ND Pre-Game Discussion

[DanMcQ]

...

[StPetersburgHoya (Inactive)]

They are a poor man's Pitt, with a bad coach. We'll be ready to shake off Monday.

[vcjack]

They are Notre Dame and they are going to play us tough.

[uptownathlete]

True. ND has always played us tough.

[hoyafoeva]

We're in Big East play, we have to play basic tough, really smart, unselfish basketball. We have to understand the yes, Roy is our leader, I know some folks won't agree, but it has been proven time and time again, even through the rough time we have prevailed.

We have a true All-American, every practice, evey game he needs to fed his dinner, darnit, the boy is hungry give him his meal, and tell him to do it, work em Roy, work em and watch him do his thing, but give hime the at the right time, yes, it takes some with a high IQ to know how and which way to get the ball into Roy.

I don't care about no defense, no one can stop me from getting ball to my big man, especially a true, All-American, I'm gonna let him prove it to me darn near everytime if I were his guard, I'd be ey, ey, bam, Roy get it real quick, turn bam, 222 points or the foul.

Man, all them guards we got, whewwwwwwww and none of them stepped up in the paint for da dish on the regular...woowww that really just aint right, when you get right down to it...I love my Hoyas, but man, I can't take nothing away from PITT, they play really tough, and took advantage of the flaws. They outsmarted us and beat us. It dont take a genius to look at the tape of this game and see what we're talking about. We must play smart basketball at home, go back to the basics. Just thinking...

[StPetersburgHoya (Inactive)]

They are tough.

I'd bet we beat them by more than 4.5 points though.

[HoyaInsomniac]

They'll come out rough like they always do. So let's just shut 'em up damn quick and send Harangody back to the Planet of the Apes.

[theexorcist]

Jan 14, 2008 23:05:22 GMT -5 uptownathlete said:

True. ND has always played us tough.

Except when they're ranked #17 in the country and we smack them around at Verizon like a rag doll.

[HoyaDestroya02]

a little off subject... but how is ND favored by 12.5 tonight against Cincy... free money?

[Coast2CoastHoya]

ND doesn't offer the matchup problems that, say, UConn did, but they do always play us tight. Harangody has been a beast this season - top five PPG in the BE. Something about this game makes me nervous, but it's probably just jitters from last night's festival of missed 3s.

Lineup-wise, I doubt Coach will change the starting five, but if he were to, this is the lineup I'd like to see:
Hibbs
Vern
Summers
Freeman
Wallace

Off the bench:
Ewing
Sapp/Rivers
Crawford
Wattad

Before anyone jumps on me for the whole "why would you bench Jesse" rant, let me explain. This is no negative on Jesse; I just think this lineup would work well until the under-16 or under-12, and at the beginning of the second half and probably in crunch time (if we have it). Who knows, maybe a little time on the pine would light a fire under Jesse and bring him out of his slump; he's also second off the bench, so I'm not advocating pulling him altogether. Certainly seems to work for Pat. Also, last night I advocated bringing in Summers after the under-16 and starting Jesse. I'm changing course today. The reasoning is that I'd like to see Freeman as a big 2 rather than an undersized 3, Summers at the 3, and I've ALWAYS wanted to see Hibbs/Vern with Vern at the 4. I thought that combo worked well last night, and I think Vern is a more natural 4 in our system and with Roy on the team. The problem of "who comes in at Center" is apparent with this lineup, but to avoid it, I would bring Ewing off the bench early and see what happens, then rotate Hibbs/Ew, Hibbs/Vern, Vern/Ew depending on situation, fatigue, and success.

Then again I might be nuts.

Either way I'll be pumped to see the Hoyas take on the Irish, and I hope we treat them just as well as we did the last time they were at the Phone Booth.

[hoyafoeva]

Jan 15, 2008 13:50:17 GMT -5 Coast2CoastHoya said:

ND doesn't offer the matchup problems that, say, UConn did, but they do always play us tight. Harangody has been a beast this season - top five PPG in the BE. Something about this game makes me nervous, but it's probably just jitters from last night's festival of missed 3s.

Lineup-wise, I doubt Coach will change the starting five, but if he were to, this is the lineup I'd like to see:
Hibbs
Vern
Summers
Freeman
Wallace

Off the bench:
Ewing
Sapp/Rivers
Crawford
Wattad

Before anyone jumps on me for the whole "why would you bench Jesse" rant, let me explain. This is no negative on Jesse; I just think this lineup would work well until the under-16 or under-12, and at the beginning of the second half and probably in crunch time (if we have it). Who knows, maybe a little time on the pine would light a fire under Jesse and bring him out of his slump; he's also second off the bench, so I'm not advocating pulling him altogether. Certainly seems to work for Pat. Also, last night I advocated bringing in Summers after the under-16 and starting Jesse. I'm changing course today. The reasoning is that I'd like to see Freeman as a big 2 rather than an undersized 3, Summers at the 3, and I've ALWAYS wanted to see Hibbs/Vern with Vern at the 4. I thought that combo worked well last night, and I think Vern is a more natural 4 in our system and with Roy on the team. The problem of "who comes in at Center" is apparent with this lineup, but to avoid it, I would bring Ewing off the bench early and see what happens, then rotate Hibbs/Ew, Hibbs/Vern, Vern/Ew depending on situation, fatigue, and success.

Then again I might be nuts.

Either way I'll be pumped to see the Hoyas take on the Irish, and I hope we treat them just as well as we did the last time they were at the Phone Booth.

I agree, Jessie is thinking he better than what he is...I ran into his AAU Gaucho coach, he's now at Xavier and I see what he is saying.

[StPetersburgHoya (Inactive)]

I think the phone booth will make a difference in this one. I'd wager we win it.

