Irish drop their 4th straight, fall to #8 Marquette

Despite it's disappointing home court loss to UConn on Saturday night at the Joyce Center, Mike Brey's Notre Dame squad was looking to rebound against yet another top-10 opponent when they took on Marquette on Monday night.  Sadly for Irish fans, that rebound didn't happen as the Golden Eagles took down the Fightin' Irish 71-64 to push ND's losing streak to four and home losing streak to two games.  The game was very close throughout much of the game, but MU's Jerel McNeal sealed the deal when he hit a big shot to put them up by 5 with only 2:15 left to go.

For the second straight game, Notre Dame's top shooters failed to connect from the outside even when they were open.  The Irish were only 8-for-26 from behind the 3-point line and only completed 36% overall.  While Harangody had another terrific night (29 points, 17 rebounds), McAlarney and Ayers went a combined 1-12 from 3-point land.

It's really difficult to predict where the Irish go from here.  They face a top 5 team on Saturday at Pittsburgh, a place where they've struggled to play.  I suppose a win is not out of the question, as we've seen how this team has played against Louisville away from home, but the team is going to have to do something that they haven't been doing in awhile: giving Harangody a hand.  I've got to think that McAlarney and Ayers will get over their slump, although it seems obvious that the opposing team's objective is to allow Harangody to score his 25-30 PPG and limit McAlarney's shots, although he has had a number of good looks.  I liked the lineup that we saw at time on Monday night, as Zeller provided some good minutes (although continues to think he is a threat offensively), Peoples had one of his best games ever, and Tyrone Nash showed some good defense and good effort in his 8 minutes on the floor.

It seems to me that Notre Dame has lost it's killer edge.  We've been close to a number of great teams, but haven't figured out how to close it out.  Either we miss easy shots or play lousy defense and this is not a team that is good about coming back from deficits later on in the game.  I think it's easier for a guard to take over a game later on than it is a big guy, so either McAlarney or Tory Jackson are going to have to start playing better down the stretch and taking over a game.  We'll learn a lot more about this team's psyche in Pittsburgh on Saturday afternoon, but if you've been following this team, you can't be too optimistic about it.