Irish seek first-ever Big East tournament victory
By BRIAN KESSLER
Sports Editor
NEW YORK
Notre Dame's impressive 23-point victory over Georgetown last weekend was a relief for sophomore captain Troy Murphy after watching his team drop three straight games down the stretch. But it was the news after the game that really made his day.
West Virginia had just beaten Rutgers, dropping the Scarlet Knights (15-14, 6-10) to the No. 10 seed in the Big East Tournament and setting up a showdown with the No. 7 seeded Irish (17-13, 8-8) tonight at 7:30 p.m. at Madison Square Garden.
Murphy, who hails from Morristown, N.J., was heavily recruited by Rutgers and takes a fair share of verbal abuse every time the Irish play the Scarlet Knights on the road.
"I'm happy to have another shot at Rutgers," Murphy said about the first-round matchup. "I'm looking forward to that."
And so are the rest of the Irish. Notre Dame suffered its worst defeat of the season at the Louis Brown Athletic Center in mid-January and will be looking to avenge that 25-point loss.
Rutgers freshman Todd Billet led the way for the Scarlet Knights with 31 points on eight 3-point field goals while Mike Tompson and Eugene Dabney each grabbed 10 rebounds for Rutgers.
"I guess we've got another shot at them," said freshman shooting guard Matt Carroll, who averages nearly 10 points per game. "Hopefully we can change it and have a different outcome from the last game."
"I don't think we could have played any worse and I don't think they could have played any better," said Murphy, the conference's leading scorer (23 ppg) and rebounds (10.5 rpg).
Tonight's game is the 13th meeting between the two teams. The all-time series is tied at 6-6, but Rutgers leads the series 5-2 since Notre Dame joined the Big East. The two teams have never met in the Big East Championship.
"We struggled with them in the past," first-year head coach Matt Doherty said. "We didn't match up well with them last time, but hopefully, we're better than we were when we played them the last time."
The Irish will also be looking for their first victory in the Big East tournament. Notre Dame has bowed out in the first round in all four years of their membership in the conference. However, the Irish have secured their highest seed ever and tied their best conference mark.
"I hope it's motivation enough that we're playing in the Big East tournament, but I think in the back of our minds we knew that they beat us badly last time," Doherty said. "We'd like to show them that we can play."
Notre Dame is also coming off an impressive victory over Georgetown and outplayed top-seeded Syracuse in the second half of that game. I think it's a confidence booster, but we'll see how we handle it," Doherty said. "It definitely is a big boost to our confidence that we're playing good basketball and hopefully we can carry that over to the Big East tournament."
The Irish have just one win in their last four games, but Doherty remains upbeat.
"I think the last three games we played well we just only had one win because we played the two best teams in the league," he said. "You can't always judge how well you're playing by wins and losses. I think you have to look at the games themselves and I think we've been playing good basketball all along."
Doherty also seems to have found a lineup that has clicked. Freshman small forward Jere Macura has come off the bench to give Notre Dame a big offensive lift and should see significant playing time against Rutgers. The Irish zone has also confused opposing offenses.
"First of all, I think we need to play hard, and I think offensively, we need to execute against their tough man-to-man defense," Doherty said. "Defensively, we have to contest their shooters and box out."
Rutgers is led by guard Dahntay Jones, who averages a team-high 16 points. Billet and Jeff Greer also averages double figures. The Scarlet Knights have dropped their last three contests, but have been competitive in virtually every game they have played this season.
However, they have had difficulty winning the close ones, posting just a 3-10 record in games decided by six points or less.
"We want to play them," said Graves who averages 13 points per game and is coming off one of his best games of the season. "It's going to be the same thing again. They really jumped on our case big-time. We're back in their neck of the woods. We're going to be the ones traveling, and it's going to be a big game. It's going to be a huge game because we want to get a solid win. We still have chances for the NCAA Tourn-ament. We're going to keep working hard. We're going to come out with a lot of intensity."
The winner of tonight's game takes on Miami in the quarterfinals Thursday.
All Sports Stories for Wednesday, March 8, 2000
