MENS BASKETBALL: Banging around in the Big East
By CHRIS FEDERICO
Sports Writer
Through much of Notre Dame's pre-conference season, the story for the Irish had been perimeter players and ball handlers such as guards Chris Thomas and Matt Carroll and forward Dan Miller. But as Notre Dame's season transfers into the very physical Big East play, the focus of the team's style of play, especially on the defensive side, may need to shift as well.
"I think non-conference is nothing like the Big East," Irish forward Jordan Cornette said after his eight-point, eight-block performance in Notre Dame's Tuesday night victory over conference rival Rutgers. "The Big East is one of those special conferences where a lot of games are won in the paint."
The Big East Conference in basketball is much like the Big Ten used to be in football. There is often nothing very fancy about the style of play. Two teams line it up and smash it out, and whoever has the bigger guys generally wins.
The unsung heroes of those football games are the offensive linemen. They are the guys doing all the dirty work, scrapping it out in the middle and getting almost no credit.
In the Big East, the centers and power forwards — the big uglies in the middle, the offensive linemen of the hardwood — are the ones who have the biggest impact.
As the Irish enter their conference schedule, it will be up to their big men like Torin Francis, Tom Timmermans and Cornette to control some of the better big men in the college game such as Georgetown's Mike Sweetney, Connecticut's Emeka Okafor and Syracuse's Carmelo Anthony and Hakeem Warrick.
In its Big East opener against No. 5 Pittsburgh, Notre Dame's vulnerability in the middle became obvious as Panthers center Ontario Lett scored 20 points, grabbed nearly every rebound and made Francis and Timmermans look like eighth graders trying to play with the varsity squad.
Tuesday, when Rutgers came into town with its physical style of inside play, it looked as if the Irish could be poised for a repeat performance of the Pitt game as the Scarlet Knights' Herve Lamizana and Kareem Wright dominated play in the middle for much of the first half.
But a big defensive change in the second half showed the Irish would not be dominated on their own floor, and that they can bash it out with some of the bigger bodies in the Big East.
"We don't want to be a team known as the pretty boys in the Big East who can just knock down a jump shot," Cornette said. "Teams out there have to know that that is not the only facet of our game. We're a heck of a defense, and we're starting to prove that with nights like [Tuesday]."
Cornette entered the game to neutralize the scoring threat of Wright and Lamizana in the middle, and the 6-foot-9 sophomore all but eliminated the post threat of the Scarlet Knights, forcing them to the perimeter, where their weaknesses were exploited and the Irish were able to pull away.
"We've got to have a big guy who can guard another big man one-on-one," Irish coach Mike Brey said. "Tom [Timmermans] and Torin [Francis] could not do that [Tuesday], but we found a big guy who could — Jordan certainly could. I think Jordan has played that role for us. He likes to guard, he's got a presence about that now."
Using his long arms, quickness and awareness, Cornette blocked eight shots and grabbed seven rebounds in 33 minutes of play. He even made a couple of nice assists, one on a crosscourt pass that found Carroll wide open for a 3-pointer in the corner and another on a blind pass to Torrian Jones beneath the basket who finished the play with a momentum-grabbing jam.
But if Notre Dame, now 14-2 and 2-1 in conference play, is to remain successful, it's going to need to see the solid performances out of Timmermans and Francis on a regular basis. Even though Cornette has played well in that capacity through the first half of the season, Timermans and Francis are the big bodies at that position, and they are the ones who will likely be looked toward to stop a Sweeney or an Okafor from plowing his way through the middle en route to another two points.
"We have the presence to be a physical team," Timmermans said. "We can bang with them, and we can rebound with them and everything. I don't think it's really a challenge; we just have to go out there and do it."
All Sports Stories for Thursday, January 16, 2003
