Nothing will incite a throng of 30,021 so much as the sight of a 6-foot-9-inch, 258-pound man thundering down the court with basketball in hand, gaining speed like a Gibraltar-sized rock rolled downhill.
And nothing will so demoralize a team as that behemoth — in this case Syracuse’s Arinze Onuaku — finishing the play at the rim. He’s as thick as a bank vault’s walls and goes almost coast to coast. He left Notre Dame players shaking their heads, right after they’d finished ducking.
“Foul him or something,” Irish guard Tory Jackson said. “Because that’s just not supposed to happen.”
Well, someone must have rewritten the laws of nature Saturday in time for No. 12 Notre Dame’s 93-74 defeat at No. 8 Syracuse. Nary an Orange player stepped on the floor who didn’t whisk by the Irish in transition and cause more windburn than the subarctic breezes outside.
The Irish (12-5, 3-3 Big East) didn’t guard much in the first place, as Syracuse shot 55.2 percent and placed six players in double figures, led by Onuaku’s 19 points. When the Irish offense was shaky, producing hurried or ill-advised shots, Syracuse (17-2, 5-1) grabbed misses and sprinted to 39 fast-break points.
“We’re talented offensively but you have to make them work a little bit and stir them up a little bit,” Irish coach Mike Brey said. “It’s a fine line, because I want us to be aggressive offensively. We’ve been good because we’ve been able to play on the edge. But there’s a balance there too.”
This loss had Irish forward Luke Harangody taking himself to task — after a 25-point, 16-rebound, six-assist day that had no less an authority than Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim labeling him “the best offensive post player I’ve seen in this league.”
Mostly, though, the junior forward lamented how his 9-of-28 shooting contributed to the too-quick pace.
“I probably shouldn’t say this, but this one is on me,” Harangody said. “I’ve reached that time in my career where I need to step up, and 9 of 28 from the field is just unacceptable. I know guys on the team and the coaching staff aren’t going to say that, but I can’t lay a goose egg like that, especially on the road.”
A 20-5 Syracuse run thrust Notre Dame behind 13 early, and the Irish never drew any closer than two possessions over the last 30 minutes.
Thus the Irish lost consecutive league games for the first time since February 2007 and sit at .500 one-third of the way through Big East play. In this conference, that is tenuous ground.
“We’re not happy with where we are,” Irish guard Kyle McAlarney said. “We know we can be better, but it’s not the end of the world.”
———
bchamilton@tribune.com
