The cardiac kids did it again. It was seldom pretty on Saturday afternoon, but ACC wins are always a beautiful thing. Notre Dame took down the Clemson Tigers in yet another intense back-and-forth affair.
It wasn’t over until Matt Farrell knocked down an audacious NBA-distance 3 with 8 seconds remaining to give the Irish their 5-point victory. The crowd erupted as that rainbow dropped through the net as the Irish were assured a third straight win to start their ACC season.
It’s hard to overstate how impressive this 3-0 start to ACC play is, especially given how lackluster the Irish looked during the last two weeks of non-conference play. But here they are, at the top of the ACC heap along with a terrific Florida State team at this early stage of conference season.
Let’s get into it.
VJ’s Back
I think most of us around here knew that any dramatic reduction in minutes or any other changes for VJ Beachem was probably an overreaction. He was slumping, and it was getting hard to watch, but he’s a very good player and a great shooter.
We finally saw that VJ this afternoon, as he came out in a big way with a season-high 22 points in a game in which his teammates needed him. The only reason the Irish were remotely in this game by halftime was because of VJ’s shooting.
Beachem finished with 22 points on 8 of 14 shooting and 6 of 10 from distance. His best play was probably a 2-point basket made on the baseline in the second half. He had nowhere to go but was able to create some distance between himself and his defender and knock down an important midrange shot. He was also a very willing heads-up defender, most notably on Donte Grantham, who was pretty quiet most of the day.
This was a great, great sign for the Irish to see their senior captain look not just back to normal but exceptional. The criticism of him was getting a little too hyperbolic and even a little unnecessarily personal, so we can all calm down now. Hope we see some more of this VJ on the road these next three games.
Offense Out of Sorts
It seems odd. Notre Dame scored 77 points (1.08 ppp) against Louisville with a great game plan and a terrific offensive performance. The Irish scored 75 points (1.20 ppp) against Clemson without really looking right for most of the game. 15 3-pointers will do that for you, I guess.
Credit to them for bringing it from distance, but this isn’t really the Irish at their best. It’s easy to envision an early-round NCAA Tournament game that Notre Dame gets bounced with 32 3PA.
They were certainly much better in the second half getting the ball inside, whether with their lead guards or forcing it into Bonzie Colson, but even still it was more of a struggle than on Wednesday night, and the first half was borderline unacceptable.
I am very happy to be having this stern talk with them after a win, though.
Dr. Farrell, Mr. Hyde
Tale of two halves for the Irish point guard. He was terrible in the first half, with just 3 points and 4 assists to 4 turnovers. Like I said, the Irish were getting nothing going towards the basket, and it seemed like we were starting every possession with 10 seconds on the shot clock. Mike Brey even gave Farrell a hard time in his ESPN interview, saying that it looked like Farrell was “sleepwalking” through the first half.
But, as we’ve become accustomed to this season, Farrell turned in a spectacular second half, culminating in that bomb to seal the victory in the game’s closing seconds. 12 points, 3 more assists, and best of all, no more turnovers. The offense started to look right, too, and the lead guard deserves a lot of credit for that. I wish I could’ve seen what Brey told his junior point guard during halftime to change his performance around.
WATCH: Quick Play | Matt Farrell 26 ft. Dagger
VIDEO: https://t.co/qG5U8OS1Gi pic.twitter.com/RSlWEGaXYb
— WatchND by @stjoemed (@WatchND) January 7, 2017
Big Minutes for Rex Pflueger
Hard not to notice Rex’s 27 minutes in this one. He was his usual self defensively, which the Irish needed especially after a barrage of early 3s from the Clemson offense. But he was very noticeable on offense as well. Pflueger hit a big 3 early and a nice mid-range jumper off a Farrell skip pass in the 2nd.
His biggest play, however, was a beautiful assist to Bonzie Colson with just a minute to go off a great dribble drive. Pflueger doesn’t really penetrate the lane enough, but he made a big play with the game on the line to help give the Irish the lead for good.
Rex finished with 5 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 assists in an all-around nice game. Smaller shout out to TJ Gibbs, who turned in 14 minutes to spell Farrell during his struggles and made a couple of nice plays. Not his biggest contribution, but a solid day for the freshman.
The Other Stars
I would be remiss not to mention another Bonzie Colson double-double (13 and 12). That said, I do think Colson struggled mightily defending Clemson’s pick and roll attack. Steve Vasturia also never really got going, or at least not at the level he was at on Wednesday. Vasturia still finished with 14 points.
