Big East Tournament: Session 4
Notre Dame finished one of it’s most disappointing seasons in recent memory, getting manhandled by West Virginia. The Irish looked completely disinterested for the first 34 minutes, than came on at the end. But by the time Gody and the Irish decided it was time to make one final push, it was too late. Gody was as average as you could be, considering he was the raining player of the year in the conference. West Virginia played excellent defense, doing a great job of switching and helping. They frustrated the Irish all night long, pressuring the ball, clogging the lane and giving noone any easy looks. After being named the Big East scholar athlete of the year, Alex Ruoff showed that he’s more than just a student. He scored 25 points and led the Mountaineers to a very impressive win. Next up for West Virginia is bitter rival Pitt and the backyard brawl.
In the late game, the tournament finally got some excitement as Syracuse and Seton Hall came to blows early in the second half. The fight between Eric Devendorf (what else is new) and Eugene Harvey sparked a huge run for the Orange. The crowd (heavily orange) was fired up and really loud. Eric had 19 points in the second half, most of them coming after the rumble. Jonny Flynn was sensational scoring 19 points and handing out 11 dimes. He got into the lane whenever he wanted and was able to help his teammates score some pretty easy hoops. Next up for the Cuse is #4 Uconn and 7-3 Hasheem Thabeet.
Nolan Shulman
nolan@flagrantfouls.com