Monday, March 17, 2008

Notre Dame vs George Mason


The first round match-up for the Irish will be the George Mason Patriots.  The game will be played on Thursday at roughly 8:00pm. 
When you think of the name George Mason one thing comes to mind.  The unbelievable run to the final four.  Not many people thought the Patriots would win one game never mind make a trip to the final four.  I think in the national bracket challenge, like 3 people had the right final four.  The Irish can't be intimidated by this, and must not focus on what happened in the past.

And what also happened in the past was a first round loss to Winthrop in last years tournament.  The Irish need to use that loss as a motivator to get by there first round opponent. Coming off a disappointing loss in the Big East tournament the Irish need to come out and play hard in order to win.  This is now what matters.  In my opinion this is the best Irish basketball team in recent years.

The Irish have one huge advantage over George Mason.  Three point shooting.  The Irish are 5th in the country making 41% of their three point shots.  George Mason doesn't make the top 100 list.  The dominance of Harangody down low has caused reason to forget just how well the Irish can shoot the ball.  When you think about it, I would be confident with everyone on the Notre Dame team shooting the 3, even the bigs. Zeller and Kurz consistently make 3s and even Harangody has added the jumper to his game. 

Harangody is also far better than the big men of George Mason.  The Big East Player of the Year should look to have a big game against George Mason.

The bottom line is that if Notre Dame can just play like they normally play then the game will be theirs. 

2 comments:

David said...

But Notre Dame has never seen Mason's scramble defense before either. Compare 3 point defensive percentage. I think Mason allows something like a 32% completion ratio for 3 pointers. Do not think Mason is unable to defend your 3's.

NDIrish11 said...

Yeah David you do have a point. George Mason is a very underrated team, do not get me wrong. When I heard that the Irish we up against George Mason I was worried. I have only seen one George Mason game this year and they did win. Mason may have good defense, but it will be put to to the test. I am sure Mason has not faced a better shooting team than the Irish this year.