Ben is just such a great player. I am so happy he transfered here. He is just so willful and has elevated the mental toughness of the whole team. Martin isn’t even fully back into form. He forces things and makes exectuion errors quite a bit if you watch. He has a big upside if he can round back into form by March.

ND is 3-4 away from home this year which is fine at this point. I mean 2 losses to ranked teams and two losses to league bubble teams. They have shot horrible in those losses. With Scott back I like their chances to win some of the road games in the second half. They are lucky they went 2-2 without him as he brings so much to the team and with him in the rotation their depth is adequate. Also notice how Nash has a lot less foul trouble with Scott in play which was really hurting our depth as well.

I still think this is a special team and will compete to win BE tourney this year and should advance in the big dance!!!!!!

GO IRISH BEAT PITT

Marquette played the same aggressive man-to-man that it played in Milwaukee and that St. John’s played in MSG. While those two teams contested a lot of three point shots, the Irish missed a disproportionate number of open shots as well; and the man defense made it hard to get the ball into the lane.

It’s a small sample size, and the percentages will converge as ND plays lesser opponents on the road; but the Irish are making only 25% of their threes on the road compared to 42% at home. Meanwhile their road and home two point shooting percentages are about the same – 50% on the road and 48% at home. At some point, they’re bound to make more than 25% of their threes, but the moral of the stats story is that they have to get the ball into the lane no matter how aggressive their defenders are and no matter how much the refs allow contact.

The Irish did that against Marquette last night, and they did it against Cincinnati on Wednesday. It was an obviously concerted effort. They got the ball to Nash in the post enough for him to score 13 points and get to the line for 10 free throw attempts. Hansbrough and Martin attacked the basket a lot, as did Atkins in the first half. Even Abromaitis, who didn’t play very well, took more two point shots than threes. The Irish took 14 of their 43 attempts from three point range, not a big percentage by college basketball standards, and the 36 free throw attempts they got don’t factor into that percentage even though they do reflect attacking the basket better.

It will also help to play some road games against the lower half of the conference. After Monday’s game at Pitt, ND’s road games are at DePaul, USF, West Virginia, Providence, and UConn. They’ll be favored to win three of the next four.