BIG EAST GAME PREVIEW: Notre Dame @ Georgetown

January 6, 2007



The Notre Dame Fighting Irish put their 12-game winning streak on the line in their first true road game of the season. The Irish have gone 2-1 away from home, losing to Butler in Indianapolis (where they also beat Lafayette in the pre-season NIT) and a solid win over Maryland on earlier this season in Washington. Now they return to the site of that victory to meet an eager Georgetown team ready to erase some of the questions about their highly touted preseason squad.

The Hoyas received some surprising bad news this week when it was announced that sophomore guard/forward Marc Egerson had withdrawn from school. Egerson was a valuable player in the 6th man role for the Hoyas that added solid all-around play. Losing him, along with Josh Thornton earlier in the season makes the Hoyas' backcourt depth somewhat suspect, and that was the main question for Georgetown heading into the season.

Georgetown has been playing better of late, winning six in a row after stumbling twice against Oregon (at home) and at Duke. Earlier in the season they also dropped a game on campus in McDonough Gymnasium to Old Dominion, so the Hoyas are eager to put behind them the memory of a less than thrilling pre-conference schedule, which ended on a positive note, a win at Michigan prior to the announcement about Egerson.

Things have certainly been cheery around Notre Dame. Even the arrest of starting point guard and subsequent suspension of Kyle McAlarney has not been able to slow down the Irish as they rolled over Stony Brook and Louisville in their Big East opener. Freshman Tory Jackson becomes the man on the spot, but the Irish have also become essentially a 7-man rotation with Ryan Ayers seeing some time as the 8th man. With Russell Carter, Colin Falls and Rob Kurz, the Irish are paced by three upperclassmen that have been very consistent in their leadership and production. Freshman Luke Harangody joins Jackson as the newcomers that have made the biggest impact and have also brought added perimeter quickness (Jackson) and interior toughness (Harangody) to the Irish. The team is clicking very well together and, along with West Virginia and Providence, have been one of the surprise teams of the conference that is very fun to watch in how well they play together.

With the loss of Egerson, Patrick Ewing JR and Tyler Crawford become key players off the bench trying to fill his shoes in scoring and rebounding. The Hoya frontline will have a size advantage with Roy Hibbert, Jeff Green and DaJuan Summers and they also bring Vernon Macklin off the bench. Georgetown will look to control the tempo and make Notre Dame play defense for the full 35 seconds on most possessions and use a variety of defenses to slow the ND offensive attack that has been clicking all season.

Playing the John Thompson III match-up zone is tough for even the most experienced point guard, seeing how Jackson handles it in his first extensive test on the road is the key to the game in my opinion. I think Georgetown wins the battle inside and has enough pressure on defense to keep Colin Falls from getting hot from 3-pt range.

NBE Blogger Prediction: Georgetown 67 Notre Dame 61