Irish Take Care of Business
Frank Vitovitch
Saturday, March 4, 2000

Washington, DC - Coming off a heart breaking loss to the #13 ranked Syracuse Orangemen, the Notre Dame basketball team took care of business against unranked Georgetown with a 23 point victory over the Georgetown Hoyas to end the regular season with a 17-13 record. 

The Irish were lead by the sophomore duo of Troy Murphy and David Graves.  The two sophs combined for 37 points and 28 rebounds in the Irish season finale.  Freshman Matt Carroll, who was held scoreless Wednesday against Syracuse, finished the game with 16 points which included four three pointers.

Notre Dame was in desperate need of win coming off three straight losses for Providence, Miami, and Syracuse and came up with a big one today.   They came out firing in the second half by taking a 19 point lead into half-time.   The Hoyas settled into the game in the second half and used a 10-0 run at one point to cut into what was then a 27 point lead. 

The win put Notre Dame into the Big East Tournament on a high note.  They will have to win at least one game to have any chance of making it to the NCAA Tournament.  If Notre Dame plays in the Big East Tourney the way they played today, they could go deep into it.  They proved this season, there is no team in the Big East that they can't compete with and played very well against the conferences top teams (UConn, Syracuse, and St. John's).

Coming off the loss to Syracuse, there was some concern that the Irish may not perform will since they were so close to beating Syracuse.   There was no let down on Saturday however as Notre Dame rolled over Georgetown.   If Notre Dame would have played this way against teams like Miami, Providence, Villanova, etc there record would only have a few losses on it.

In order to go deep into the Big East Tournament, Notre Dame will have to take it one game at a time and take no one lightly.  Coach Doherty will make sure to it that his team remains focused for the tournament, you can count on that.  Notre Dame might just be a dark horse contender to win the Big East.  The favorite going in will probably be Syracuse, unless the Huskies of UConn handle them easily today.  Other than Syracuse and UConn, is there any other high quality teams to contend against?  St. John's is good, not great.  Miami is good, but also not great. 

Winning the Big East Tourney may be unlikely, but it is far from impossible.  To win it however, the Irish will have to bring their shooting touch to Madison Square Garden, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.  Top priority should be beating who ever the first round opponent is.  Notre Dame hoops has come a long way however to allow me to even say Notre Dame has a chance of going all the way in the Big East Tourney.  What a difference a year makes.