Hooked 'Em: An absolutely fantastic game from Maui last night.  I can't speak highly enough of the McDonough-Bilas-Raftery team, as they all obviously know and love the game.  Do things get a little weird sometimes?  Of course, Raf is in there, but it's fantastic anyway.  Bonus points for Rick Barnes for using his halftime interview to insult Bilas' weight.  I've been sure since the TJ Ford teams that Barnes was some sort of evil gnome, but he's always a class act and his coming back to Jimmy Dyke's mic to say "There is no rebuttal" was the highlight of the night that didn't involve Luke Harangody knocking in a thirty-five foot three pointer.

The mood over at Burnt Ornage Nation is all "Notre Dame didn't win. We lost." (although to be fair, Pete's dealing with the possibility of his rival going to the Big XII Title game - and possibly the Mythical National Title game - after they beat them by ten on a neutral field, and he congratulated me last night, so we'll cut him some slack) and listing the things Texas could have done differently to come away with an easy win.  Mmm, let's explore this a bit, shall we?

This was mostly a half-court game and played at the tempo that Notre Dame preferred. I would have liked to see the Longhorns apply more full-court pressure, like they have in their previous three games, and try to disrupt the Irish offense.

Right, because a Mike Brey team would be upset to be put into a full court game.  The Irish were constantly pushing - not to the extent they were against Indiana, where everyone was doing their best Bill Walton impression on outlet passes - but they were never pressing, which is important.  Notre Dame being comfortable in the half-court is something new and exciting that has slowly developed as Luke Harangody emerged in the post, and now with Master of His Universe Tory Jackson controlling everything and Kyle McAlarney knocking down whatever the hell he wants to, you need a helluva defense to slow them down.  Ryan Ayers and Lucas Zellervich combined for nine points, with the bench kicking in Zellervich's three, and the Irish still beat a deeper top ten team on the second night of a back-to-back.

There's also the concept that AJ Abrams shot them out of the game, which he obviously did, taking 27 shots, 17 (?!) of them from behind the arc.  But most of those shots were contested, as the Irish guards stayed with him and Zach Hillesland continually switched out and hedged to take away an open look.  While the Longhorns were going inside early and having some success, Dexter Pittman picking up a bunch of fouls early in the second due to the Irish being more aggressive and the general success Hillesland and Ayers had defending Damion James and Gary Johnson lead me to believe that most of Texas' offensive woes was caused by a great effort from the Irish defense.  They also didn't have a bigger, slashing two-guard like Jerel McNeal or Derrick Low that the Irish always have difficulty matching up with.  There were some great match-ups for the Irish, and they took advantage of them enough for the win.

Good note: Notre Dame had six turnovers in the entire game against a pressing, swarming, athletic defense.  Bad note: Seriously, hit your free throws.  Is it something in the Hawaiian air?  This has never been a problem before.  Stop it.  Please.  My mom even e-mailed me about it this morning (Direct quote: "ND needs some touch up work on their free throws - otherwise a pretty good game.").  I realize it's early and small sample sizes, but this is the third game in a row where too many points were left at the charity stripe.

Can't say enough how fantastic the Harangody-Jackson-McAlarney combination was, and it seems Tory has some official cheerleaders in the media to make sure his efforts don't go unnoticed this season.

Then there's the matter of tonight: 10:00 Eastern on ESPN, the Irish face the presumed national champion and number one team in the nation, the North Carolina Tar Heels.  The Heels stomped Oregon last night, playing fourteen four minutes or more.  I think the Irish starting five is more than capable of banging with the boys in baby blue, but once that third and fourth wave of Heels come running in the second half and the fact you're playing your third game in three days sets in?  We'll see.  No matter what happens tonight, this trip was a success, just because the Irish get to face off against what they need to become if they want to win a championship, while also beating Tom Crean (haha) and notching a quality win.

And oh by the way, the rest of the Big East: Syracuse defeated two ranked teams who happen to account for the last three national titles (Florida and Kansas), Connecticut waxed the floor with two more (Miami (FL) and Wisconsin) and Seton Hall knocked off Southern Cal, all in the last week or so.  I didn't even mention Pitt, Louisville, Marquette, West Virginia, Cincinnati or Georgetown.  If you get ten wins in league play, you might clinch the banner.

Dr. James Andrews Strikes Again: Brady Quinn will miss the remainder of the regular season after breaking his right index finger, which got worse after Sunday's game against the Texans.  Brady went 1-2 in his three starts this season, playing pretty well, but also essentially playing out the string on a disappointing Browns season.  Is Romeo Crennel a goner?  Phil Savage, too?  With all the NBA writers focusing solely on where LeBron is going to jet to in 2010 and Quinn missing the final four games of the season, it is not a happy time in the city of Cleveland.  If there is any silver lining to his injury, its that perhaps Fathead will temporarily drop the price of their Quinns so we can finally buy a dozen of them and finish wallpapering our apartment.

Revenge Is A Dish Best Served Cold and Undefeated on Alumni Field: A program we criminally haven't touched on at all this season, the Notre Dame women's soccer team is a sterling 24-0, a unanimous number one and sitting pretty in the elite eight after toughing out two 1-0 games in the rounds of 32 and 16.  (Your national player of the year, Kerri Hanks, banged in the winning Sweet Sixteen goal in overtime against Minnesota.)  The Irish's reward?  A date with the Florida State Seminoles, the team that unceremoniously knocked Notre Dame out of the College Cup Final Four last November.  While the Noles are surely looking to spring the upset again, the Irish will be looking to advance to their fourth final four in the last five years (the only year they didn't make it was in 2005, where they lost on the road to eventual national champion Portland in the Elite Eight). 

:The game is Friday at 7:00 at Alumni Field, and if last season's freezing Elite Eight win over Duke was any sort of indicator, bring your hand warmers and wear extra socks.

Hey, all that stuff. . . : ...and we didn't once bring up Charlie Weis!  See how easy that is, everyone else who writes about the Irish on the internet?  I wanted to address this entire snowball thing (which is so ridiculous it's probably not worth bringing up) and then look at the cases for and against firing Weis, but let's wait until after the regular season is over.  I don't say that implying Notre Dame is going to beat Southern Cal - they're not - but let's see how the team plays and while we're doing that, maybe everyone needs to chill out and look in the mirror.