Notre Dame vs. WVU: College Basketball Feb. 17, 2009

Notre Dame (14–10, 5–7), finally appears to be back after destroying Louisville and taking care of South Florida with ease.

I can’t tell you how impressed I am with Luke Harangody’s overall attitude and how positive he has remained through all the bashing his team has received in the past month.

After losing seven games in a row, Harangody dropped 32-points and 17 boards to insure a win over Louisville.

Kyle McAlarney has found his three point shooting stroke he was missing during the Irish’s losing skid.

McAlarney has made ten three’s on twenty-one attempts in Notre Dame’s past two games.

Notre Dame is very difficult to beat when McAlarney is consistently making outside shots, because Harangody draws so many double teams and McAlarney makes teams pay for it.

Notre Dame looks to build off their recent momentum heading out on the road to face the West Virginia Mountaineers (17–8, 6–6).

Notre Dame has to win out in order to get selected by the tournament committee.

I believe the Irish are good enough to, whether they do will remain to be seen.

West Virginia has been pretty unpredictable this season.

They will drop a game to Syracuse by 13 and then beat Villanova by 19. It is tough to know what to expect from the Mountaineers.

Da’Sean Butler leads WVU; a forward who is averaging 18-points and six rebounds on the season. He is coming off a 43-point scoring outburst against Villanova where he could not be stopped.

I found Butler’s easy scoring to be a lack of frontcourt defense by Nova.

Nova seemed focused on pushing the ball on offense and speeding up the game. They didn’t seem focused on playing defense at all, let alone stopping Butler.

My hunch is that Notre Dame continues to play with a do or die intensity that WVU won’t match and they find a way to get it done on the road.

Notre Dame needs this win much more than West Virginia does, considering WVU just took care of the big game they had to win.

The Pick:
Notre Dame beats West Virginia

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