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Hansbrough Transfers to Notre Dame

Posted Apr 30th 2008 11:43AM by Charles Rich
Filed under: Notre Dame Basketball, Big East Basketball, NCAA Basketball Recruiting

The less famous, younger Hansbrough -- Ben -- announced his intent to transfer earlier this month from Mississippi State. The 6'3" guard was a starter and averaged 10.5 points. It was a blow to the Bulldogs, but Hansbrough was uncomfortable remaining.

Returning to Mississippi State never was an option.

"Sometimes a place is not the best fit for you," Hansbrough said.

It seems Ben Hansbrough just didn't like the system at Mississippi State , preferring a more up and down tempo such as the Irish play. Hansbrough chose Notre Dame over Oklahoma State and Purdue. He'll have two years of eligibility remaining after sitting out next season.

He has the support of his older brother who apparently wants new gear.

"Ty sent me a text message this morning saying, you better get me some Notre Dame gear," Ben Hansbrough said Tuesday.

Considering UNC is a Nike school and Notre Dame is Adidas, there might be some additional annoyance at the idea of Tyler Hansbrough wandering around Chapel Hill in Irish apparel.

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Someone Should Tell Jim Larranaga That Leprechauns Are Immune to Magic

Posted Mar 25th 2008 3:55PM by Josh Alper
Filed under: George Mason Basketball, Notre Dame Basketball, Mid-Majors Basketball, NCAA Basketball Video, East

Here's a reason why coaches shouldn't let cameras into the locker room before games.

When you're going up against the school that pretty much invented the pep-talk cottage industry, you've gotta come up with something better than crumpling up a piece of paper. A little too much comedy and way too much about what happened with a completely different team.

(H/T Hugging Harold Reynolds)

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Bracket-O-Matic Takes the Fun Out of Filling Out Your NCAA Tournament Brackets

Posted Mar 17th 2008 5:01AM by Sportz Assassin
Filed under: Notre Dame Basketball, Big East Basketball, March Madness, NCAA Basketball Fans

Above is an instructional video about how to use the Bracket-O-Matic. The Bracket-O-Matic can be used by people who can insert their preferences and the program will fill your bracket out for you.

You have eight different sliders to adjust. They range from experience to coaching to ... yes ... even the mascots.

So, I decided to use it to see what I came up with. I like a dynasty school with some offensive firepower. They have to have some star power, upperclassman leadership and a veteran coach. I don't care about the mascot, but I do care if they are on the East coast (yes, a bias).

I compute and ... I get Notre Dame as my champion. Notre Dame? The rest of my Final Four looks doable (UCLA, Memphis and Wisconsin) but the Irish as champ? Heck, it has St. Joseph's as an Elite Eight team and Western Kentucky beating Drake and UConn.

I wouldn't bet on whatever you get here, but it is a pretty neat thing to try just to see where your preferences lead you.

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NCAA Previews: Recognize the Notre Dame Fighting Irish

Posted Mar 15th 2008 6:03PM by Charles Rich
Filed under: Notre Dame Basketball, Big East Basketball, East

Conference: Big East
Record: 24-6, 14-4 in conference
RPI: 26
How They Got In: At-Large
Seed/Bracket: 5/East

Mascot: Leprechaun. The Leprechaun became the official mascot in 1965. Prior, they used terrier dogs.

The origin of the nickname Fighing Irish isn't clear, but the credit seems to be attributed to the media. They have gone by the "Catholics" and the "Ramblers" in the past before "Fighting Irish" was made official in 1927.

Big Wins: UConn, Marquette, Kansas State, Pitt

Notable Loss: at Marquette (by 26 points)

Player You Should Know: Luke Harangody was the Big East Player of the Year and a 2nd team All-American player. Of course, you probably knew about him. Harangody is reliable and consistent. The player that really matters for ND is Kyle McAlarney. The sharp-shooting guard provides the spacing and daggers from outside that allows Harangody to wreak havoc inside. When McAlarney is off, the Irish really struggle.

Outlook: There is no reason why the Irish shouldn't make the Sweet 16. They have a balanced team that can score in the paint and on the perimeter. Their weakness inside is that after Harangody, they really lack players in the frontcourt willing to do the dirty work and fight for rebounds. They thrive with a faster pace. Teams that can control the tempo and shut down their perimeter shooting will spell the end for Notre Dame.

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Watch Luke Harangody's Favorite YouTube

Posted Mar 14th 2008 12:59PM by Michael David Smith
Filed under: Notre Dame Basketball, Big East Basketball

This is the favorite YouTube video of Notre Dame star Luke Harangody:

Luke Winn of Sports Illustrated has a great profile of Harangody in this week's issue, and it starts like this:

The latest pastime of the Harangody brothers can be characterized as schadenfreude for the Digital Age: They entertain each other by exchanging links to YouTube videos, "usually," says Luke, "of someone getting hurt." The most recent, e-mailed from Ty, a junior at Indiana and the elder by 20 months to Luke, a sophomore power forward at Notre Dame, stars a TV correspondent at a mule race called Fór-Mula in rural Brazil. The newsman has foolishly chosen to report from a spot on the edge of the fenceless, dirt track; 18 seconds into the clip, his peppy Portuguese commentary is cut off when he's blindsided by a hard-charging mule making too tight a turn. "The guy just gets rocked," Luke says, smirking at the mere mention of it. "We tend to find that stuff hilarious."

So there you have it: Luke Harangody, the clear choice for Big East Player of the Year, likes to relax by watching people get run over by mules.

