Despite a nervous final few minutes, the Irish sailed to their 10th league victory on Saturday against the N.C. State Wolfpack. V.J. Beachem led the Irish with what felt like an easy, even boring, 27 points on 10/16 shooting, including 7/12 from deep. The Irish led throughout and used a 12-4 run over the last 4 minutes of the first half to take a 13 point lead into the break. They matched that run early in the 2nd half to push the lead to 23 before coasting the finish line and holding off a frantic N.C. State effort.
The Fired Coach Narrative
The story heading into the game was the firing of Wolfpack coach Mark Gottfried. Word began leaking out of Raleigh mid-week that he would not be retained for next season after missing the NCAA Tournament (presumably) for the 2nd straight year. After getting throttled by UNC on Wednesday night, the school made it official, but announced that Gottfried would stay on to coach the remainder of the year.
The obvious question for Saturday and the remainder of the season was whether or not the team would respond with renewed energy and effort. Gottfried seemed to think it was likely, given pre-game comments about how yesterday was the best practice of the season and that the team had “more winning to do.”
That hope from Wolfpack faithful seemed to diminish quickly. Despite the Irish back court playing without their usual efficiency, the Irish quickly built a small lead and held onto it. Ferrell and Vasturia combined to shoot 5 of 16 with 4 turnovers on the day, but 10 first half points from both Bonzie Colson and Beachem kept the Irish at distance.
Sleepy Second Half
Beachem kept his aggression after the break, knocking down 4th 3-pointer of the 2nd half to take a 59-36 lead. The hot shooting would disappear quickly after that though, as the Irish would shoot 6/21 the rest of the way. Once the buckets stopped falling, it was only a matter of time until the Wolfpack could mount a bit of a challenge.
N.C. State’s elite guard Dennis Smith had been held to a quiet game to that point, but he began to take over. He started by driving to the hoop for the bucket and the foul to cut the lead to 15 with just over 8 minutes left. He then grabbed his own miss on the next possession and got the put back to go and followed that up with another and-1, this time at the expense of Steve Vasturia.
After yet another Smith layup, Beachem got his 5th 3 of the 2nd half to go to stem the tide for the moment. It was a big shot at a crucial, nervy moment for the usually-steady Irish and hopefully the type of shot that sticks with the Irish with March around the corner.
From there it was a matter of running out the clock. NC State would get within 7 points at three separate occasions, but all with under two minutes on the clock. The always-good Notre Dame free throw shooting stayed the course and the Irish nabbed their 10th ACC victory with a 81-72 road win.
Rest for the Weary
It was obvious at numerous points during the game that the Irish have worn themselves down throughout the season. As has been mentioned before in previous recaps, our starters play long minutes and our rotation is fairly short.
Matt Ryan and Austin Torres both contributed useful minutes in the first half but each is a liability on one end of the floor if they play for very long. Martinas Geben did not play at all and appears to have permanently worked himself out of the rotation, especially in a match-up against talented big men.
Announcer Doris Burke mentioned a few different times during the first half that both Ferrell and Vasturia looked tired, without their usual bounce and the stat line showed it. Both worked hard on the defensive end, but a reduced workload for them could pay benefits.
The good news is that the ACC gave us a late bye again this year. With no games between now and next Saturday, plus two home tilts against Boston College and Georgia Tech, we’re at the perfect spot to get rested and healthy before a sprint to the finish line. Rust and complacency is always a concern, but you have to like where the Irish sit at this point in the season. In what was supposed to be a rebuilding year, the Irish have themselves in the thick of the ACC race poised to nab a double bye of things fall their way.
One quick note RE Vasturia: I was at the game live and watched several possessions just at Steve on Rowan. He probably ran thru 8 screens per trip. Took a lot of hits, yet gave Rowan nothing. You can’t see it or appreciate it on TV, but the work rate he puts in on D is amazing. He has every right to be tired. Here’s to hoping for productive rest.
I was worried for a while we were seeing the inverse of the 2015 game at NC State where we were down 19 in the 2nd half and came back. Thankfully it didn’t look like the Pack were well coached enough to pull it off. They have some really talented players, but their defensive effort and offensive shot selection, woof.
Just a solid win, and with FSU and UVA starting to fall off, we got a shot at a top 4 finish even at 12-6. One other silly point, if Louisville loses @ UNC, I believe we will end up as the only team in the ACC not to lose at an ACC campus venue in the state of North Carolina. Special thanks to the burst pipes in Chapel Hill.
HA! Tyler and I were in the stands saying the exact same thing. Oh, crap! This is what we did to them 2 years ago.
Was really happy to see Ryan have some success in limited playing time. Suddenly optimistic he can be a valuable 5th starter/6th man next year. He’s got talent but needs a full healthy offseason to really get his mojo back and find his way in this system.
I was disappointed in the 2nd half effort. Had an opportunity to put a bad, confused team away and let them right back in it. Settled for bad shots and couldn’t keep their guards in front of us. I know Brey was happy with the win and “always knew they were gonna make a run”, but they shouldn’t have. I don’t think I would have been quite so positive and, with the week off, might have used Sunday as a “conditioning” day. I would probably make for a terrible coach.
Best thing for next Sunday would be to see Vasturia have a nice, efficient game. Long week of rest should do more for him than just about anyone else. It’s an awkward day/time for a game, so hopefully that’s a bigger factor for the road team than our guys.
Rooting for chaos at the top of the standings all week!
Normally I’m jumpy, ready for the next game to come already. This week though, I’m very much looking forward to not having an ND game to watch. Going to spend a few nights settled in, just watching the ACC gauntlet through the eyes of the other teams at the top of the conference.
It’s crazy to think that there is still a legitimate path to an ACC title that doesn’t require any sort of ridiculous scenario to play out (even if it is highly unlikely to happen).
Agree on all counts with Ryan. A full off-season with the confidence of being on the “main guy” list is important for him. I still think that with this week off, he’s got a chance to settle in and be that late season “find” in the rotation. If he and VJ can space out defenses, that gives Onions and Farrell a lot more room to penetrate and keeps the doubles off Bonz when he goes to work low.
I rewatched the game last night and a few things stood out:
Defensively, we couldn’t keep guys in front of us. We switched anything that even smelled like a screen in the second half, and dead-coach-walking was smart enough to run a little weave motion until he got the matchups he wanted. A lot of that involved getting the speedy Markell Johnson going. That really ignited them. This brings up a major concern. If we’re tired late in the 2nd game of a tournament weekend, what defense do we play? When you’re comfortably ahead, you figure the only way they can make quick ground on you is from deep, so you probably stay man and run guys off the line, but if you can’t stop penetration, you still get scored on quickly. You can stop penetration with zone, but then do you just pray you can identify shooters? This is going to be a challenge.
Offensively, Brey seems to favor horns later in the game and when he’s burning vs. starting things with the pin-down sets. Personally, I think that is backwards. Horns is a more static look and is more reliant on Farrell as a ball-handler to move the defense. We got stuck a few times where we got static after horns because we don’t cut through and exchange like we do after the floppy/pin-down sets. I also thought Bonzie really rushed his attempts in the second half. I’m not sure why he got away from the patient ball fakes that worked so well the first twenty minutes.
Looking back, this could have had something to do with why we couldn’t hold leads early in the year. When they go in to lead protection mode, they have some poor defensive choices and seem to pick the more difficult offensive flow. Hopefully they can catch this in self-scout and get it worked out for the final push these next few weeks.