Notre Dame Vs. Pittsburgh Was One Ugly Basketball Game

Fans who turned into ESPN Monday night were hoping to watch a classic Big East Conference battle with two ranked teams, but the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the Pittsburgh Panthers did not deliver a classic performance. If you had to call it something, you might say it was sloppy or maybe even sad.

The Notre Dame only made just one field goal in the first 13 minutes of play and were down 19-3.  The Panthers then allowed the Irish to make a run before halftime, which made it 22-19 Pittsburgh at the half.

 

This is not a typo … over 12 minutes have gone by in Pittsburgh & the Panthers lead No. 25 Notre Dame 15-3 (on ESPN).

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) February 19, 2013

Notre Dame then took the lead and held onto it, but still didn’t score a lot of points.  With the ending score 51-42, you have to feel sorry for the fans and you have to feel sorry for the losers, which in this case is Pittsburgh. The Panthers have some decent conference wins, with this loss though they fall below the top tier in the Big East.

The Irish got the win, but they seem to have some issues on offense that need to be addressed. They are coming off an embarrassing loss to Providence on Saturday where they only scored 54 points.  They have four tough opponents coming up, they will need to figure some things out to score more points if they want to move up the Big East standings.

Jack Cooley continues to be the only constant for the Irish, he ended the game with 13 points, nine rebounds and two blocks. I would suggest giving the senior big man more than eight shots if they want to increase their scoring in the future.

Both teams will have until Sunday to work out their issues. Notre Dame will take on Cincinnati and Pittsburgh will play St. John’s.

Follow Jon Hancock on Twitter @JonKYSportsco.