Posts tagged ‘Notre Dame’

NEW YORK — The hackneyed expression goes that styles make fights, and that’s also true of basketball games.

Twenty-four hours after Seton Hall and Marquette spent 40 minutes in a clinch, Notre Dame gave the Golden Eagles space, and that allowed Jerel McNeal and Maurice Acker to connect on enough haymakers to land the Golden Eagles in the semifinals with an 89-79 victory on Thursday night in the Big East Tournament quarterfinals.

The first half seemed to go to form for the favored Irish. Notre Dame led by six at the break, out-rebounded Marquette by three and did all that despite Big East Player of the Year Luke Harangody playing just seven minutes after picking up a second foul with 10:35 left and sitting out the remainder of the half.

When a rare Tory Jackson 3-pointer put the Irish up, 44-34, with 18 minutes remaining, Notre Dame looked poised to take the rubber match of the season series and get back in the tournament semifinals for the second straight year.

But a funny — or perhaps disturbing, based on your perspective — thing happened on the way to a breezy victory: Marquette started knocking down shots. Seton Hall’s pressure permitted a lot of trips to the foul line for Marquette on Wednesday, but conceded few open looks. Notre Dame doesn’t play with the same defensive tenacity, and the Golden Eagles grew more comfortable from the perimeter with each passing swish.

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You can’t go anywhere around the sporting world without hearing about the bubble. Who’s on it? Who’s safe? Who’s in trouble? It’s a bit mind-numbing, but it’s also great fodder for talk-show chatter because it can be so subjective. I try to avoid most of this talk, because I don’t want popular opinion to affect my perspective, but when the bubble lists scroll across the bottom of my television screen, they’re kind of hard to miss.

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There’s a certain cachet about being named Player of the Year in a major conference. Last year’s Big East Player of the Year, Jeff Green, led his team to the Final Four and was drafted fifth overall in the NBA. This year’s potential POYs include a couple of amazing freshmen — Kevin Love (Pac-10) and Michael Beasley (Big 12) — two upperclass big men at two of the nation’s most storied programs — D.J. White (Big 10) and Tyler Hansbrough (ACC) — and perhaps the best shooter in the country on a team looking for a repeat trip to the Sweet 16 — Shan Foster (SEC). And then there’s the likely Big East Player of the Year, Luke Harangody. To separate Harangody from Foster is a case of splitting hairs, but Harangody — in body type, reputation and buzz — is about as different from the other four as South Bend is from Los Angeles.

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Here’s a look at the action in the Big East this weekend. Every team is playing, with seven conference games and one big non-conference rivalry matchup.

Connecticut at Notre Dame (Saturday, 9 p.m. ET, ESPN): The Big East’s marquee game on Saturday features a pair of teams fresh off impressive openers. Like Notre Dame, Connecticut has a short turnover and the Huskies play a second road game in three days. The big question will be whether UConn’s frontcourt will be able to defend Luke Harangody and Rob Kurz. A couple of other involve Notre Dame’s ability to take care of the ball, and UConn’s guards’ ability to hit shots.These are a couple of evenly-matched teams, but with the Irish at home and so solid offensively, Mike Brey’s team should be the pick. If Connecticut does win, then my preseason third-place prediction won’t look as farfetched as it did a couple of weeks ago. Irish by 8.

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The anticipation begins to build around the middle of December. At this point, fans of college basketball teams have seen their clubs play several times and have at least some feel for the season. But they’re tired of the non-conference patsies and the interesting games occasionally sprinkled in. As Christmas comes, conference season is even closer and the anticipation grows. Finally, after the New Year’s Day bowls are done and folks are already starting to flake out on their New Year’s resolutions, the college basketball fan is rewarded with the beginning of conference play.For two of the 14 Big East fan bases who saw their favorite team open conference play this week, the opener dealt a harsh dose of reality. Villanova and Providence fans entered conference play with high hopes after solid non-conference slates, but with road openers in the Midwest, neither team found anything approaching success on Thursday night.

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I’ve been hard on Norm Roberts in this space, though many St. John’s fans don’t think I’ve been hard enough on the fourth-year coach. While the Red Storm’s offense under Roberts has always been something out of the Neolithic Era, I’d found the defense solid and the effort unquestioned.

That was the case again in St. John’s Big East opener at the Carrier Dome against Syracuse. The Orange have one of the best offenses in the Big East, but managed just more than a point per possession. Meanwhile, the Red Storm — not exactly known for their size and girth — outrebounded Syracuse and hustled all over the floor. But the Johnnies just couldn’t make enough shots to win, which ended in a 76-70 decision for the Orange.

Read more on Wednesday’s games and previews of Thursday’s action >