[airport]

If we don't play defense any better than against Pitt and Conn - Notre Dame will kill us.

[GUJook97]

I have been really impressed with the Big East this year. I think that is validated by the fact that the conference is now #1 in conference SOS on realtimerpi, which I take, means that we have the highest average RPI. Even South Florida is a top 100 RPI team these days. ND is now 3-1 in the Big East.

Every win we get in the Big East will be a good tournament caliber win. Lets hope we can take care of business against ND and Syracuse.

[vcjack]

Jan 15, 2008 10:15:44 GMT -5 HoyaDestroya02 said:

a little off subject... but how is ND favored by 12.5 tonight against Cincy... free money?

Almost, Cincy was up 34-27 at the half, but the Domers procede to score 64 POINTS!
scores.espn.go.com/ncb/scoreboard?confId=4


If there is one thing about this Irish team its that they are capable of crap and awesomeness, usually together in the same game

[SDHoya]

Jan 15, 2008 13:50:17 GMT -5 Coast2CoastHoya said:

ND doesn't offer the matchup problems that, say, UConn did, but they do always play us tight. Harangody has been a beast this season - top five PPG in the BE. Something about this game makes me nervous, but it's probably just jitters from last night's festival of missed 3s.

Lineup-wise, I doubt Coach will change the starting five, but if he were to, this is the lineup I'd like to see:
Hibbs
Vern
Summers
Freeman
Wallace

Off the bench:
Ewing
Sapp/Rivers
Crawford
Wattad

Before anyone jumps on me for the whole "why would you bench Jesse" rant, let me explain. This is no negative on Jesse; I just think this lineup would work well until the under-16 or under-12, and at the beginning of the second half and probably in crunch time (if we have it). Who knows, maybe a little time on the pine would light a fire under Jesse and bring him out of his slump; he's also second off the bench, so I'm not advocating pulling him altogether. Certainly seems to work for Pat. Also, last night I advocated bringing in Summers after the under-16 and starting Jesse. I'm changing course today. The reasoning is that I'd like to see Freeman as a big 2 rather than an undersized 3, Summers at the 3, and I've ALWAYS wanted to see Hibbs/Vern with Vern at the 4. I thought that combo worked well last night, and I think Vern is a more natural 4 in our system and with Roy on the team. The problem of "who comes in at Center" is apparent with this lineup, but to avoid it, I would bring Ewing off the bench early and see what happens, then rotate Hibbs/Ew, Hibbs/Vern, Vern/Ew depending on situation, fatigue, and success.

Then again I might be nuts.

Either way I'll be pumped to see the Hoyas take on the Irish, and I hope we treat them just as well as we did the last time they were at the Phone Booth.

I think a similar lineup would be good for us, but I see it for a slightly different reason. Coming into the season I think we were all real excited about the prospect of having great depth in the backcourt, but now with the injury to Wright and Rivers back to being, well, Rivers, we really only have Wallace, Sapp and Freeman as guards who can score.

It might then be a good idea to go back to a two guard set. I feel like right now Freeman is just to darn good not to have in the game for 25+, so I also see Sapp as the guy coming off the bench for either Freeman or Wallace, depending on the look we want to give. Rivers can still come in as a defensive replacement, but there is very little we can expect from him offensively. With a two guard set, I think we can save the their legs a bit better, and maybe avoid a 3-20 night.

In the front court, I see Hibbert, Ewing and Summers. I know Macklin had a good game, but he showed so little on the glass that I still see him as a liability until he gets a fire underneath him. Ewing has that fire right now, and I think that has been reflected in his rebounding and scoring stats. I would like to see both Vern and Hibbert in the game together some, but I think his role should stay limited for now.

The last two years, opposing teams always commented about how huge we were, with Green, Hibbert, Bowman, Summers and Ewing. But this year we have been playing a lot smaller, both because we have a three guard set a lot (unless you want to call Freeman a forward) and because Summers just isnt a power forward, no matter how much effort he gives on the glass. I think going back to a bigger lineup will help us get back some of that intimidation factor as well as being beneficial to our defense and rebounding.

[ExcitableBoy]

Jan 15, 2008 13:50:17 GMT -5 Coast2CoastHoya said:

Lineup-wise, I doubt Coach will change the starting five, but if he were to, this is the lineup I'd like to see:
Hibbs
Vern
Summers
Freeman
Wallace

Off the bench:
Ewing
Sapp/Rivers
Crawford
Wattad

I like the lineup, but does ND do much in the way of pressing/pressuring? Wallace & Freeman are fantastic at a lot of things, but I don't know if that list necessarily includes breaking a press.

[McBricks]

In town for the game. Is there a good meet up spot for an early morning drink by the arena?

[lichoya68]

ok first this game willl be a war hanrangody much improved theyve got some big bangers and shooters so no easy games in big east and this is a WAR.. we can win if we depaul them ie.. ROYBEEVENMEANER.. HIT SOME THREES THATS SOME defend the three OUTREBOUND THEM and continue to hit our foul shots WOULD LOVE VERN TO KEEP GOING AFFTER THE PITT GAME AND CONTRIBUTE also real sad about chris wight he could be a game changer this season quick on d and steals and pretty good penetrator and disher and three shooter to rest jwall AND COME BACK HOME JWALL AND DAJUAN ITS MONEY TIME TIME TO BREAK OUT GO HOYAS B EAT ND REMEMBER THE FOUR OTS AND REMBEMBER TIS FEBRUARY GO HOYAS HIBBS ROYBEEVENMEANER YUP ;D ;D ;D ;D

[lichoya68]

AGREE WITH FOREVER smart basic bassketball yup thats what we need withbasic hustle go hoyas beat the domers on sat ITS OUR HOUSE fill the booth fill the booth