Highlights from Villanova’s win over Notre Dame on Wednesday. As always from RFC. Enjoy!
Notre Dame
Game just ended at 9:09 p.m. ET. Villanova defeats Notre Dame 90-72 to move to 19-1, which is the best start in school history! Villanova overcame a sloppy 1st half where they were constantly letting the Irish stick around to absolutely destroy Mike Brey’s boys in a 2nd half where the Wildcats truly imposed their will.
I’m going to say right now, I didn’t get in until late in the 1st half, so I can’t really comment on what went on (please let me know in the comments), but from what I was hearing from Jay Bilas and Sean McDonough, we played incredibly sloppy and couldn’t slow down Luke Harangody, who had 16 points in the opening 20 minutes.
I will say this about the 2nd half though – it was phenomenal. After a sluggish star to the half the team really turned up the defensive pressure and got back to what they do best – run, and run some more. Notre Dame had no chance once this game plan fell into place. Some more thoughts:
- We ended the game on a 30-something to 15-ish run. It was beautiful to watch.
- The students really wanted Scottie Reynolds to hit 2,000 tonight. They were going nuts at the end when he went on a personal 7-0 run. He finished 7 points shy. On the bright side, he’ll get that in The Pavilion, which I think makes it more special.
- Corey Fisher was outstanding. At one point, he left an ND defender 5 feet behind him with a simple head fake, that drew roars (and laughter) from the crowd, and Jay Bilas.
- Antonio Peña was a friggan beast tonight. A double-double with 14 and 11, and he neutralized Harangody in the 2nd half. One of the best games of his career.
- Wayns, Redding and Stokes were all solid. Stokes is getting his shooting touch back I think. Redding was great defending Harangody and had some “old-man” plays as Bilas described him where he simply out-thought everyone else to get an easy hoop.
- Taylor King hit a couple of deeeeeep 3’s, and played his usual tough defense and drew some great charges on the Irish.
- Ben Hansbrough fouling out early in the 2nd half was huge. Brey is an idiot though. It was a 5 point game and he put him in with 4 fouls. Talk about mismanaging one of your best players. On the bright side for Ben though, I don’t hate him like I did his brother.
- Quiet games from Armwood, Cheek and Yarou. Who knows?
Vilalnova returns to action next Tuesday when they host Seton Hall at The Pavilion. Corey Fisher has a shot at 1,000 points for his career, and Scottie Reynolds looks to make it 2,000 for his sensational career at ‘Nova.
The spread for the game vs. Notre Dame is Villanova -10. Fire away.
The Game: #3 Villanova (18-1, 7-0) vs. Notre Dame (15-5, 4-3)
Location: The Wachovia Center in Philadelphia, PA
Time: 7:00 p.m. ET
Broadcast: ESPN
Brief Rundown: IBBW was in the building to see Villanova overcome a poor 1st half and put away a pesky St. John’s bunch in Madison Square Garden on Saturday. It was weird, but even when we were down by double-digits, I never really felt we were in danger. I guess that’s the mark of a good team. The fantastic trio of Wayns, Fisher and Reynolds combining for 53 points doesn’t hurt either.
The Fighting Irish are an interesting group, as always. Luke Harangody is one of the best offensive players the conference has had in recent memory, but he plays virtually no defense, so in the grand scheme of things his impact is neutralized every night in my eyes. They scored an impressive home win against West Virginia, but also lost to Loyola-Marymount and Northwestern this season. If they’re shooting it well, they’re dangerous. If not, they probably won’t put up too much of a fight as they are an awful defensive group.
What I Want To See: A complete game and suffocating defense. They don’t have the athletes to run with us, but I don’t want us to win this game in the 80s because they are shooting well. Shut them down from the start and don’t let them and Harangody get going. This is only a dangerous game if we allow it to become one.
…Lets Go Nova!…any thoughts on how many times Luke bitches to the stripes tomorrow night about somebody touching him?…
When the BIG EAST schedule was first released, we broke it down into different portions, outlining the difficulties of each. Back then, we looked at the upcoming 4-game stretch as by far the “easiest” of this rugged conference schedule. The 4 games are as follows:
- Tomorrow at Rutgers (0-5 in conference)
- Saturday at St. John’s (2-3)
- Next Wednesday vs. Notre Dame (3-3)
- Next Saturday vs. Seton Hall (1-4)
In my opinion, losing to either Rutgers or St. John’s is worthy of the students burning down The Pavilion. Both aren’t very good (although St. John’s does have some talent), but with where we are at both as a program and a team this year, those should both be easy victories. I don’t care if they aren’t pretty. Just win them. Please.
As for the Irish and the Pirates, those will be a little tougher. Notre Dame has one of the best offensive players in the country in Luke Harangody (although I’m pretty sure he’s never heard of the word ‘defense’) and if they have a hot shooting night, are very capable of pulling an upset. That game being home makes me feel a lot better.
And the same goes for Seton Hall. Everybody’s pick for breakout team of the year has fizzled at the start, but they still have plenty of talent led by Jeremy Hazell (who will score 40 points on 35 shots – guaranteed). Plus, with how our game went with them last year, they will be gunning for us. Nothing to turn a season around like beating a Top 10 team on the road – at our place.
In my eyes, we really should go 4-0 here and be 9-0 in the conference when we head back to Georgetown. We’ll see if the team plays down to the competition, or if they take advantage of this stretch and blow everyone away. This could be the stretch where we can put some space between us and everybody else.
