Red Panda

I haven't been able to write in a few days, what with moving back to school and all. Therefore, I am splitting this into two posts: Notre Dame since Saturday, and the rest of the (college basketball) world since Sunday.

The game against Marquette was ugly. Really ugly. The fact that Notre Dame was still in the game at halftime was more a testament to the bad play of Marquette than to the good play of the Irish. The only bright spot of the game was Luke Harangody, who still managed 29 points despite 6 turnovers. In all the Irish committed 24 turnovers on 77 possessions - almost a third of the possessions. It wasn't just dumb mistakes like throwing away the ball, although that happened several times. 17 turnovers came from steals, as the Irish big men (Kurz, Harangody, Hillesland) let themselves get trapped and didn't get the ball out of there quick enough. Macalerny also had several turnovers, though he just was not careful enough with the ball. Ryan Ayers, typically a three-point threat, ignored several open looks and contributed only 2 missed attempts to the 4-19 night.

In contrast the game against Cincinnati last night was fun to watch. The Irish started out slow, missing their first 7 field goals before Macalerny floated in a shot 6 minutes into the game. THe Irish would not score until Kurz was fouled nearly four minutes into the game and drained both of his free-throws. 12 of the Irish first-half points came off of free-throws, and the crowd could not get into the game. Going into halftime the Irish trailed by 7, and Harangody had only scored 1 point off of a free-throw. The play that best represented the first half came with the Irish up 19-18 when Kurz had a open look for a dunk, and the crowd cheered as he smashed it through. Those cheers turned to groans as the dunk bounced off the rim to a Cincinnati player, who then took it the other way for an easy two.

Something must have happened at halftime, and I'd like to think it was the performance of Red Panda. Red Panda an Asian lady, on a 8-foot unicycle, who balances bowls on her foot and flipping 1, then 2, then 3, then 4, and finally 5 bowls onto her head, while keeping all previously flipped bowls on her head as she rides around the arena. Her performance whipped the crowd into a frenzy, and much of that energy transferred into the second half of the game. The crowd cheered much louder in the second half, and the team seemed to feed off of that energy. The noise level only increased as Kurz started off the half with a three. Cincinnati missed 5 of their first 6 shots, but after Rashard Bishop finally tipped in a miss, Harangody scored 11 points in three minutes while the Bearcats went 3/9 to bring the Irish within one. Once the Irish took the lead they never surrendered it, and the game never felt close. When the big man guarding Harangody fouled out with about 6 minutes to go in the game, I thought "Game Over". The Bearcats certainly thought they had a chance, but the Irish kept making free throws. Two acts that I thought were unsportsmanlike near the end of the game. The Bearcat coach ordered his players to keep fouling and extend the game - even when down 14 with under 30 seconds to play! Cronin delayed the game even when it was clearly out of reach. That was bad. When Cincinnati turned the ball over with under 10 seconds, the Irish should have run out the clock. Instead sophomore Jonathan peoples took the ball down the court for a dunk. That was also bad. No one tried to contest him because the game was over. Just run out the clock! Obviously the game wasn't perfect. The Irish haven't stayed focused on a game for a full 40 minutes yet. This was, however, a nice win to follow-up the bad loss at Marquette.

Hopefully we can win at G'town, but I am not hopeful. We beat UConn by playing tough and hitting the three; if the three is on, we stand a chance.