Notre Dame big man concerns Bulls

Stopping Notre Dame senior forward Luke Harangody is challenging enough, but the University of South Florida will try to handle the Irish's bruising big man shorthanded when the teams meet tonight at the Sun Dome.

The Bulls still are without sophomore forward Gus Gilchrist, who has missed the past five games with a severe right ankle sprain. The 6-foot-10, 245-pound Gilchrist was leading USF in scoring (18.8 per game) and rebounds (7.4) when he was injured in early December.

Harangody (6-8, 246) is averaging a double-double, with 24.3 points and 10.1 rebounds. He was named the Big East Conference's player of the year after his sophomore season.

"I've been more worried about Harangody than anything else," Bulls coach Stan Heath said. "He's a hard guy to play against. He scores in so many different ways. He's so relentless, especially on the offensive end."

Harangody isn't just a one-dimensional big man who stays close to the basket.

"He's so different. You see this big bruising body but he's got these ballerina feet," Heath said. "He's so good with his footwork the way he can put it on the floor. And now he's developed a 3-point shot and fadeaway shots, and he's getting so good at those things he gives you a dual threat - inside and out - to try to stop."

So how will the Bulls try to contain Harangody?

"We've just got to defend him with our team, not just one particular player," Heath said. "Nobody's going to stop him, we just want to hopefully slow him down a little bit and make him really work hard for the number of shots and scoring that he gets."

One player looking forward to the challenge of trying to contain Harangody is Bulls junior forward Jarrid Famous.

"That's why I wanted to come to the Big East, to go against a player like him and see where I'm at," said Famous, who spent the past two seasons at Westchester Community College in New York. "He plays hard every possession. He goes out there and gets it done. He's just an all-around great player. It's exciting to play against a guy like that.

"I just have to go out there and play my game; play physical, play strong. But we have to play team defense and play together. That's how you win a game, you play together."

USF (10-3, 0-1) and Notre Dame (12-3, 1-1) are trying to bounce back from losses in their last outings. Despite getting 31 points from Harangody, the Irish lost 82-70 at Connecticut, while the Bulls fell 73-52 at Louisville.

Heath said he likes how USF matches up against Notre Dame.

"Louisville's throwing 10, 11, 12 bodies at you; Notre Dame's throwing seven. We've got seven," Heath said. "We match up in some ways better. ... It's a different game that we've got to play and I think it's more suited to the number of bodies we have."

LEEMOW LEAVES: Sophomore guard Justin Leemow has left the team, Heath said Monday.

"Justin has decided to leave the team due to family and personal reasons," Heath said. "I think it's something he's been wrestling with. After the Louisville game we had a little conversation and he just felt that this was something he just needed to do."

Leemow, a native of Brooklyn, N.Y., averaged 2.4 points, 1.3 assists, 1.3 rebounds and 1.1 steals in 12 games this season.