I was at work for the majority of the Indiana game yesterday, but was keeping track of it through Gametracker and streams of GChat thoughts from a couple friends.  I hope they don't mind them using them, but here's a stream of some of the superlatives coming my way from fans who hadn't yet seen the Irish play yet this season:

wow

  just wow

  i love it

  nd bball

  they might be good

  imagine if they come out hot instead of ice cold

  perfection

  zeller looks athletic

  harangody has calmed down

hillesland is under control

  everyone can f*cking shoot

  unreal

its so fun to watch

  you are gonna love it

  it is just 30 ft shots all day

  people jumping and passing and shooting

  unreal

  i think mike brey is the reason we shouldnt fire charlie weis

  have a little faith

~

we look great

  but indiana is awful

  peoples under control, tory can hit jumpers now, luke z crashing the boards with authority

  everyone is better

  ayers slashing

  hitting everything

After a very cold start, yesterday was a clinic on offensive basketball.  Even with Luke Harangody having a slow day (still tossing up 14 points, 5 boards, 5 steals and 2 assists), the offense didn't miss a beat, mainly because Tory Jackson played like the player we all hoped he could become for the entire time.  He dominated the ball on offense, but in the way you want a point guard to.  If the defense backed off, he banged home a jumper in the first half.  When they pressed up on him after the break, he slipped right around for an easy lay-up (or a dish).  I think I can say with near one hundred percent confidence that if Tory is hitting his jumpers, there might be no way to guard him.  He is going to get quite a workout from the Texas backcourt of AJ Abrams and Justin Mason, but there's the potential for Maui as Tory's coming out party.  He's disappeared for games in his career, but on Mike Brey's team of men, he may have matured the most in the offseason.  Never pressing but constantly pressuring the defense.

Also a man yesterday?  Lucas Zellervich, who threw up a stat line of ten points and eleven boards off the bench, but did it by hitting two of his six threes and collecting six offensive rebounds.  How many players are grabbing a half dozen half dozen boards and putting up the same number of three's?  If Zeller can stretch the floor and crash the boards on offense while protecting the lane on defense, he'll have finally reached the acme everyone imagined he could as a freshman.  I cannot wait to see him spar with Connor Atchley, his Longhorn doppelganger.

I loved the entire attitude of the team in transition, with the number of passes twenty or thirty feet ahead reaching double digits.  Probably the most notable was Kyle McAlarney's three-quarter court pass to Harangody, where he awkwardly (but beautifully) finished with a scoop lay-up.  K-Mac finally found his range, which happens to include any space in the gym, and combined with Zeller and Ryan Ayers to show that there is no way to zone this team.  If Ayers can consistently go one dribble and pull-up, like he did early on in the game for one of his first baskets, it is game over.  He also was smoothly efficient yesterday, tossing up 13 points on 5-7 shooting and collecting five boards, two steals and an assist. 

Great effort from everyone, though.  Zach Hillesland didn't get a lot of scoring opportunities, but that's fine, as he contributes in a hundred other ways, twenty minutes of controlled chaos on the offensive boards and defensive side of the floor.  Jonathan Peoples ran the break well and was obviously very upset he missed a wide open three, but didn't let it affect his defense, while Tyrone Nash and Carleton Scott show why a lot of people are very excited for them to get some extended minutes should the opportunity arise.

I apologize if this recap is overflowing with superlatives when Indiana is a team in a really bad place right now, but the team looked so incredibly good a majority of the time, and did so with subpar efforts from behind the arc (10-for-26-) and the free throw line (a paltry 2-for-7).  Tonight's game against Texas (7:00 on ESPN Original Recipe) is going to be a great measuring stick.  While the Longhorns are still adjusting to Abrams as their primary ball-handler after DJ Augustin moved onto the Charlotte Bobcats (tossing up a 25-11-5 last night, actually), Rick Barnes has a fantastic defensive team to go with the great offense he puts on the floor year-in and year-out.  From our great Texas counterpart on SBN, Burnt Orange Nation:

Texas will advance if they keep Luke from catching the ball with a foot in the paint and if they can take advantage of their depth advantage with a quick, yet smart tempo.

Notre Dame will advance if the Irish guards can handle the Texas pressure and if Harangody can get others involved in the offense.

The writer admits he hasn't seen Notre Dame play a lot, which makes sense because everyone one of those points is easily countered by something this Irish team naturally does.  Harangody can score from outside the paint, I would love to play at a "quick, yet smart tempo," I would be extremely surprised if Tory was bothered by their pressure and everyone is involved in the Irish offense from the go.

Beautiful but dangerous.

This is not going to be an easy game.  Texas' fantastic forward Damion James (I can't type the names of Texas players without hearing Fran Fraschilla or Ron Franklin's voice in my head) is coming off a rocky outing against St. Joes, while Abrams is a quicker version of McAlarney, a true nightmare to try and keep track of on the floor.  Gary Johnson, Dexter Pittman and Atchley (I'm serious, he and Zeller are nearly identical, from fans hating seeing them on the floor to totally putting it all together, although Atchley did it a year sooner) will be the primary big bodies thrown at Harangody, but expect to see Barnes go deep into his bench to make up for playing the middle game of a back-to-back-to-back.  All of those misses lay-ups and threes from Indiana are going to be converted by the 'Horns, so the Irish are going to have to be a lot sharper on the defensive end.

Go Irish, Beat Horns.