Notre Dame 70, UAB 64

Pretty uninspired effort by the Irish is enough to get the job done and propel them into the second round of the NIT.

With a couple thousand fans on hand (probably something like the 3314 we had in '06 [EDIT: 2039, worse than Chris Thomas' senior year]), the Joyce Center was embarrassingly barren. Can't really blame the locals for not showing up to see a former top-ten team play in the NIT.

Robert Vaden was very impressive in his final game as a Blazer, scoring 24 on 6-13 shooting from beyond the arc. He shot over every defender we put on him and really made our perimeter defense look bad.

Tory Jackson was pretty iffy, matching 4 turnovers with his 4 assists tonight. He wasted a couple of critical possessions down the stretch by draining the shot clock and taking some pretty unhelpful drives to the basket. Those failed trips nearly single-handedly gave UAB a chance to get back in the game. 9 points with a nice night from the line (4-4), but poor shooting overall (2-9).

Kyle McAlarney scored 12 points on 3-6 shooting. Very Ryan Ayers-esque in his approach, not forcing anything and just knocking down the open looks. He did assist on baskets four times without a single turnover. 4-4 from the line as well.

Ryan Ayers finished with 9 points and 4 rebounds. Add 2 steals and an assist to that total. Zach Hillesland hurt himself, yet again, and only played 12 minutes.

Luke Harangody picked up a tenth rebound in the final minute to finish with yet another double double. He settled down in the second half and scored 22 in the game. In the first half, Luke missed some layups under the basket and bricked a couple three pointers. When he resolves to spend some more time in the paint and stop fading away on every shooting attempt, the Irish run well on offense. However, Luke often turns himself into a midrange player and runs back on defense like a guard which impairs offensive efficiency and eliminates any opportunity for second chance points.

Not a whole lot to say about this game. The guys just seemed flat playing in front of the empty seats at home. UAB bailed them out on the charity stripe (5-13) and generally looked like a vastly inferior team after watching Big East competition since January. Hopefully we can shake out the cobwebs and play better on Thursday or Friday against the winner of the Nebraska/New Mexico game (most likely Steve Alford's bunch). We do know that the next game will be at home, unless the women's NCAA tournament moves it to Fort Wayne.

In other news, Luke Harangody has been named a second team All-American by the USBWA. Congrats, Luke.

EDIT: Next game will be Thursday at the Joyce Center. Come one, come all.

UAB Preview

We've gone over the season a few times already. Win the next five games and this season seems a little less depressing. Lose, and well it can't really get any worse than this, can it?

UAB-
Pomeroy Ranking- 42nd
Record- 22-11 (11-5)
Quality Wins- @ Arizona
Bad Losses- None
Common Opponents- Beat South Florida 78-77 OT, Lost @ Cincinnati 87-80, Lost @ Louisville 82-62
Pomeroy Prediction- ND 76-71

Key Players-
#24 Robert Vaden- 6'5", 205 lbs.- 17.5 PPG, 5.0 RPG, 34.1 3PA
#4 Paul Delaney III- 6'2", 200 lbs.- 16.0 PPG, 4.4 RPG, 3.5 APG, 37.9% 3PA
#21 Lawrence Kinnard- 6'8", 210 lbs.- 14.2 PPG, 9.0 RPG, 30.8% 3PA

Scouting Report-
Don't turn the ball over a lot (9th).
Don't allow offensive rebounds (40th).
Don't let opponents shoot a lot of free throws (43rd).

In short, the Blazers play pretty good D (39th) with a decent offense (67th). We should beat them with a good game, but a cold shooting night and sluggish defense will almost certainly lead to our demise.

On a personal note, I'd like to ask anyone in the South Bend area to attend tomorrow's game. It's St. Patrick's Day and possibly your last chance to watch four seniors who have had a tremendous impact on the program and have at least been great ambassadors for the University during their short time here. This isn't Chris Thomas and Dennis Latimore tanking against Holy Cross in '06. I'm not certain if we will win tomorrow or not, but I know for damn sure that these guys will play their hearts out. Let's send them off with more than just a couple thousand people in the stands.