Instead of 30 Rockefeller Center it's the Garden, but Notre Dame's got a late night date in the city that never sleeps nonetheless.  The Irish take on the Penn State Nittany Lions in the second of two NIT semifinal games (guesstimated tip around 9:30 Eastern).  It should be a really fast-moving, entertaining game, as neither team gets to the line very much and both shoot the three ball pretty well.  The Irish are going to need to defend the three-point line well tonight, although I'm not sure who on the Nittany Lions is stopping Luke Harangody.  The winner will play for the NIT title on Thursday night.

I asked my friend Dill, a Penn State grad from last year, to give us all a quick preview of what to expect this evening.  His words are after the jump.

Go Irish, Beat Nittany Lions.

Much like Joe Paterno's men on the gridiron, Ed DeChellis and Penn State basketball had a somewhat unexpected rise to the top of the Big 10 Conference this year, only to have bigger hopes derailed on the road in Iowa. The Nittany Lions looked to be a lead contender for one of the final NCAA Tourney spots before the heart-breaking double overtime loss. However, the team has recovered nicely and has averaged 77 points in the NIT after averaging 67 points in the regular season.

Main Contributors:

Talor Battle - Big 10 first team performer who was third in the conference in scoring with 16.8 ppg. He takes a lot of questionable shots, but a good percentage of them go in. He's a typical New York point guard even though he's from Albany

Jamelle Cornley - Team's leading rebounder and second leading scorer at 14.2 ppg. He has a partially dislocated left shoulder, but he still got 23 and 12 at Florida on Tuesday.

Stanley Pringle - Led the Big 10 in three point shooting percentage at 47% on 151 attempts. His 5 for 9 three point shooting at Florida was key in the victory.

Andrew Jones/David Jackson/Jeff Brooks - No disrespect, but I look at these big guys like one person. They're all similar in stature and rotate in and out without you really knowing it. Two of them are usually on the floor at the same time and they combine for about 15 points and 12 rebounds per game

Danny Morrissey/Chris Babb - Morrissey is a senior who has shot 3's well in the past, but not so much this year. Babb is a freshman who has showed flashes of brilliance at times, but my guess is that Morrissey will take the bulk of the minutes between these two reserves.

Style of Play:

With a 38-33 win over Illinois in the regular season and an 83-72 win over Rhode Island in the NIT, Penn State can obviously play two different styles. We usually let the other team dictate to us how the game will be played. So my guess is that the Irish will try to make it a higher scoring contest.

Defense:

DeChellis usually starts with a man to man, switches to a 2-3 zone for about five minutes at some point and plays man the rest of the game. Penn State has also displayed an effective full court press at times this year to try to get back into a game or get some momentum going. But the press is usually not used.

Offense:

It's all about the big three of Battle, Cornley, and Pringle. Battle has the ball in his hands most of the time and you never quite know what he's going to do. Cornley spends a lot of time around the foul line early in possessions to run pick and rolls and also possesses a sneaky good mid-range game. A great percentage of Pringle's points come in transition and broken plays, so the Irish need to watch him running to the 3 point line on the secondary wave of a fast break.