The Basketball Blog - Old World Order

Welcome back to the Basketball Blog! Later this week we’ll examine the state of Notre Dame Basketball one-sixth of the way through the Big East season, but today’s column is all about the day order was restored to the universe. No matter how (choose your own adjective time) miserable/apathetic/soft/disinterested/uninterested/mentally weak the Irish team looks on a given early January Saturday; simply put them back on their home court on a Monday night and they’ll invariably morph into the ’86 Celtics.

 

Todd Burlage’s BGI game recap can be found here. Now, onto the post-game player-by-player breakdown for the nation’s best home team:

 

The Other Luke – The main Luke, the All American Luke, is so consistently productive, and such a focal point, that we’re at the point insinuating any Irish player other than Harangody was a game’s MVP is an insult to fans’ intelligence. So let’s create a separate award for the Irish player that goes above and beyond his normal contributions. For now we’ll call it the Coach’s Award (I’ll accept all suggestions for an official name going forward, but I’m leaning toward anything with my name in the title…).

Against DePaul, that player was Zach Hillesland. Against St. John’s? My friend Rocco was at the game with his son Joey…so let’s give them the award, since no one else in the arena could pretend to deserve it. And against Georgetown last night, that player was the much-maligned Luke Zeller. Here’s a brief rundown of my (barely readable) game notes when Zeller checked in at the 13:00 mark of the first half:

“Zeller shys away from rebound leads to Sims tip-dunk; Zeller huge 3, needs to keep firing; Zeller simply standing between Monroe and basket might work; Zeller juggles in a lay-up, great pass from ZH; Zeller contests shot; Zeller working on glass; Zeller misses from deep, needs to keep shooting. Halftime breakdown: Zeller – absolutely huge minutes off the bench.”

Luke Zeller played his most important game in an Irish uniform last night (I don’t care what his career-high is vs. Eastern-Western State on a given December evening) and that effort came on a night in which he missed five of the seven shots he attempted. Without Zeller’s (brace yourself) size, scrappiness, and desire, Notre Dame would have lost by double digits (considering Harangody’s foul trouble) and Georgetown C Greg Monroe’s salivation level every time he saw the much smaller Zach Hillesland checking him.

 

Now it’s up to the Other Luke do this again.

 

Harangody – Good Lord the man can play college basketball, can’t he? I wrote in the pre-season that I’ve never seen a better scorer in a Notre Dame uniform, especially around the basket (Note: I was 3 years old when Adrian Dantley was doing his thing. Note No. 2: That also means I wasn’t born when Austin Carr graduated), and I have a feeling more people will side with me by season’s end.

Harangody is an offensive machine, and he put future No. 1 NBA draft pick, freshman C Greg Monroe, in the Schereville torture chamber, aka “Low Post School” Monday Nnight. Flip shots, running hooks, mid-range jumpers, reverse layups, step-back fade-away jumpers…you name it, he hits it. If he’d stop complaining to the refs every time a call goes against him he’d be the ideal college basketball player (his incredulousness finally cost the Irish a basket in the second half, I might add). And last night, he played in foul trouble from the outset (in Luke’s defense, at least one of those calls, if not two, was completely false). He finished with 31 points and 11 boards, and he probably would have touched the big 4-0 if not for the foul trouble. He’s also the happiest man in the Big East now that his former Hoya nemesis, Roy Hibbert, has graduated.

Note No. 3: I think I’d give back about five of my own credit hours to get Greg Monroe in an Irish uniform for the next year and a half…

 

Tory Jackson – He remains the pulse of the team. If Jackson is off his game (nothing to do with shooting percentages), the Irish can’t/won’t beat 13 of the 15 other teams in this Conference. Last night he attacked sophomore Chris Wright from the outset (and Wright is a heck of an athlete and equally strong), penetrating the lane; kicking out to Ayers for a corner 3; and waking up (what became a great) crowd around the 10:00 mark with a gorgeous move to get to the hoop for a 19-17 Irish lead. He closed out the first half with a drive and dish to Harangody for an old fashioned three-point play; another drive and kick to Harangody in the corner; and a spinning drive and miss that drew the defense, enabling Harangody to get free for rebound and ensuing foul shots.

 

Jackson also drilled his only two pressure free throws in the final minute to extend the Irish lead to seven, 69-62. He might be the seventh or eighth best free throw shooter on the squad in practice, but he’s at least my third choice to toe the line with the game hanging in the balance. Jackson was credited with 7 assists, but I’d have believed anything from 10-13 if told otherwise; he scrapped his way to 5 rebounds, but I’d have believed any number up to 10 – that’s how much control he had early in the contest. I was told after the game that ESPN announcer Jay Bilas referred to him as the best point guard in the Big East. That’s lofty praise, but I’m certain he’s at least the most important.

 

Zach Hillesland – Had it rough in the early going as he was miscast in a matchup vs. the aforementioned Monroe. I realize this was to keep Harangody out of foul trouble (didn’t work), but come on, seriously? The one way to engage a opposing center is to put your 6’9” slight forward on him from the outset. Monroe predictably dominated the offensive glass in the first 5-6 minutes before Zeller’s height deterred him from imposing his will (we’ll never know if he could have dominated Zeller, as Monroe immediately moved a bit farther from the basket).

