BIG EAST GAME PREVIEW: Notre Dame @ West Virginia

February 1, 2006


West Virginia finds themselves alone atop the Big East conference standings with an undefeated 6-0 mark in conference play. Nearly at the other end of the spectrum, Notre Dame continues to shuffle along with a 1-6 record in the Big East and finding life very tough this season with every loss in the conference coming by 6-pts or less.

Here are the stories from around the internet on tonight's game:

Irish Hope Stork Provides a Break With Early Arrival (Fort Wayne Journal Gazette)
Irish Ride Three Game Slide into WVU (Charleston Gazette)
Mountaineers Hope to End Irish Hex Tonight (Register-Herald)
Confidence Sky High for Gansey & Crew (South Bend Tribune)
How Have Irish Won at WVU? (South Bend Tribune)
Luck of the Irish? (MSNSportsNET)

For our preview and prediction on the game, click below!

READ REST OF PREVIEW...CLICK "Read More" BELOW



The main downfall for the Irish this season in the Big East is their lack of athletic ability and the willingness to play physical inside against their Big East foes. Tonight, they find themselves matched up against another team that relies on skilled perimeter players making shots from beyond the arc with little in terms of inside power. However, nobody seems to be able to play the stle as well as West Virginia.

Maybe the match-up in style preference is the main reason for this series being heavily in the favor of Notre Dame. The Irish have been victorious in their last four trips to Morgantown under Mike Brey and the Irish have won the last 11 games in the series overall.

“Notre Dame is like looking into the mirror at us as far as the type of players that they have,” Beilein said. “They take care of the ball, they all can shoot it and they all can pass it".

So, why is one team 6-0 in the conference and the other 1-6? Beilein offers up an explanation, “They’re going through all these things that in every tight game the ball didn’t bounce their way. In three of four tight games we had, the ball bounced our way". The game that didn't bounce the Mountaineers way was their stunning loss last week to in-state rival Marshall. Also, WVU is the best in the Big East in league games for scoring margin (+9.2), assists (20.3), steals (9.6), turnover margin (+11.6) and assist/turnover ratio (+2.77) (South Bend Trib Article).

Again, tonight, there is a wildcard, and that is with the arrival of anyday of a little Pittsnogle. Kevin Pittsnogle's wife Heather is due to give birth to the couple's first child tomorrow, but if an early arrival happens, Pittsnogle might be in a delivery room, rather than delevering 3-pt bombs on the Irish.

Both teams have experience, but nobody is as experienced as the Mountaineers with 5 seniors, 1 junior and 1 sophomore comprising their 7-man rotation, led by Mike Gansey and Pittsnogle. The Irish have 3 seniors, 2 juniors, 1 sophomore and 2 freshmen in their rotation and are led by Chris Quinn, Torin Francis and Colin Falls.

The style of game should fit Notre Dame's strength's perfectly, but winning in a sold out Coliseum on the WVU campus is going to be one of the toughest things any team does this year. If there ever was a team outside the top two or three in this league that could do it, it might very well be Notre Dame. I expect ANOTHER close game for the Irish, will some of the bounces go their way? Will an early arrival by the stork keep Pittsnogle away? I am not so sure of that...but, this should be an very tight game and the 8-pt favored Mountaineers will be very glad to pull out a tight win.

NBE Blogger Prediction:

West Virginia 74 Notre Dame 71