Notre Dame Preview
February 17, 2009 03:08 PM | General
February 17, 2009
NOTRE DAME GAME NOTES
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – More than any other team in the Big East – including Pitt and Connecticut – Notre Dame is the one team that has been a thorn in the side of West Virginia.
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| Da'Sean Butler scored a career-high 43 points in last Friday night's win over Villanova.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo |
The Mountaineers have managed just one victory against the Irish in their last 14 games including a 69-56 loss in South Bend last year. Overall, Notre Dame is 24-8 against West Virginia.
“I thought they did a pretty good job guarding a year ago. They played man-to-man pretty much the whole game,” said West Virginia coach Bob Huggins. “They did a good job, and a really good job on Joe (Alexander).”
WVU was held to just 31.9 percent shooting including a dismal 5 of 25 from behind the 3-point arc in last year’s loss.
Presently, Notre Dame is ranked 13th in the Big East in scoring defense allowing 71.8 points per game. The Irish are 12th in the league in field goal percentage defense permitting teams to shoot 43.4 percent.
On the flip side, Notre Dame is ranked fourth in scoring offense averaging 78.7 points per game. WVU forward Da’Sean Butler believes Notre Dame’s approach on Wednesday night will be to try and out score the Mountaineers.
“They are really aggressive in transition,” Butler said. “We have to make sure we get back on defense because they can beat you in transition as far as shooting the ball behind the 3-point line.”
Butler said knowing Notre Dame’s different personnel will be important in trying to hold down an Irish offense that has scored more than 80 points 13 times this year.
“This is pretty much a personnel game: knowing who is going to shoot the ball and who is going to drive the ball because a lot of the players on their team do what they can do,” Butler explained. “That’s how they win a lot of their games.
“(Zach) Hillestand is not going to go out and shoot a lot of 3s unless it’s a desperation situation. He drives the ball to the basket so you know that,” Butler said. “These are things you need to know in order to win.”
Luke Harangody, the returning Big East player of the year, is having another fabulous season. The junior forward is averaging 24.4 points and 12.7 rebounds per game to put together another MVP type of year.
“He’s got great hands. He doesn’t have to catch it on the low block to score,” said Huggins. “In fact he probably catches it off the block more than he catches it on the block and he still scores. A lot of guys like him have to stay on the block or around the block. He goes out to 12, 14 feet catches it and is still very effective.”
“He’s skilled. He’s a great player and sometimes great players are going to make shots,” Butler added. “You’re like, ‘Wow, how did he do that?’ He constantly makes them. As for us guarding him, we’ve got to play him strong and whatever happens, happens.”
Huggins is also impressed with 6-foot senior guard Kyle McAlarney, who is averaging 16.1 points per game.
“He’s got great range and he’s got the green light,” Huggins said. “You’ve got to get him a whole lot deeper than other people.”
Notre Dame (14-10, 5-7) has played better of late after recently going through a rough stretch of games when it lost seven straight – six to ranked teams. The Irish have since bounced back to post a pair of double-digit wins at home against Louisville and USF. Notre Dame is 10-2 at the Joyce Center and is 2-6 in true road games this year.
“They were top 10 to start the year and I don’t know what happened,” Huggins said. “They’re good; they’re talented. Harangody is the returning player of the year. McAlarney is really good. Ayers hurt us a year ago. Jackson killed us a year ago. He made two huge 3s to really open the game up.”
Despite possessing many different scoring options, Huggins said his team will guard them the way they normally guard other teams they have faced this year.
“They tried to relieve pressure a year ago by trying to back cut us and do some things that way,” Huggins said. “I don’t know how many changes that we can make.”
Tip off is set for 7 pm. The game will be televised on the Big East Network. FSN Pittsburgh, SportsNet New York, WYIN in Chicago, Cox in New Orleans, WMYS in South Bend and Mediacom in Iowa will carry the game live. The contest can also be purchased through ESPN Full Court.
