UConn Men: Streak Busters?

Notre Dame boasts 45-game home winning streak

Luke Harangody loves proving people wrong.

That's why Harangody has a preseason issue of ESPN The Magazine hanging in his locker. The issue quotes Connecticut center Hasheem Thabeet as saying: "I played Luke Harangody and he was not tough."

Harangody said people started e-mailing him the quote before the issue hit newsstands. His first reaction was to laugh. Then he posted the quote where he would see it regularly, including when the 19th-ranked Fighting Irish (12-5, 3-3 Big East) host No. 3 Connecticut (17-1, 6-1) on Saturday.

Harangody, last year's Big East player of the year, is driven by those who doubt him.

"I think that's what's made me a great player to this day. Before every game I'm thinking about, 'Whose doubting me? Whose doubting me this week? The media? Announcers?' Whatever. That's what motivates to go out there and prove everyone else wrong," he said.

Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun said Thabeet was joking when he made the comment and the quote was taken out of context. He said Thabeet knows how good Harangody is.

"He's one of the best players in America -- not just the Big East, in America," Calhoun said.

Last season Thabeet did a good job of taking Harangody out of his game the first time they met. Harangody was 5-of-23 from the floor, finishing with 14 points and 10 rebounds in a 73-67 Irish win in South Bend. The Irish lost the second game in Storrs 84-78, but Harangody finished with 32 points and 16 rebounds.

Harangody, who is averaging 24.8 points and 12.9 rebounds a game this season, said he played smarter in the second game.

"I think pulling him away from the basket early on and just get him out of his rhythm kind of threw him off," he said. "Where in the first game I just tried to keep bulling him and going at him and obviously it wasn't working."

Notre Dame coach Mike Brey said that Harangody, who is listed at 6-foot-8, faces challenges going against players like the 7-foot-3 Thabeet and other bigger men in the Big East. Brey said he tries to move Harangody so he's not battling inside all the time, letting him take jumpers from 15 feet away or further.

Notre Dame guard Kyle McAlarney believes comments like Thabeet's and a quote by Jeff Adrien last week in which he said "It's going to feel good to break (Notre Dame's) home winning streak," are attempts by the Huskies to get the Irish out of their game.

"I feel that's something they do to pump themselves up and try to get into our heads a little bit," he said.

He also wasn't surprised by Adrien's comments about Notre Dame's 45-game home winning streak, the nation's longest streak.

"It's not surprising at all, not with the UConn team. It's amazing how people still think that after all the wins we have here that they could just say something like that," he said. "It's our job to disprove that."

An Irish win would be their 21st straight at home in the Big East, breaking the mark set by Pittsburgh by from 2001-04.

Brey, though, said the Irish are more focused on ending a two-game losing streak that has them tied for eighth in the league than setting a record.

"We're just trying to figure out how to win a game here and try to be 4-3 in the league," he said.

Meanwhile, the Huskies arrive full of confidence.

"We're only going down there for one reason, and that is to snap that streak," UConn guard A.J. Price said. "We had a chance last year; we let one get away from us and we were disappointed about it. So, it's a whole year later and we're going to go down there ready to play."

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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