Jan. 13, 2011
UND.com is debuting another of its new interactive features for the 2010-11 season, with its weekly Fighting Irish Fan Chats. UND.com will sit down for a live chat session with student-athletes, coaches and administrators making news in the world of Fighting Irish athletics. Fans are invited to join in and offer questions or comments for our guests, and if you can’t join us live, each chat will be archived so you can return to UND.com at your convenience and read what your favorite Notre Dame athletic personalities have to say on a variety of topics.
The Jan. 14 Fighting Irish Fan Chat will take place at 1:15 p.m. (ET) and feature men’s basketball senior co-captain and reigning BIG EAST Player of the week Ben Hansbrough.
Hansbrough earned the award for his efforts in wins over Connecticut and St. John’s last week. He averaged 23.5 points, 4.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 2.5 steals in the two victories.
Hansbrough netted 21 points, in addition to grabbing five rebounds and dishing out four assists, as the Irish topped the eighth-ranked Huskies 73-70. He also helped hold Connecticut guard Kemba Walker, the nation’s leading scorer, to an 8-of-23 shooting night.
In the 76-61 victory over St. John’s, Hansbrough deposited a career-high 26 points. He also had four rebounds, three assists and matched a career-high total in steals with four.
Hansbrough has reached double-figures in 10 of the last 11 games. He is tied for the team-lead in scoring at 15.8 points-per-game in addition to having team-best totals in assists (65) and steals (23).
This is the first BIG EAST Player of the Week honor for Hansbrough, who was named to the league’s weekly honor roll on Nov. 22. He was selected to the honor roll once last season, which was his first campaign with the Irish. Hansbrough is the first Notre Dame player to earn the conference’s player-of-the-week citation since Luke Harangody did so twice last season (Jan. 11 and Feb. 8).
The Irish are currently ranked ninth in the Associated Press poll and 11th in the USA Today Coaches’ poll. Notre Dame returns to action at Noon on Sunday, Jan. 16 when they travel Madison Square Garden to face St. John’s.
— ND —