I Bleed Blue and White

Some more news from Big East big men. First, Georgetown freshmen Greg Monroe will return for his sophomore season.

Out of South Bend, indications are that junior Luke Harangody will enter the NBA draft, but probably not hire an agent. As a result, he will have the option to return to Notre Dame, but again, nothing is set in stone with Harangody. There are some quotes from Harangody and head coach Mike Brey in the article posted.

This news doesn’t really surprise me; I thought Monroe would come back, and I think this is a good decision for him, as he definitely needs another year to develop.  In terms of Harangody, I think he will definitely enter the draft, but I could see him coming back, since he may not be a real high pick.  That NBA money is always enticing though.  Hopefully, for Villanova’s sake, Harangody does leave, since he is a double-double machine night in and night out.

After reading Tom Noie’s article in today’s South Bend Tribune, all I have to say is thank God that we have Jay Wright as our head coach. The article itslef is filled with most of what we’ve already read today. It was a great defensive effort by ‘Nova, Scottie Reynolds was amazing, blah blah blah. But one quote from Notre Dame Head Coach Mike Brey really stood out to me, and while at first I laughed, after thinking about it I really do feel bad for Fighting Irish fans.

“I don’t agree with that,” he (Brey) said. “Maybe because we’re not the fastest group, the most physical group, we can’t get up and fight you like some other teams. I think this group has tried their backsides off and hung in there. They played with huge expectations on them.”

So Mike, maybe you should recruit some better players? You are basically admitting that you’ve failed in constructing a team.

I don’t even care that Brey is completely making excuses to his fanbase and to his team. Notre Dame played with “huge” expectations? Really? Now, I know they were ranked 9th in the preseason in the mainstream polls, but judging from Brey’s preseason comments, he completely set his team up for a letdown.

“I’ve told the players that I want them to dream really big dreams this year,” Brey says. “We’re not going to put any cap on what we dream about and what we achieve.”

Wow. Say what you will about Jay Wright, but in the end, he never makes excuses when the team loses about any disadvantage they might have been at. 

In fact as the guys in the comment section below alluded to, Villanova thrives in being the undersized team who outworks their opponent.