Friday, February 13, 2009

Welcome Back Irish

So raise your hand if you saw that coming. Rick Pitino said he did. But other than Pitino, it's doubtful anyone else did. Yes, Louisville was coming off a bad loss against Connecticut and close call against St. John's but that was excusable after a great run and because it was No. 1 UConn so it was not seen as a sign of things to come. But wow.
Luke Harangody came back from a five point game against UCLA to drop 32 and 17 and made sure we didn't need to run a player of the night today because it would have been pointless. But a look inside the numbers tells a truer story of what happened.
Louisville was forced into 18 threes, something that is not a strength, and hit just five. Overall they shot shot only 39%. More importantly their big three of Samardo Samuels, Terrance Williams, and Earl Clark combined for 26 points, about 15 less than usual.
And that tough Cardinals D, it didn't show up last night.
ND torched UL for 54% shooting. 10 threes on 18 tries. Only 10 turnovers. And most outrageous of all, outrebounded the Cards 46-25. Ouch.
And almost as important as all those numbers is that Kyle McAlarney found his groove back like Stella taking a trip to the Carribbean.
Still as good as a win as that was, more important for ND will be to hold that level of play. They will need to reel of at least three straight wins to get themselves into good position for NCAA Tourny position

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