Sunday, February 18, 2007

Cincinnati

New 3-Point record holder? Check. Injured/Ineffective Russell Carter? Check. Much needed road win against a team we should beat? Double check.

Get in, get out, get on with the year. The Irish took care of business behind record holding marksman Colin Falls's 23 points.

Russell Carter was limited to 15 minutes with a pre-existing injury. While we need him back badly, ND was able to show off some balance by having four players score in double figures. Russell finished with 3 points and 3 rebounds.

Colin scored 23 on 6-11 shooting and dished out four assists. 5-8 from beyond the arc helped him pass Chris Thomas as the All-Time 3-point leader at ND.

Tory Jackson scored 10 with six assists. He also turned the ball over five times, but a few of those could have been averted by better inside play.

Luke Harangody scored 11 and finished with 8 rebounds. Nice job for the freshman shooting 5-8 inside and also dishing out four assists. He has had some trouble on offense but played very well today.

Rob Kurz rounds out the starting lineup with 5 points and 7 boards.

Ryan Ayers played 30 minutes today and was lights out off the bench. 12 points, 4-4 from beyond the arc. Congrats to a guy who has received a lot of heat from yours truly. Hopefully will continue the strong play and push for the starting 3 spot next season.

Zach Hillesland was rock solid again today. Seven points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, and used up all his fouls in 19 minutes. Overall a pretty nice performance for Mr. Reliable.

Peoples played only 6 minutes, but used them wisely. Five points and an assist. Did turn the ball over 3 times.

Luke Zeller fouled a guy in the four minutes he played. That's about it.

Very nice solid win on the road. Cincy came out gunning for the Irish with throwback unis and honoring its football team. Too bad ND was more than ready this time. 20 wins feels great. 9 conference W's will be even better, so let's lock that up Tuesday.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

As an '06 alum, this is the first game I have been able to see in person this season. What a joy to see a balanced, winning team representing ND basketball after a number of years of pure frustration.

Fwiw, Mick Cronin looks like an angry Irish Paul Giamatti.

Bryan said...

Zeller played 4 minutes?!?? Wow...I mean, Wow... He is a HUGE bad mark on Brey resume, sorry...


After looking at the numbers, I hearby declare Tuesday "Brey's Alamo, Part II." Depaul can 'pass' ND on the Bubble with a sweep and has better RPI/much better SOS than ND. Need to beat them to stay in the 'BE Top Seven' (Let's face it: There's no way 8 BE teams are gonna make the tournament in the same year that 8-9 ACC Teams make it)

I still say it needs to be 10 wins. 9-8 (or even 10-8) is not gonna be enough. 10-7 or 11-7 are needed

BlackandGreen said...

Bryan-

You're surprised about Zeller playing 4 minutes? Where have you been? That was Luke's seventh game with under 10 minutes of playing time this year. I really want him to succeed, but right now he simply is not a Big East post player. With Ryan Ayers providing outside shooting off the bench, there is no reason for Brey to give Zeller more playing time.

About DePaul, you're right. That's a team we should have beaten at their place and should dominate at home. 2 more wins before the BET is the magic number, but there's no reason why we shouldn't expect the Irish to sweep the final three.

Bryan said...

I knew he was playing under 10 minutes, but not 4(!)...4 makes he completely useless. That is terrible considering the hype he got...

BlackandGreen said...

I think Phonz said it well on the radio yesterday. Zeller needs to beef up and become more physical if he's going to be a Big East post player. It's a rough conference and built more towards a guy like Harangody than Zeller.

He still has time to carve out his niche. We'll have to see how Brey uses him in the future as either the #3 big man or a perimeter mismatch kind of guy.

Bryan said...

BTW, who made this scehule? To go a whole week without a game, then play 3 games in 6 days seems a bit ridiculous...

BlackandGreen said...

I think you have to blame the Big East. Brey and the ahtletic department control OOC matchups, but the conference schedule is made up by the Big East depending on last year's record (worse teams get easier schedules). I think they also determine the dates and times.

It is pretty ridiculous, but that's what happens when the Big East tries to juggle 16 schedules and make the spacing between games fair.