BBall Looks To Stay on Track
Frank Vitovitch
January 25, 2000

South Bend, Ind - After a two game losing skid at the hands of undefeated Syracuse, who whipped UConn Monday night, and then lowly Rutgers, the Notre Dame men's basketball team got back on track with an 81-66 win over the Pittsburgh Panthers.  The win pushed the Irish over .500 in conference play at 3-2 and to 12-7 overall. 

The Irish were lead by their super star Troy Murphy who scored 21 points and grabbed seven rebounds.  Early on the game was close up until the early second half, but the Irish pulled away shortly after and never looked back.   Freshman Jere Macura scored 12 points while Harold Swanagann added 10 and while Martin Ingelsby notched 11.

The temperature outside may have been frigid, but the Notre Dame team was red hot.  The Fighting Irish were 62% from the field and 61% from three point range.  They used their hot shooting to pull away from the Panthers including 4 three pointers from Jere Macura, 3 from Martin Ingelsby and Matt Carroll, and two each from Troy Murphy and David Graves.

Next up for the Irish is Miami Tuesday night.  Miami comes into the game at 11-7 overall with a 4-2 record in the Big East.  Last season Miami went deep into the tournament but the loss of Tim James has hurt the Hurricanes in the 99-00 season.  In the only meeting between the two teams last year, Notre Dame won 71-68 at Miami.

Notre Dame's season has been full of streaks this year.   First they started 3-0, then fell to 4-5, then ripped of seven straight wins to get to 11-5, they followed that up with a two game losing streak before they snapped it Saturday against Pitt.

With 11 games left, the Irish still have a chance at making it to the big dance.  Of the 11 games, only two games should be reaches for a Notre Dame win (UConn - whom the beat once already - and Syracuse whom they lost to earlier this season).  The other nine should be very winnable games for Notre Dame.   They play Miami twice and then  Providence, Seton Hall, Villanova, West Virginia, St. John's, Pittsburgh and Georgetown once each. 

I expect Notre Dame to split UConn and Syracuse which would make them 13-8, then split games with Miami making them 14-9, then look for the Irish to go 6-1 in the rest of the games giving them a 20-10 record which should get them into the tourney. 

Notre Dame basketball has come a long way and will only go farther next season.  Matt Doherty has turned around a dead program right away.   I don't think there is any Notre Dame basketball fan who has thought Notre Dame has had a chance to win every game they played last year, but this year there are many because of the job Doherty has done.  If I was a voter for the AP, Doherty would be my coach of the year.

Go Irish!!