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Big East Quarterfinals Review: Georgetown Sitting Pretty

Posted Mar 14th 2008 1:44AM by Charles Rich
Filed under: Georgetown Basketball, Pittsburgh Basketball, Connecticut Basketball, Marquette Basketball, Louisville Basketball, Villanova Basketball, West Virginia Basketball, Notre Dame Basketball, Big East Basketball

Going into the Big East Tournament, there were two historical themes. Georgetown has never lost a single game -- ever -- in the Big East Tournament as the #1 seed. The other being that only once in the 27 years of the Big East Tournament has a team won the BET playing 4 games in 4 days.

After Thursday's action, Georgetown looks like it is in great shape based on those two trends. The Hoyas are the #1 seed in the BET. They are also the only team that didn't play on Wednesday that will play on Friday. The 2, 3 and 4 seeds all lost on Thursday.

Georgetown actually blew an 11 point halftime lead against Villanova, before exploding late to crush Villanova 82-63. Villanova falls back on the bubble with a bad, ugly loss. Georgetown won going away despite Roy Hibbert finishing with 0 points and only 4 rebounds. Hibbert was saddled with foul troubles the whole game, and only played 14 minutes. Georgetown won big because they were unstoppable on the perimeter. They shot 17-28 on 3 point shots. Mind-boggling to watch.

Continue Reading Big East Quarterfinals Review: Georgetown Sitting Pretty

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Big East 2007-08 Awards

Posted Mar 12th 2008 9:00AM by Charles Rich
Filed under: Georgetown Basketball, Pittsburgh Basketball, Connecticut Basketball, Louisville Basketball, Syracuse Basketball, Notre Dame Basketball, Big East Basketball

I complained about it last year, so I'll spare everyone the rant on how the Big East pretty much puts everyone on their All-Big East squads. Seriously? 11 players on the 1st team, 10 on the 2nd team, and there was still a need for 5 more on "honorable mention?

Fine. Here's my All-Big East team with an eye to a real team:

A.J. Price, Guard, UConn
Kyle McAlarney, Guard, Notre Dame
Roy Hibbert, Center, Georgetown
David Padgett, Forward, Louisville
Luke Harangody, Forward, Notre Dame

I feel somewhat guilty for not having a small forward on the squad, so what the heck, let's add a 6th:

Sam Young, Forward, Pitt

As for an All-Big East rookie squad, again it isn't too hard to limit it to just five:

DeJuan Blair, C-F, Pitt
Donte' Green, F, Syracuse
Austin Freeman, F, Georgetown
Dominique Jones, G, South Florida
Jonny Flynn, G, Syracuse

The Big East individual awards had little that surprised. And little to disagree -- though I do on "Coach of the Year." The awards below are my views on it, with a couple other awards added.

Continue Reading Big East 2007-08 Awards

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Big East Power Poll: Battling for #1 and #12

Posted Mar 3rd 2008 7:02PM by Charles Rich
Filed under: Georgetown Basketball, Pittsburgh Basketball, Connecticut Basketball, Marquette Basketball, Louisville Basketball, Notre Dame Basketball, Big East Basketball

At this point in the season, with 1-2 games left the power poll looks a lot like the conference standings. All but two teams are playing for seed. Some are playing for NCAA Tournament seed, others for Big East Tournament position -- or just to make it into the field.

Rutgers and South Florida are eliminated from the Big East Tournament. There are 3 teams fighting for the last couple spots.

Up at the top, Louisville and Georgetown meet on Saturday in D.C. The game will decide the Big East regular season championship and the #1 seed for the Big East Tournament.

Continue Reading Big East Power Poll: Battling for #1 and #12

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Harangody Can't Drag the Irish to a Win

Posted Feb 28th 2008 9:27PM by Charles Rich
Filed under: Louisville Basketball, Notre Dame Basketball, Big East Basketball

Anyone who doesn't pick Notre Dame's Luke Harangody as Big East Player of the Year, either is an idiot or hasn't watched Big East basketball this season. Harangody did everything he could to get Notre Dame to earn a quality road win. Unfortunately, the rest of the Irish didn't offer much help as Louisville won 90-85.

Luke Harangody poured in 40 points on 16-28 shooting, including 3-4 on threes. Harangody had only attempted 24 3s in his career before this game -- never making one. He made all 3 in the final couple minutes as he singlehandedly did everything he could to find a way to get this game for the Irish. I know this is already repetitive, but his individual effort was so impressive and so close to doing it, that it can't be helped. It was truly impressive.

The rest of the Notre Dame team shot 34%. After Harangody the only real contributor was the oft-maligned Ryan Ayers who had 17 points on 6-9 shooting. Kyle McAlarney was a dismal 3-14 in this game. As usual, when he doesn't shoot well, the Irish struggle.

For almost the entire game, Louisville was in total control. The Cardinals jumped out early and cruised most of the game with a double-digit buffered lead. Only in the 4 minutes did Notre Dame make it a game.

David Padgett led Louisville with 26 points, but 4 other Cardinals finished with double-digit scoring as Louisville shot better than 50% for a second consecutive game. The Louisville offense has suddenly clicked, though their defense seems to be suffering.

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Big East Power Poll: Time Running Out

Posted Feb 26th 2008 1:08AM by Charles Rich
Filed under: Georgetown Basketball, Pittsburgh Basketball, Connecticut Basketball, Marquette Basketball, Louisville Basketball, Notre Dame Basketball, Big East Basketball

The 18-game Big East schedule is nearing its completion. Just 3 to 4 more games remain for the teams. For some it's about solidifying seeds. Others trying to get off the bubble or into the conversation. Then there are those just trying to get to Madison Square Garden for the Big East Tournament.

After the first 5 teams, the next 5 are on varying degrees on the dreaded NCAA Tournament bubble. After that there are 4 teams fighting to make it to the Big East Tournament. The remaining 2 aren't mathematically eliminated, but have no realistic shot of playing a conference tournament game.

Continue Reading Big East Power Poll: Time Running Out