BIG EAST GAME PREVIEW: GEORGETOWN @ NOTRE DAME

January 5, 2009


Notre Dame puts their 43-game hom ewin streak on the line tonight when they welcome in the Georgetown Hoyas to the Joyce Athletic Center for a key Big East early season showdown. Both teams are looking for a little pick-me-up following disappointing weekend efforts and avoid a two-game conference losing streak.

Here are the pre-game stories and previews found on the internet for tonight's game:


Pressure Building for Irish (Journal Gazette)
Irish Hope to Rebound Against Hoyas South Bend Tribune)
After a Tough Loss, Hoyas Must Regroup Quickly (Washington Post)
Hoyas, Irish Both Trying to Rebound (Washington Examiner)
Hoyas Look to Rebound (Washington Times)
Notre Dame Needs Kyle McAlarney to Regain his Shot (Chicago Tribune)
Failure to Rebound Causes Irish Loss (Journal Gazette)
Splinters, But Little Else coming off Hoyas Bench (Free Lance-Star)

The pressure to win your home games int he Big East is tremendous. That pressure will be doubled tonight for Notre Dame as the Irish look to extend their school-record 43-game home winning streak and avoid losing back-to-back games after a surprising defeat to St. John's at Madison Square Garden on Saturday.

The area of concern for the Irish are defense and rebounding. Notre Dame seems to be trying to push the tempo in games to a free-flowing affair. Even in their win at Depaul to open conference play, the Blue Demons were scoring at will with Dar Tucker and Mac Koshwal, who literally are the only two consistent scoring threats the Blue Demons place on the floor. Tonight, their defense will be tested by a Hoya club that usually has up to five excellent scoring threats on the floor at a time!

Georgetown will look to rebound after they were bullied on their home court by Pittsburgh, 70-54 on Saturday. Pitt beat Georgetown on the glass mercifully, actually grabbing more of their own missed shots (20) than the Hoyas could (16) as they outrebounded Georgetown 48-23, wow!

Just five days after being the toast of the conference with their impressive road win over Connecticut to start Big East play, every perceived short-coming og the Hoyas was exposed by Pitt, from their lack of depth, phsyical size in the paint and overall inexperience.

The challenge John Thompson III will issue to his club is to be tougher. That is probably a challenge more easily to be answered by a team that can play defense and be effecient offensively like the Hoyas.

As for Notre Dame, the pressure is mounting and the loss to the Redstorm, along with the defensive questions make this a tough match-up. The Hoyas will look to slow the game down, neither team has a lot of depth, so the edge to the better defensive team looks to be apparent. Luke Harangody is likely to have a big game inside, but the Hoyas will work to close down opportunities for the other Irish players, especially Kyle McAlarney.

The latest college basketball odds have ND as a slight 2 1/2 point favorite. Could this be the night the home win streak is put to rest?

NBE Blogger Prediction:

Georgetown 71
Notre Dame 66