Notre Dame head coach Mike Brey announced today that senior forward Luke Harangody might not return this year due to a right knee bone bruise.
If that's the case, it would end the college career of a bulldog post player that made his mark in the toughest, underneath-the-basket conference in the nation-- the Big East.
Whether you love or hate "The Gody," his stats don't lie. He scored in double figures every game he played this season. He averaged a double-double with 20-plus points per game in each of the last three years of his career.
He may not be your typical Hoosiers-mold, Indiana player (6-foot-2 and skinny, growing up shooting jumpers on a farm through a hoop without a net), but that's why he's so perfect for Mike Brey's system. You need Luke to complement Brey's multitude of shooters like Ben Hansbrough, Tim Abromaitis and company.
I understand why a lot of people believe he can't succeed in the NBA. At 6-foot-8 and 250 pounds, a guy shouldn't shoot under 50 percent from the floor. He made a concerted effort to improve his 3-point shooting and I believe the 36 percent from his junior year is a better representation of what to expect down the line.
Harangody needs his knees under him, so this might be the best decision he ever makes. His style of play is so bruising that it can take the energy out of you while watching it. The argument that he's soft because he likes to shoot over taller players has merit, but in the pros, it could be an asset once he gets with a shooting coach.
I can't overstate how impressive it is for any Big East post player in this decade to score over 650 points in three consecutive years. With defensive presences like Hasheem Thabeet, Roy Hibbert and Hamady N'Diaye (yes, he of 346 career blocks) roaming the paint nowadays, it is a true display of Harangody's scoring versatility.
He won a Big East Player of the Year, was in the top 10 in Division I in both scoring and rebounding for an entire season and had 25 double-doubles in one campaign.
Talk about a loaded curriculum vitae-- one that should propel Harangody into the discussion about the most effective post players in the history of the conference.
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