While senior center Roy Hibbert was setting the Verizon Center on fire with his unlikely perimeter bomb last Saturday, in snowy Wisconsin the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame were suffering a 92-66 thrashing at the hands of Marquette. Going into that Saturday slate of games, the Irish and the Hoyas were undefeated in conference play, but while Georgetown was able to ride the best individual play of the year to a 3-0 mark, the Irish fell flat on their faces—except for one.
At 6’8” and 250 pounds, to call Notre Dame’s star sophomore forward Luke Harangody a physical presence would be a vast and dangerous understatement. The Indiana native is averaging a shade over 24 points, and just under 12 rebounds a game in conference play—the best in the Big East in both categories. While the rest of his team went 13-41 in the ugly Marquette game, Harangody pulled down 14 rebounds and shot 10-17 for a season-high 29 points.
The Irish and the Hoyas came out in their mid-week match-ups this week in a similar fashion: with two of the worst first half performances in their respective seasons. Georgetown scored just 26 points, three of which came from a desperation half-court heave to preserve a one-point deficit against Pitt. The Irish shot 6-25 in the first half on Tuesday against Cinncinati, including a 0-5, one-point performance from Harangody.
Each team’s response after halftime is what brought their conference records to an identical 3-1 for this Saturday’s game. The Hoyas went from bad to worse, shooting just 1-11 (9 percent) from behind the arc and suffering their first conference loss of the season. In South Bend, Harangody went 6-9 from the floor and 12-13 from the free-throw line for 24 second half points. His Fighting Irish, who shot an abysmal 24 percent before halftime, came out with a blazing 69 percent in the second half to turn the seven-point halftime deficit into 17-point victory.
“We limited his touches in the first half,” Cinncinati coach Mick Cronin said of Harangody after the game. “When he did get touches, we had our game plan to keep guys around him. We worked to keep it out [of the paint] in the first half, but in the second half we let them throw it in.”
The first half of the Cincinnati game was not the first time this year that a defense has been able to give Harangody trouble. Denying the entry pass and surrounding him with bodies (especially tall ones) when he does get the ball has proved to be too much for him. Although the sophomore forward is extremely solid at 250 pounds, he is often at a height disadvantage in the paint. Connecticut’s 7’3” Hasheem Thabeet, a player all too familiar to Georgetown fans by now, was able to exploit the height advantage with 10 blocks against Notre Dame, mostly at the expense of Harangody. The Irish star went 5-23 against the Huskies.
But before the Hoyas focus their full attention on clogging Harangody with a tight zone—a strategy not dissimilar to those used by opponents to neutralize Hibbert—they will surely take into account the Irish’s outside threat, junior guard Kyle McAlarney. When asked how the Irish turned the Cincinnati game around in the second half, head coach Mike Brey had this to say:
“I thought we did a better job of just throwing it out from the low post when they doubled Harangody.”
That is because McAlarney is the second most accurate three-point shooter in the conference at 56 percent in conference play. The sharpshooter had 15 second half points in the comeback win against Cinncy, and even though Thabeet and company were able to shut down Harangody, McAlarney made six of seven three-pointers and finished with 32 points against UConn to give Notre Dame the victory.
The Irish will also look for contributions from senior forward Rob Kurz (13.8 ppg, 8.3 rpg) and sophomore guard Tory Jackson (6.6 ppg, 6.1 apg).
Notre Dame currently leads the Big East in rebounding margin at positive 7.8, while the Hoyas sit at third to last with negative 4.
The Hoyas (13-2, 3-1 BE) will take on the Fighting Irish (13-3, 3-1 BE) on Saturday at noon at the Verizon Center.
