Rockne's Roundtable

Gutsy win - we need Cooley to show up(more consistency) he made a few plays like that out pass to Pat that set up his 3 ball that was a great feed! What concerns me against Louisville is the full court pressure they used in the last outing to beat ND - that takes a lot of energy to imploy and for us to break it - after 3 straight games whose legs will give out first? I hope our bigs - Cooley, Sherman, Knight & Zach can OWN the boards we've got to control the tempo of this game. TOs especially lossing inbound passes will hurt us. We need Cooley's inside game in this game. GO IRISH!

Great job by Sherman, I am not sure whats wrong with Cooley, but Sherman is picking up the slack. Along with Knight. A gutsy win, one of our better wins this year.

That's a nice recap, Wes, and contains two statistical bits which capture the yin and yang of the Irish in the Brey era: only one other team (Syracuse) has made it to the Big East semifinals four times in a row. That's a great achievement. Conversely, the Irish are one of only five teams never to make it to the final game. That's the difference between Mike Brey being a very good coach and a great one. However, he still has plenty of time to change that script.

They played a very solid thirty minutes last night. Tonight, they will need forty. Louisville runs players in and out of there all night to wear you down with their pressure, and Siva is everywhere, ready to pick pockets. They are not, however, a great offensive team, so unless they are uncharacteristically hot from the outside, the Irish, with another strong defensive effort, can keep the game close. But, they must protect the ball, they need to rebound and shots have to fall. It's not realistic to think Connaughton can have another great night, particularly since Pitino will see that he's covered like a blanket. That's going to put it on Atkins and Grant, neither of whom have shot that well, though Grant has made a few key buckets, and Atkins has provided a steady hand at the point. Sherman has had good games against Louisville, so he will need another, and Cooley needs to play with the intensity that has marked most of his career with ND, flashes of which we saw toward the end of last night's game. On paper, the Irish have no business winning this game, but games aren't won or lost on paper. The stage is set for one of those magical ND moments, but everything will need to fall their way.

If you watched Louisville v Villanova game you can see what's Louisville defense can do. They suffocate you. Grant and Atkins need to be patient and everyone else is going to have to jump in for press help.

Jack is down, but we are going nowhere without his grit under the boards. Defensively Sherman is a liability and really needs to find a toughness that the rebound belongs to him and you can't drive the lane without some repercussions.

It would also help our cause if Biedscheid would find his stroke, and let the game come to him instead of forcing rushed 3-pointers.

agree with all 3 points here. without cooley reving it up we're probably going nowhere(though scoring-wise we can compensate); sherman is not that good defensively(though he's had a bunch of key baskets lately); we could really use biedscheid hitting a nice shooting rhythm(though if connaughton stays hot it won't matter that much).

Coach Brey seems to be having a lot more fun this year, I really enjoyed his half-time interview. I really like the Lime-Greenies makes the other team wear shades, as coach Brey said

Yeah, pretty offensive uniforms. But they won a game I didn't think they could. So I say stay with the uni's until they lose.
Maybe they throw the other team off, or something, they are so obnoxious.