Irish handle South Florida

Notre Dame:     67

South Florida:  57

The game was a must-win and the Irish won it.  That's all that counts because the game was not that pretty,  The Irish had a terrible shooting performance,  but played strong defense and forced the Bulls to take contested shots.  The good thing about the game is that the Irish were able to beat an inferior team without playing good offense,  the bad thing is that if the Irish play like that vs West Virginia then they won't win.

Luke Harangody and Kyle McAlarney both had 19 points to carry the team.  However, in my opinion the story of the game was Tyrone Nash.  He had a career high 8 points and played very good defense and rebounded well.  Whenever the ball is loose it looks like he is the only player on Notre Dame that will do anything to get it and I think someone like that is what the team was missing over the 7 game losing streak.  

With the win the Irish improve to 14-10 and 5-7.  In order to gain a sure spot in the tournament I believe the Irish need to go 5-1 the rest of the way.  4-2 could do it, but it is real risky.  The Irish should consider West Virginia a must win on Wednesday and they need to come prepared to win.  WV is a hostile court to play on, but if the Irish come out like they did against Louisville, they can win it.