providence their last shot, Jackson quickly stole the ball and heaved up a desperation shot (which almost went in) to push the game into overtime. In the extra period, Jackson assisted Notre Dame's first four field goals and proceeded to score the next five points, which included sinking 3 out of 4 free throws to give his team a 6 point lead.

Jackson, who also had a nice steal in overtime, seemed to finally get some of his swagger back after the contest. Only a 45% free throw shooter for the season, it was comforting for everyone when his shots began to fall at the end of the night. To say that Tory had a better free throw shooting night than Providence center Ray Hall, however, might be one of the biggest understatements of the century. Hall missed on his third free throw after being thrown off by some look-related-insults from the student section and was so frustrated that he air-balled his next attempt. After that, a merciless chorus of "Airrr Ballll" chants was heard every time he went to the line; Hall missed his next six attempts (including one that could have been a Friar game winner) as he worked his way to 2 of 10 on the day. Sticks and stones, Ray...
The Irish are now alone in second place in the Big East with a 5-2 record; only the Hoyas of Georgetown (7-1) are ahead. Black out night against DePaul on Saturday looks like its gonna be fun. Go Irish!

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

Road Woes

Notre Dame fell at the hands of the Georgetown Hoyas Saturday by a score of 84 - 65. Giving a new feel to the term "cold," the Irish shot just above 30% from the floor and only connected on 7 of their 25 three point attempts. 7'2" center Roy Hibbert made the game extremely difficult for Harangody; the sophomore fouled out with 13 points, but was only 3 of 13 from the field.

It wasn't until sometime in the second half that Notre Dame adjusted its defense on Hibbert, who scored a game high 21 points with an efficient 7 for 11 shooting effort. Originally, the Irish let him get the ball and relied on help crashing down from the top of the key, but Hibbert's tall frame and finesse game continued to dominate over the small Irish defense. In the second half, Brey decided to start "fronting" Hibbert a little, attempting to prevent him from touching the ball. This seemed to slightly throw Georgetown out of rhythm, but at that point the game was almost out of reach; it's hard to come back when you can't score...

Notre Dame may have shot poorly, but it was in a large part to the stifling defense played by the Hoyas. Showing why they are #6 in the country, they dominated by shutting down Kyle McAlarney and Harangody. Up to this point in the season (and it has been apparent when looking at the box scores), Notre Dame's offense has run largely through those two players, so it was a big problem when they were taken out of the game. Even though the starters weren't accomplishing much and the Irish were down 20, however, Brey didn't sub any freshmen in until there was less than a minute in the game. Abromaitis hit two free throws in the garbage time, but it is my opinion that the team missed another great opportunity to develop its young players.

For my final two cents, I'd like to point out the one bright spot in the loss: the play of sophomore guard Jonathan Peoples. This player gets some flak from the fan base because he doesn't look quite as polished in his ball handling or shooting as the players around him, but the People's Court was in session Saturday, dropping 12 points (5/6 shooting) in only 11 minutes of play. At one point, Peoples showed off his pumps skills by rebounding a K-Mac missed 3 and slamming it home with one hand; after losing Russell Carter, it was fun to see a powerful putback again. Hopefully he'll learn to build off of this game and give the Irish another scoring threat.

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.

Lazy Sundays

As everyone rushes around the town to buy their remaining presents, the Notre Dame basketball team will look to lay the smack down on the University of San Francisco Dons. While currently averaging 80 points per game and only allowing 60, the Irish hope to make quick work of the Dons, but with only two out of conference games remaining (against Brown and North Florida), don't expect ND to take any of these games lightly. With a big matchup against West Virginia to look forward to on January 3rd opening up Big East play, the Irish will be fine tuning their game in order to get ready for their next level of competition. It was this time last year when ND began to realize the potential of freshmen like Luke Harangody and Tory Jackson, and these last three out of conference games could be the last time that a lot of the freshmen see any significant minutes. Look for young guns like Tyrone Nash and Tim Abromaitis to jockey for some playing time down the stretch.In football news, who would have thought that 15 weeks into the season, Brady Quinn still would not have seen a snap for my Browns? More than that, who would have thought that the team could clinch a playoff berth this week with a win over Cincinnati? I'll be sitting back tomorrow to watch the glory of another win while I listen faintly for Cowboys fans to let out another small sigh of frustration.

Have fun shopping, and remember: don't drive like an animal when its raining/snowing like cats and dogs.

Happy Holidays. Go Irish.

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.