Red Hot
Blazing Irish are
ready to start Big East play
T
Junior guard Jerian Grant has come on strong after
a slow start, and was averaging 12.7 points and
5.3 assists through 15 games.
photo by joe raymond
By Wes Morgan
he Notre Dame men's basketball
team entered the 2012-13 season
with arguably the most athleticism of any squad in head coach
Mike Brey's previous 12 years in South
Bend. He's turned a mix of young, raw
talent and veteran know-how into a
team that's eager to hunt as a pack.
The 17th-ranked Fighting Irish (14‑1,
2-0 Big East) were on a 12-game winning streak as of Jan. 7, the program's
best since also winning 12 in a row in
2006-07. They got off to a 2-0 start in
conference play for the first time since
the 2007-08 season, making a statement early on that they're hungry to
contend for their first regular-season
Big East crown in what could be their
last season in the league before moving on to the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Getting pace-setting contributions
from each player in a seven-man rotation, Notre Dame has had at least
five double-figure scorers in the same
game on five occasions. Most impressively, though, the Irish led the nation
with 19.5 assists per game as of Jan. 9.
"That's been our program," Brey
said. "There's a culture of passing
the ball here. We recruit basketball IQ
guys, and I think there's a lot of trust