 

But Hillesland played his game offensively, finding Zeller for a layup: Harangody for a foul and free throws underneath, and his usual array of tipped rebounds and hockey assists (pass that leads to the assist). And he was the Player of the Possession that helped keep the Hoyas at bay in the second half, flying for a gorgeous left-handed tip-in (after missing a text book put back on the previous possession) extending the Irish lead to nine near the 8:00 mark.

 

You probably won’t see Hillesland play as well as he did in the DePaul contest again this season, but it’s unlikely the senior will suffer through another epic dud as he did in Madison Square Garden, either. He’s asked to be the team’s second man on the glass when he’s better suited to be the third; and he’s asked to guard seasoned power forwards when he’s much better off vs. swingmen with like body types. And he’ll likely get worn down as the season progresses in an unforgiving Conference, but he’ll keep battling, and you should see eight more solid ZH efforts at the Joyce Center at the very least.

 

Ryan Ayers – Hit a three from the corner in the first half, but was otherwise overmatched on the glass and far too tentative offensively. Also, Ayers perimeter defense has taken a noticeably hit this season, but this is a Happy Day column, so let’s get to a key sequence early in the second half:

With the Irish lead cut to five, Ayers, in a span of four minutes, drilled a 3 from the left wing; answered a Georgetown dunk with another triple from the wing (I believe from McAlarney); and perhaps most importantly, answered a Hoya’s three-pointer by DRIBBLING twice to his left and hitting a pull-up jumper from the right elbow. Ayers mitigated the damage of a Georgetown dunk, easy jumper, free throw, and a triple with eight points of his own, the only Irish points over the four-minute span, allowing the Irish to maintain a five point cushion.
Note No. 4: Its okay to miss, Ryan, please hunt your shot.

 

Kyle McAlarney – What kind of world do we live in when KMac misses the only Irish free throw in a 15-16 effort? McAlarney was hounded from the jump, but he managed to drill five of his 11 three-point attempts, including consecutive rally-killing triples to extend the Irish lead from 7 to 13 with just under seven minutes to play. He added five defensive rebounds and a crucial (shocking?) semi-blocked shot vs. a 2-2 break that turned back a Hoyas effort that would have cut the margin back to seven with just under five minutes to play.

 

My favorite moment of the game was McAlarney sizing up his defender, senior Jessie Sapp, from about 25-feet out off the dribble, and drilling a 3 in his grill to give the Irish a 24-23 lead. But since I envision the Thursday Blog will turn partly into a missive on McAlarney, I’m going to stop here with one final thought to tide you over: If Steve Alford and Kyle McAlarney played a game of Around the World from 22-feet out, who’d win?

 

The Home Crowd – The students were still on break, but for the second straight year, the extremely loyal, loud, and undefeated Leprechaun Legion class of 2010 will have a fight on its hands to top one of the loudest JACC crowds in recent memory. Last season, the loudest (by far) crowd of the season packed the Joyce Center during Christmas Break for the Irish upset over UCONN; and last night, a late-arriving sellout was whipped into a frenzy midway through the first half and stayed behind the home team to the end.

 

The difference between the wildly vociferous and organized student body and the big-game walk-ups that purchased tickets last night is in the level of the roar after a big Irish bucket. I’m sure a lot of this has to do with the opponent (let’s just say the crowd wasn’t the same for the equally close contest vs. Boston University in December), but there was a guttural roar reverberating through the stands from last night’s crowd. Maybe they should move all football games vs. anyone but USC and Michigan inside the Joyce Center, too?

 

Jonathan Peoples – Peoples played a solid first half in Saturday’s loss at the Garden but was barely seen again in the maddening second-half debacle. He came in with a brief energy on the boards last night vs. the Hoyas, but ceded all meaningful minutes to Zeller and the Irish ironmen in the backcourt, Mac and Jackson. In this particular instance, I completely agree with the staff’s substitution pattern. Peoples will be necessary in the coming weeks, but he wouldn’t have helped last night.

 

Tyrone Nash – Barely any court time which is fine as the Irish and Zeller scrapped all night, though I thought Nash had earned (Zellers) minutes after their respective performances in Manhattan on Saturday. Credit Coach Brey for believing in Zeller in the game they needed him most.

 

Five Random Thoughts:

• Georgetown backup point guard Jason Clark will turn into a defensive force vs. opposing ball handlers by season’s end
• Last night was the best defensive effort by the Irish vs. the high pick-and-roll I’ve seen in at least two seasons
• They might be streaky on the road and at neutral sites, but the Irish now have a 44-game home court winning streak, the longest in the nation, and a 19-game Big East streak at home, just one short of the all-time conference record (Pittsburgh)
• Georgetown was the final remaining Big East opponent to be vanquished during the 44-game run (timely courtside tidbit courtesy of Jeff Goodman from Foxsports.com)
• ‘Gody