Through Orange Colored Glasses

The Notre Dame Basketball team will face the Syracuse Orange Men in the quarterfinal round of the Big East Tournament at Madison Square Garden.

Syracuse beat Connecticut today 78-65.

Game Notes -- (BE)

Syracuse Stats today against UConn Left and on Jan 30th against Notre Dame Right:

Points----- -----------------78 ------- ------------------------ 91
Field Goals------------- 28-65, 43% ------------------------ 33-74, 44%
Free Throws -----------13-25, 51% ------------------------ 19-25, 75%
3-Pointers --------------9-20, 44% --------------------------6-21, 28%
Off. Rebounds -------------18---------------------------------- 14
Def. Rebounds -------------19 ----------------------------------24
Total Rebounds -----------37 -----------------------------------38
Assists --------------------19 -----------------------------------17
Blocks---------------------- 6------------------------------------ 6
Fouls ----------------------16 -----------------------------------24
Steals----------------------- 3------------------------------------ 5
Turnovers -----------------18 -----------------------------------16

The Orange are 4-1 in their last 5 with a loss to Villanova the last game of the season. But beat up on a very good Georgetown Team on February 26.

Notre Dame has been playing very well since the loss to DePaul and are 5-0 in the last five.

For the Irish to beat Syracuse again, they will need a big game under the basket and the big guy will have to step up. Jackson will need to take care of the ball and not have any dysfunctional moments. Get the ball to Carter and Falls and all will be well.

Syracuse basically has played the same game whether they won or lost. Below are the stats from the Georgetown win. Not much difference except one, STEALS were way up and defensively, they played a much tighter game.

Points 72
Field Goals 24-54, 44%
Free Throws 15-25, 60%
3-pointers 9-21, 42%
Off. Rebounds 6
Def. Rebounds 24
Total Rebounds 30
Assists 16
Blocks 4
Fouls 19
Steals 11
Turnovers 13

It’s been a great week for Notre Dame basketball and the Irish haven’t even taken the court yet. On Monday, they got Colin Falls and Russell Carter on the All-Big East first-team squad and freshmen Tory Jackson and Luke Harangody on the All-Rookie team. The biggest honor went to Mike Brey, who received the conference Coach of the Year award on Tuesday night at the league banquet. STORY -- (IE)