April 11, 2009
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Luke Harangody (Schererville, Ind.) has added another All-America honor this season as the Irish junior was named to the State Farm/NABC Coaches’ All-America third team. This is the second year that Harangody has earned All-America honors from the National Association of Basketball Coaches as he garnered first-team accolades a year ago.
Blake Griffin of Oklahoma headlined the first team and was joined on the squad by Stephen Curry of Davidson, James Harden of Arizona State, Tyler Hansbrough of North Carolina and Hasheem Thabeet of Connecticut. The second team was comprised of DeJuan Blair of Pittsburgh, Sherron Collins of Kansas, Ty Lawson of North Carolina, Jodie Meeks of Kentucky and Jeff Teague of Wake Forest.
In addition to Harangody, the third team was made up of Darren Collison of UCLA, Gerald Henderson of Duke, Jerel McNeal of Marquette and Terrence Williams of Louisville.
Named to the John R. Wooden All-America Team for the second consecutive season, Harangody, a two-time first team all-BIG EAST honoree, earned a spot on Dick Vitale’s All-America unit and was a second team Associated Press All-America honoree. He also earned second team accolades from the United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA).
Harangody became the first player in BIG EAST Conference history in 2008-09 to lead the league in scoring in back-to-back seasons and is the only player nationally this season to rank in the top 10 in both scoring and rebounding.
In leading the Irish to a 21-15 overall record and semifinal appearance in the National Invitation Tournament, he averaged 23.3 points and 11.8 rebounds. In conference play, he netted 25.2 points and 12.8 rebounds.
Harangody set a Notre Dame single-season record this season with 25 double-doubles and ranks fourth with 50 career double-doubles all-time. Earlier this season, he became just the seventh player in the 104-year history of the Notre Dame basketball program to score 1,500 points and grab 800 rebounds. He currently has 1,823 points and 949 rebounds in three seasons in an Irish uniform.
Harangody has reached the 30-point plateau on six occasions during the ’08-’09 campaign. His high-water mark was a 32-point effort against Louisville. He has grabbed 15 or more rebounds 10 times during the season, including a season-best 17 boards on three occasions.
In his three-year BIG EAST career, the 2008 BIG EAST Player of the Year has scored 1,031 points (19.9 ppg) in 52 league contests. Only three other players in BIG EAST history – Ray Allen (Connecticut), Richard Hamilton (Connecticut) and Pat Garrity (Notre Dame) – have scored more than 1,000 points in three seasons.