Most of you probably know this already, but Notre Dame transfer Scott Martin tore his ACL during a workout on Thursday and will miss the entire season. After a disappointing year for the Fighting Irish, some hope was restored with Luke Harangody announcing his return for a senior year. In addition, the infusion of transfers Martin (Purdue) and Ben Hansbrough (Mississippi) into Notre Dame’s rotation was supposed to be a big lift. Now, with Martin out, Harangody will have to shoulder much of the load down low yet again. Martin put up decent numbers at Purdue in his sophomore season, averaging over 8 points and almost 4 rebounds a game, so don’t underestimate the impact of this injury in the rugged Big East.
Just a quick note on Dante Cunningham and the Portland Trailblazers. They, along with the rest of NBA teams, opened up camps this past week in preparation for the start of the season in about a month. The coverage on the Trailblazers website is very in-depth, with numerous blogs, videos, pictures, daily recaps, and much more. Definitely check it out to keep up to date on Dante and the rest of his new teammates.
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.
West Virginia couldn’t kee up the pressure in the 2nd half on Notre Dame, and allowed them to make it somewhat of a game. The Mountaineers closed it out in the end 73-62. Luke Harangody awoke from his 1st half slumber to finish with 27 points. Kyle McAlarney finished with 17.
Alex Ruoff had 25 for West Virginia, and Da’Sean Butler fought through foul trouble in the 2nd half to finish with 20. Truck Bryant had a surprisingly good night with 17 points. Freshman Devin Ebanks had 16 rebounds and 5 assists. He’s going to be very, very good.
Very impressed by the Bob Huggins’ boys tongiht. I really think they are going to give Pittsburgh a game tomorrow.
For Notre Dame, it’s likely the NIT for them, although there are no guarantees. Hopefully they make some noise there and gain back something after a disappointing year.
West Virginia has used some sharpshooting from the outside along with their typically suffocating defense to take a 36-18 lead into the half over Notre Dame.
Darryl “Truck” Bryant is being left open a bit too often, scoring 13 points in the opening 20. Da’Sean Butler and Alex Ruoff each have 9, although Butler was 4-14, which is awful.
Luke Harangody looks completely disinterested in playing. I don’t know what’s wrong with him. Is he hurt? He looks like he wants to go home. He had just 4 points on 6 shots. Sheesh.
It’s not just him though. ND has no clue what to do on offense, and forget about them playing any sort of defense. They are basically just passing it around the perimeter and hoping somebody is mysteriously left open for a 3. I know he won’t get fired, but if I’m an ND fan I’m livid if he still has a job next year. He’s just not the answer for them.
West Virginia looks like a team primed to make a run in this tournament though, especially if guys like Bryant and Devin Ebanks can step up. Could they beat Pittsburgh? That’ll be a great game tomorrow.
Barring a complete meltdown by the Mountaineers, this one is over.
****Updated for the night session****
The 2nd day of the Big East Tournament is under 2 hours away! Rejoice! I shouldn’t be complaining about yesterday though. Besides that atrocious Notre Dame-Rutgers affair, the games were pretty competitive and entertaining despite being played by the dregs of the conference.
Today should be better though as we’ll see some NCAA Tournament-quality squads hit the hardwood. Oddly enough, no spreads available for the night session games yet, so we’re going to wait to pick those games until we see a spread.
12:00 p.m. ET – PROVIDENCE -8.5 DePaul
- DePaul’s magical 1-game run will officially end today. It’s not that I don’t like the Blue Demons, because I was thrilled that they won yesterday. I just don’t think they can keep this close. They definitely cannot score with Providence. And even though they rediscovered defense yesterday, I don’t think they can slow down the Friars either. I think Keno’s boys will win this one going away and win by 10+. Plus, I’d rather see Providence take on Louisville. That would actually be a contest.
2:00 p.m. ET – MARQUETTE – 7 St. John’s
- This one I am a little less sure about. I really envision the Johnnies being able to keep this one close. It’s no secret that Marquette is struggling mightily. They haven’t won in a couple of weeks and maybe some doubt is creeping in. But Jerel McNeal and Wesley Matthews (and Lazar Hayward for that matter) will be the best players on the court. St. John’s is going to need to shoot the ball extremely well because they won’t get a lot of easy buckets. I feel like I’m going to regret this pick, but the Golden Eagles will cover.
7:00 p.m. ET – WEST VIRGINIA – 4.5 Notre Dame
- The Mountaineers are just stifling on defense, so it’s hard to envision the ND shooters getting many open looks. That means that the offense is most likely going to fall on Luke Harangody, who was awful last night, and Tory Jackson, who was very good. I don’t see anyone on the Irish who can account for Da’Sean Butler, and Alex Ruoff killed them in the first matchup. I’m banking on Devin Ebanks bothering Harangody with his length. West Virginia wins, and covers.
9:00 p.m. ET – SYRACUSE -6.5 Seton Hall
- After the underdogs hurt me yesterday, I can’t pick all favorites again. Plus, I love Seton Hall. I think their ability to shoot is going to kill Syracuse’s zone. Syracuse is tricky though. Are they primed for a run after beating Marquette in Wisconsin? The Pirates’ depth worries me, but I’m taking Seton Hall with the points.
