Luke Harangody is giddy about his decision to return to school after playing pickup with his future teammates showed him Notre Dame is ready to make a run at the Big East title.
Harangody, who went down to the final hours on the draft-withdrawal deadline June 15, has been playing pickup on campus with the majority of the 2009-10 Irish.
Harangody, the 2008 Big East Player of the Year as a sophomore, is expected to be the anchor of the Irish with Purdue transfer wing Scott Martin and Mississippi State transfer guard Ben Hansbrough. Tory Jackson returns as the team's point to give the Irish a solid foursome that should be able to hang with any team in the league. Harangody said Jackson's jumper is already much improved from a year ago.
"He looks fantastic," he said.
Last season, the Irish were a major disappointment after they flamed out in the second half of the season. Notre Dame seemed to be a team to watch after beating Texas in the Maui Invitational semifinals and losing to North Carolina in the final. But the Irish lost seven straight in the dead of winter -- six against Big East teams and one at UCLA -- before a 30-point blowout of Big East champ Louisville that didn't give them the momentum one would expect. The Irish finished 8-10 in the Big East, lost to West Virginia in the conference tournament and then fell to Penn State in the NIT semifinals to end the season 21-15.
Adding the tough-minded Hansbrough as a combo guard is exactly what the Irish needed, according to Hansbrough. Martin, who never reached his potential at Purdue before bolting, should give the Irish a scoring wing to take some pressure off Harangody.
"They're what we were missing," Harangody said. "We needed a tough guard like Ben."
Harangody said the draft process proved to him that he needed to become a better defender, especially against small forwards. He said he expanded his face-up perimeter game during the draft process, too. But he's not going to abandon his go-to move in the Big East: His ability to score on the low block.
"I'm not going to stop doing what I do best," Harangody said.
Watching fellow Big East big man DeJuan Blair of Pitt slide into the second round was humbling. There were questions about Blair's knees (with no ACLs), and that's the reason why he slid to San Antonio at No. 37.
"It's a gamble going, but next year I don't have to make a gamble," Harangody said. "I'll be in the draft."
Harangody wasn't guaranteed a spot in the draft, not in the first round nor the second. Since the decision to return to school, he hasn't had a second thought. He's paying attention to the Orlando Summer League because he's rooming with Ben Hansbrough, Tyler's brother. Tyler is playing for the Indiana Pacers in the league (and scoring quite well in double figures).
Notre Dame coach Mike Brey -- who is touting the Irish's 3.1 team GPA, to give them the best academic mark of Big East teams for the second year in a row -- might have thought Harangody was gone when he made the schedule. The Irish don't have a daunting nonconference slate. Notre Dame plays upstart Northwestern in a tournament outside Chicago and then either Saint Louis or Iowa State. The Irish host UCLA and Long Beach State, which should be one of the better teams in the Big West. But the schedule does lack a little pop. The hope is that the Irish won't need to rely on the schedule to get them a bid if they're a top-four Big East team. The Big East schedule should provide that with home-and-home games within the 18-game schedule against Connecticut and Cincinnati (South Florida is the other one) in two of the Irish's three repeat teams.
• Pitt guard Jermaine Dixon broke his right foot and will have surgery Monday. But the Pitt staff is confident Dixon will be good to go come fall. The Panthers have had some bad luck with broken feet of late, notably Levance Fields, who dealt with a nagging foot injury two seasons ago. Dixon is the team's only returning starter.
• West Virginia's Darryl Bryant didn't prove he could consistently lead a team at the Under 19 U.S. team trials in Colorado Springs last month. He couldn't beat out Ole Miss' Terrico White, Pitt's Ashton Gibbs, Butler's Shelvin Mack or incoming Duke guard Seth Curry, formerly of Liberty. But heading to Auckland might have kept him out of trouble. Instead of being in New Zealand, Bryant stayed back and clearly couldn't stay out of trouble. West Virginia coach Bob Huggins suspended Bryant on Wednesday for a violation of team rules. Bryant was thrust into the starting role after previous starting lead guard Joe Mazzulla missed most of the season because of a shoulder injury. Bryant started 28 games last season and was expected to be a rock for the Mountaineers entering this season at the point with Mazzulla's status in jeopardy. Mazzulla was suspended in April after he was charged for an altercation in a Morgantown bar. It was his second arrest in nine months. If Mazzulla and Bryant are gone, the Mountaineers will no longer be the pick to finish second in the Big East. Da'Sean Butler, who is starring for the U.S. at the World University Games in Belgrade, Serbia, and rising sophomore Devin Ebanks are expected to be the go-to scorers on the wings and upfront. But someone has to get them the ball, and Bryant was the experienced returnee, even if Mazzulla's status was in doubt.
Andy Katz
