Russell Carter, Jermareo Davidson, Notre Dame

1. Russell Carter was some kind of on fire tonight, huh? Twenty-seven points on 9-of-17, including 6-of-12 from deep. He deserves a lot of credit for Notre Dame's 99-85 win over top-five Alabama.

Mike Brey had better watch Carter carefully, though. Some of the shots he took were downright ridiculous, given the situation in which he took them. Turnaround threes, a stepback early in the shotclock, etc. It's the same sort of thing he did on Sunday in the win over Maryland. Against the Terps, with the Irish struggling offensively, Carter went into "do-it-myself" mode. On multiple occasions, he tried to beat his defender off the dribble, failed, went up from 15 feet anyway, and hung in the air to wait for the defender to land before putting up a nearly impossible shot.

The only real difference on Thursday night was that he made many of the bad shots he took.

I can understand why Carter is looking more for his offense this year, as he is one of only four or five players whose names I recognized when I looked at the Irish roster for the first time. However...

2 . Carter has a surprising amount of help this year. In their last two outings, they've shown remarkable ability to score in bunches. They appeared to be no threat to Maryland over the weekend, trailing by seven midway through the second half and just generally foundering on offense. But Carter went to the bench, the Irish tied the score, then went ahead on eight straight points from McAlarney.

Tonight, they scored something like 20 points in the final six minutes of the first half, and continued that offensive prowess through much of the second half. When Alabama cut it to three late after a couple poor decisions by the Irish against the Crimson Tide fullcourt pressure, Notre Dame got a handful of buckets in quick succession, icing the game.

With the way the Irish shoot -- off the top of my head, McAlarney, Carter, Colin Falls, Rob Kurz, and Luke Zeller are all dangerous on the perimeter -- there's no reason for someone to dominate the ball the way Carter was dangerously close to doing. The team was clearly better without him on the floor over the weekend, and while that wasn't the case tonight, that had more to do with him having a hot hand than a cool head. Hopefully, he won't let this performance convince him that he needs to be taking even more shots.

3. Jermareo Davidson probably has the nicest set of post moves I've seen this year. As Jay Bilas mentioned, Davidson's best shot is the turnaround over his right shoulder, on which he uses the board extremely well. I also liked his baby hook, and he even showed an up and under (he blew the shot, but the move was fundamentally sound).

It's odd, too, because Davidson isn't built like a traditional low post operator, despite his old school arsenal of moves. He's 6'10", but weighs just 220 pounds, a lithe, rangy 220. He looks like one of the perimeter-oriented bigs that are so prevalent these days, but his game is decidely post-oriented -- although he can step out and hit a jumper. He lives up to his end of the bargain on the glass and on D, as well.

(And 1) Caught Oak Hill Academy vs. Norcross tonight in a high school 1 vs. 2 matchup. A lot of big-time recruits on the court, and all impressed. But for those of you who do follow high school hooops, keep an eye on Norcross point guard Taariq Muhammad. A sophomore surely playing on the biggest stage of his career, he came out confidently, getting to the bucket and finding open teammates.

He didn't end up with a huge game, and he certainly wasn't close to the best player on the court. But he's a guy who I wouldn't be surprised to see among the class of 2009's best lead guards by the time he's done.