Irish Cruise Past St. Johns in Senior's Last Home Game

I have to admit that I didn't watch the ND St. Johns game last night; ESPNU was carrying the Boston College game in my area, and my internet cable provider doesn't support ESPN 360. The gamecast I was using didn't help much either; I was able to get the score, but the live stats were a little off. How off? Let's just say that red shirt freshman Carlton Scott was credited with 3 points... O well, at least I had the nice alternative of watching fellow 330 citizen LeBron James drop 50 points in a win over the Knicks at the Garden. I could stare at the box score for awhile and try to write a post that made it seem like I saw the game, but for the sake of our loyal readers, I'll spare them my commentary and just link the ESPN and SBT game recaps.

I realize that a majority of the people who visit this site are not as avidly involved with ND Basketball as they are with our loyal sons on the football field, so in an effort to prepare everyone for the upcoming Big East tourney, I would like to point to a pleasantly funny Observer article by student writer Bob Kessler that sums up the team for those not as familiar with this year's bball squad.

February has been a great month for this university, and I'm not talking about the proliferation of waffle fries in the SDH.

It's pretty amazing looking back: two years ago (when we last lost at the JACC, to Marquette) nobody would have expected that we would witness our football team lose more games than our basketball team over the next two years.

On Harangody: Some tried to call him Bam-Bam last year; Digger calls him "Gody," but the fans in the JACC just prefer to call him "LUUUUUUUUUUKE."

On the team's trio of point guards: Tory Jackson gets rebounds like it's his job, K-Mac drains threes from ridiculous range, and Peoples has the biggest calves this side of Robert Hughes.

On Zeller, Ayers, and Hillesland: each of these guys has his own unique skill-set, but they all share the ability to throw down at any given moment in a game.

While the Legion is referred to as the 6th Man for the Irish, everybody knows the real 6th man is Janice McAlarney (J-Mac, mother of K-Mac).

On the Legion Shirt: Students sit behind the basket wearing black this year, a nice color choice, with designs that remind us of something out of Hello Kitty. Really, there couldn't possibly be a less intimidating font choice for the shirts this year. At least they aren't as bad as "The Shirt," which is made to fit Charlie Weis and Scott Malpass; even those ones that are sized small.

On Brey: His tieless wardrobe and trademark fist pumps keep the team excited and keep the fans on their feet.

Many thanks to Bob Kessler for the 5 minute guide to ND basketball, but there is one more basketball player to pay homage to. Senior forward Rob Kurz played his final game in the JACC last night, going for 15 points and 4 rebounds. Kurz has provided ND with great leadership and a more than capable skill set over the last two undefeated home seasons, and it was a pleasure to be able to watch him play. Kurz also supplies us with this week's quotes.

"It's been an unbelievable experience," the senior said. "You work your whole life to play college basketball and now its coming to an end."

But don't worry, Kurz knows that he still has work to do:

"You can't pat yourself on the back right now," Kurz said. "Until we win a couple games in the (NCAA) Tournament, I'm not going to feel like we've accomplished what we set out to do."
"The most important part of the season is right now."

Excellently put. Go Irish! Beat Bulls!

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!

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.