Went to last night's game in South Bend, and we should be able to beat both of these teams pretty handily.
UConn was shooting the ball terribly, and they seem much more undersized then they have been in years past (with the exception of Thabeet and Adrien). Poor defense allowed McAlarney to score over 30. They're athletic and good on the break, and most of their comeback came on fast break points once ND got sloppy.
As for the Irish, they're heavily reliant on Harangody, so if MU can make him a non-factor, we should be good to go. Once he went cold in the 2nd half, they seemed to lose all their momentum, blowing the big lead. McAlarney's a sniper, but UConn didn't guard him nearly as tighly as they should have. Most of his points came in the first couple of minutes, and we were a little late getting in, so I missed them. I'd say maybe put Jerel on Harangody (like we did with McDermott last week), and maybe Wes on McAlarney. The rest of the team doesn't seem to factor much.
The Joyce Center gets loud now. They have people showing up for the games with the streak and all. It was a break game, and they sold some of the student section to the public to fill it up, so it was a pretty full house last night. I guess that the ND Alumni Association scooped up most of the tixx for our game, given our big turnouts the past couple of times down there.
I don't see us coming out with a W out of the Joyce.
What was the score early last year? Then the whistles came out...
Shrek was getting called for his fullback moves that he didn't get called for last year vs. MU.
the reason shrek 'went cold' is a 7'3" one named Thabeet.
Harangody was stuffed about 5 times by Thabeet. Thabeet was so tall that he didn't have to body up and get pushed out of the way by Harangody. Barro will have to stay out of foul problems if we are going to defend shrek.
Quote from: 77fan88warrior on January 07, 2008, 11:00:34 AM
Harangody was stuffed about 5 times by Thabeet. Thabeet was so tall that he didn't have to body up and get pushed out of the way by Harangody. Barro will have to stay out of foul problems if we are going to defend shrek.
we could just put trend under that basket and when anyone comes near it have him swat it back ;D
The last few games Barro has had some really nice clean swats. Good positioning without a hacking motion. I'd love to see that against ND.
After watching this game I think Trend could be really important vs ND. Thabeet did an excellent job on Shrek and Blackledge is a similar (albeit less talented) version. Cosulting the Wiki he has 15 career blocks in very limited minutes, he has a real talent at blocking shots. Actually so does Ouse, he's real close to cracking the Top 10 career blocks mark.
Shrek? Are referring to cement head?
TC will double Harangody from the weak side (his blind side) when he gets the ball low-----IMO the game will depend on how effective this technique will be or if Harangody is properly prepared to handle that by finding the open guy.
Another factor will be McAlarney's ability (or inability) to hit treys-----he's been inconsistent!