Classic Clips - Championship Week Edition, Volume 2

As most of you know, there is very little that gets my blood pumping more than Notre Dame victories. Whether it be football or hoops, soccer or lacrosse, men's or women's, I'm one of those sick puppies who takes tremendous personal pride in the athletic accomplishments of my fellow Domers.

But it doesn't take an Irish fan with my degree of obsessiveness to appreciate what the Notre Dame men's basketball team is doing this season. Yesterday, Mike Brey (a top candidate for both Big East and National Coach of the Year) and his veteran squad put the finishing touches on a 25-5 regular season with an impressive win at No. 16 Connecticut and, with Duke's loss at North Carolina last night, positioned themselves favorably for ND's first NCAA Tournament 1-seed since the field was expanded to 64 teams.

The 7th ranked Irish (who are sure to rise in the polls tomorrow due to results across the country this week) have been led this season, in both spirit and action, by 5th year senior Ben Hansbrough, now the leading candidate for Big East Player of the Year. Said Louisville coach Rick Pitino about the ballot he submitted for the Irish phenom on Friday, "From start to finish, he's been a dominating basketball player for Notre Dame. He hasn't had peaks and valleys [like everyone else]."

"What player do I not want to play against?" Pitino continued. "That's what I try to do in evaluating... I don't want to play against [Hansbrough] at all. I don't ever want to see him again."



Pitino was echoing earlier sentiments of Villanova head man, Jay Wright, whose Wildcats had just suffered a 21-point drubbing on Senior Night in South Bend led by Hansbrough's 30 points, 10 assists and 5 steals (a line recorded only one other time in the past 15 years of major conference play; and even then, in a 5-OT marathon).

"We've seen a lot of great players this year so far, Wright said. "After that performance, I'd say he's the best I've seen now. That kid just dominated the game. He defended, he controlled the tempo. He broke the press by himself, he made shots and got everyone else shots."

The icing on the cake came today when the Big East announced its first team, All-Conference selections, among which Notre Dame's Mr. Everything was the sole unanimous selection What's good enough for Pitino, Wright and the rest of the Big East coaches is good enough for us, so it is with great pleasure that I give you SmackJabber's first ever Big East Player of the Year, Ben Hansbrough.