West Virginia on the road this Saturday

[Tenacious_ND 0]

This is ND's 5th "beat down" of the season and this is the first time that I have had anything negative to say about the opponent. My problem with them has nothing to do with whether they win or loss games or how talented they are at basketball.

 

I would like to think I am pretty knowledgeable about college basketball and the Big East specifically, I haven't missed a minute of ND conference games in probably 3 years, not to mention the countless other league games that I watch on ESPN, so give me the benefit of the doubt that I might know something about the opponents and how they play the game.

 

There aren't many sleazy coaches and programs in the Big East... West Virginia is one of them, year after year, whether they beat ND or not.

 

quit whining.. .wvu beat the piss out of ND... thats all we need to know..

[DeeVee 0]

quit whining.. .wvu beat the piss out of ND... thats all we need to know..

 

21-5, going to whine myself to sleep.

[J.P. 0]

Man what happened to our guys tonight? Well I guess we just have to play better next game.

[J.P. 0]

On btw does anybody know why WVU hates Ben Hansbrough?

[FaithInIrish Forever 4,704]

I believe the irish made 8 free throws vs. 20 for WVU. thats -12. Really hard to overcome that. Good news is this team is much better than shooting 35 percent from the floor. Good team, bad day. I think better days are to come.

 

Go Irish

[OklahomaIrish 0]

Bottom line is we just didn't shoot well, especially Abro. If he makes his shots in the first half we are easily up by ten at the break and W. Va. never gets all pumped up. I have to admit they really played hard defensively, but we are a very good team. There will always be the complainers that criticize a top ten team. How many basketball teams are there......300+ ???? Any team can have an off night shooting the ball. Just ask Texas. They thought they would be ranked number one right now. Are there any undefeated teams?? Heck no. Who's played the toughest schedule in America. Try Notre Dame. Who is the only team to defeat Pittsburgh on the road. Try Notre Dame. What is the toughes league in the country. The Big East and it is by a mile. Who are the top two teams in the Big East juggernaut? Pitt and ND, both of whom lost yesterday. Both of whom are going a long long ways in the tournament.

[Donjuan 16]

Yesterday showed that when a team takes away Ben's drive and dish routine, then it can be a crippling blow to our offensive game-plan. I knew after starting the game with an uncharacteristic follow-up dunk by an unathletic Martin no less, that this game was going to come down to hustle and momentum which seems to favor WVU when playing ND at home. Especially Mazulla since he can change the way Ben plays by beating him to his spot.

 

This game does show that ND can be out-ego'd and out-willed. How many times this year have we seen awful shooters full of confidence making huge shots against the Irish? Marquette for example... It's almost like seeing the guy who's ganna guard you during a pick-up game, the one with 2 knee braces wearing Kangaroo shoes and the jacked up socks, and knowing that you're going to score on him. Not sure why ND can't intimidate other teams but it's a very important factor when playing on the road and ND seems to be lacking in it. Adds momentum when your worst three-point shooter is connecting on almost everything he shoots and then hollers in Abro's face on his way back down the court.

 

Like Oak pointed out above, Abro, Martin, Hansborough, and Scott, shot the ball pretty badly tonight. Several in-and-outs in the first half that led to several foul and then free-throw attempts for the Mountaineers. Made me think we were playing with that new wide-channeled basketball, "The Rock." That ball scares me as ND's lost every game while playing with it and will be most-likely forced to use it come Big East tournament time. ND's history with this ball is atrocious as it dates back to the 'Gody days.

 

But arguing over who's right and who's wrong is ridiculous. Brey's teams have a history of blowing it come tourney time and until that changes, there will be justified criticism; especially after losing to WVU with what appeared to be zero change in the game-plan after the break. This team has played a hell of a season so far this year, no doubt. But getting over this hump is what people are really looking at when it comes to measuring success.

 

So far, our losses could all be explained rationally. "Well, we didn't have Scott"...or "we were within 3 points with 2 minutes left and we just couldn't connect." Well this time we had Scott and were not close in the final minutes so there's no way to comfortably rationalize it.

 

Hopefully it was just a fluke and a one-time bad shooting performance.