Jaron Blossomgame had 22 points and 8 rebounds for the Tigers. He has yet to beat the Irish during his Clemson career, but I’d be alright with never having to see him torch Notre Dame’s defense ever again.
Closing Thoughts
This was Mike Brey’s 700th career game as head coach. He’s won 469 of them (67%), with 370 of them coming as head coach at Notre Dame. He will almost assuredly break Digger Phelps’ school record of 393 next year. The only question is how far Brey will surpass the longtime Irish coach in the coming years.
That is win # 469 in game # 700 for @NDMikeBrey
Thanks for leading the best coaching staff to work for in the country. pic.twitter.com/9qBCDwks09— Alan Wasielewski (@NDmbbSID) January 7, 2017
Huge stretch coming up here for the Irish. Sitting at 3-0 right now is an absolute dream. This January is a nightmare of a schedule, and to get off to such a nice start surpasses most of our expectations. Now, Notre Dame heads on the road for three straight, and check out this nonsense:
Thursday night at Miami (7pm, ESPN), Saturday afternoon at Virginia Tech (2pm), then to conference co-leader Florida State the following Wednesday (7pm). Really? A Thursday-Saturday back-to-back, both on the road 900 miles apart? Couldn’t have at least grouped those two Florida games together? Thanks a lot, ACC.
If Notre Dame manages to win 2 of those games, then we might be entering a different territory in terms of what is possible for this team. Honestly, steal one of those games, and I think most of us would be reasonably happy with the 4-2 start.
As it stands, hey hey, Notre Dame is 3-0 and leading the ACC. What a start.
I still can’t really believe we pulled that one out. Just thinking about all the things that were going against us today: Farrell turning the ball over, Steve not getting anything to drop, Bonzie getting rejected at the rim, Clemson going through stretches where they scored at will, AND the refs seemingly swallowing their whistles on our attacks.
Despite all that, VJ’s great game and some huge plays down the stretch, and we got the W. Can’t wait to see the Road Dawgs next week, hoping to somehow grab 2 of these next 3 and move to an unthinkable 5-1.
Agreed, that felt like a game we weren’t going to win. Clemson is very good and late we couldn’t get a stop for a while. Kept going up 2 and they kept scoring. Got the key stops late though and first the Vasturia 3, the great dish from Rex to Bonzie, and that dagger by Matty! I want to get at least 1 of the next 3, 2 would be great!
Welcome back VJ!
This is the kind of game that gets me excited for this team. The blowout games where everybody is hot are lots of fun, but games like this get me excited for tourney time. Rarely will all of your players bring their A game on the biggest stage. It’s nice to see that different players can carry the load at different times, and it was especially great to see VJ step up in a big way while Farrell struggled in the first half. Fantastic W on a day where they could have just packed it in after the big early deficit.
RE: Brey’s 700th game.
I’ve heard in the past the idle speculation that Brey would be a candidate with Coach K retired from Duke. With Coach K’s health issue right now, is there a chance he’d be leaving sometime soon? And if so, do we put any stock in Brey as a replacement? I’d hate to lose him, but I could also see how taking over Duke would be attractive (though I hate Duke).
I’d be surprised if he left…I get the impression he prefers being in a program that has less stress to succeed. Plus, who in the world would want to follow K? There is absolutely NO chance to not be a failure relative to the predecessor. There’s only one direction for that program to go…down. Even if he were to have the same record there as he has had here the past few years, people would grumble that he hadn’t done nearly enough.
Whereas, I am personally ecstatic with how the program is looking lately.
It’s a good question. Money talks, and he’d probably earn 4-5x at Duke compared to ND. But I’m sure he’s very cognizant of the legacy he is building, so why not try to continue to build that? Make a Final Four at ND, you’re a hero. Make a Final Four at Duke, well who cares, why didn’t you win the championship? It’s a whole different ballgame. That could be appealing, but it could be not worth it to someone like Brey, too.
On Duke’s side, most of the conversation seems to be around their younger alums anyway. Capel, Woj, Collins, and Amaker. I’m not sure they’d really want to replace K with a non-alum coach nearing 60 years old.
You never know; I wouldn’t totally dismiss the possibility, but I think Brey will retire at ND.
Thanks guys for the responses. I’m inclined to agree that on the face of it, why follow a legend when you’ve got a nice thing going at a place that you’ve built, especially at his age, but wondered what was being said around the program/in the interwebz, since I hadn’t heard much about it recently. I’d feel bad for whomever replaces Coach K at Duke, except, well, it’s Duke.