Highlights: TJ Gibbs Pushes Notre Dame to Maui Championship
Notre Dame advanced to the Maui Invitational Championship with a convincing 92-53 victory over LSU on Tuesday night. The Irish were lead by T.J. Gibbs’s career high 26 points and never were seriously challenged by LSU who looked overmatched by the #13 ranked Fighting Irish. The win pushes Notre Dame to the championship game of the Maui Invitational tomorrow where they will face #Wichita State.
Matt Farrell pitched in 17 points and 7 assists and senior All-American Bonzie Colson picked up another double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds. The easy victory let Mike Brey exercise his bench with 12 players seeing game action last night.
Tip-off tonight for Notre Dame’s showdown with the Shockers is 10:00 PM ET and the game will be broadcast by ESPN 2.
Shock the Shockers, Irish!!!
But, these Maui games are sure making me tired…
Glad to see Brey going to the bench more. It seems over the years as Brey continues coaching he’s made little improvements in his coaching strategy that keeps ND improving. When he first started he was a straight X’s and O’s guy living off the 3 point shot and quick strike offenses. Then he instituted the burn offense about 10 years ago that worked to great effect, and he started making in game adjustments. Then they started playing better defense and rebounding better and now he seems more comfortable going to his bench. I remember a time he rarely used more than 6 or 7 players in most games. A sign of a good coach, that can make adaptations to his coaching style to make the team better, and he’s still a great X’s and O’s guy.
ND should come away with the win tonight. It will be next week’s test against Michigan State that should show us just how good the Irish are right now. They will be tough but I think the Irish have a decent shot at taking them down. Unlike the FB team, the men’s BB team has won the big primetime games.