 

And to answer the question about why people hate Psycho Ben, it's simple: he's a tough-nosed, boisterous kid who makes things happen and can win games. It's probably why I can't stand Mazulla, or couldn't stand Devendorf or McNamara... Those types of players make you hate them but wish you had one on your team.

 

Hopefully we can all agree that ND needs to make their uncontested shots. Hopefully we can all agree that ND needs all of their players to play with more confidence like Ben. And somebody tell Martin he can't drive on anyone, not with his bad knees. It's a charge every time... And I really hope that Atkins is saving his best for last. I know he's a freshman but TJ played better his first year, or at least played without hesitation. I pray that EA has a light come on, we need him to free up space for Ben and the crew.

[OklahomaIrish 0]

Yes, Ben didn't have much success driving the lane, but we shot much lower then our average. I don't know anything about the ball you are talking about, but W. Va. shot pretty well with the same ball. Haven't heard Brey mention anything. Hey, this is basketball. Texas and Kansas both lost to inferior teams this week. You have to make shots. Generally we do. We had open looks. The ball was in and out. Suddenly, Providence is a must win if we want a two seed.

[irishrb 0]

I just got back from my weekend in Morgantown. Here are my brief thoughts on the game.

1. Hansborough is the only person who came to play. Honestly, he had great energy during warm-ups, loved the environment and really was excited. This is part of the reason why fans were booing him so much. At one point, he went and stepped on the WVU symbol in the middle of the court and looked into the student section. He seemed to feed off the crowd though and enjoyed it.

2. Abro sucked. Seriously, he was so open on a couple of those 3's in the beginning and just couldn't hit them. My six year old even said if Abro would have hit those 3 in the beginning, it's a different ball game.

3. Cooley looked so unathletic and just plain awful. I don't know how he was on a roll there but he didn't look good.

4. Carleton needs to get more involved. He has a good shot but needs to step in front of the three point line once in a while.

5. In a nutshell, Ben realized that nobody was hitting their shots and tried to take over by himself. Personally, I would have liked to see more ball movement and involvement from everybody. It just seemed like it was Ben against WVU. Hopefully they'll get back to teamwork and start winning again.

6. There were literally no ND fans there. There were about 25-50 ND fans and the end of the other court from us and we were the only ones on our side of the court. I know basketball is different, but I expected to see more Irish fans there. The WVU fans weren't polite to us but no one was exceptionally rude I guess either. All in all we had a good time. My boys are 6 & 8 though and have yet to see the Irish win at anything in person. We're 0 for 6. Hopefully that will change next season.

GO IRISH!

[Donjuan 16]

I just got back from my weekend in Morgantown. Here are my brief thoughts on the game.

1. Hansborough is the only person who came to play. Honestly, he had great energy during warm-ups, loved the environment and really was excited. This is part of the reason why fans were booing him so much. At one point, he went and stepped on the WVU symbol in the middle of the court and looked into the student section. He seemed to feed off the crowd though and enjoyed it.

2. Abro sucked. Seriously, he was so open on a couple of those 3's in the beginning and just couldn't hit them. My six year old even said if Abro would have hit those 3 in the beginning, it's a different ball game.

3. Cooley looked so unathletic and just plain awful. I don't know how he was on a roll there but he didn't look good.

4. Carleton needs to get more involved. He has a good shot but needs to step in front of the three point line once in a while.

5. In a nutshell, Ben realized that nobody was hitting their shots and tried to take over by himself. Personally, I would have liked to see more ball movement and involvement from everybody. It just seemed like it was Ben against WVU. Hopefully they'll get back to teamwork and start winning again.

6. There were literally no ND fans there. There were about 25-50 ND fans and the end of the other court from us and we were the only ones on our side of the court. I know basketball is different, but I expected to see more Irish fans there. The WVU fans weren't polite to us but no one was exceptionally rude I guess either. All in all we had a good time. My boys are 6 & 8 though and have yet to see the Irish win at anything in person. We're 0 for 6. Hopefully that will change next season.

GO IRISH!

 

Great write-up IrishRB, but may I suggest that you STOP going to Notre Dame games? Irony happens once in a blue moon while being bad-luck, sticks like stink on sh*t.

 

**on a side note, feel free to go to any Big Ten games

[2lakes 1]

Very simple: this is what happens to Notre Dame basketball teams in February and March. It's a disturbing yet predictable annual trend.