The Notre Dame Fighting Irish haven’t won an early season non-conference tournament since Ben Hansbrough’s squad won the Old Spice Classic in 2010. On Tuesday night, that changed as after losing a double-digit second half lead, Matt Farrell converted a layup while getting fouled to retake the lead with just 14 seconds left. The Irish defense was able to get a final stop on the Wildcats, and a couple of Farrell free throws iced the game and the Legends Classic Championship for Notre Dame.
There’s a lot to talk about with this one, so let’s get into it.
It’s Matt Farrell’s World
Farrell was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, an obvious choice after his clutch play down the stretch. Over the tournament’s two games, Farrell scored 38 points, had 12 assists, and turned the ball over just once. It was a stunning performance from the junior point guard, especially for many of us that have been eager to usher him out of the starting lineup in favor of freshman TJ Gibbs. After the last two days, what Mike Brey has known for awhile has become exceedingly obvious to all of us. Matt Farrell is going nowhere.
I was ready to jump all over Farrell for blowing a 3-on-1 fastbreak a little bit into the second half that turned into a three on the other end for Northwestern. That five-point swing closed the game back to a seven-point Irish lead, and most of the remainder of the game was as close or closer than that margin. It would have been silly to do so; there were a million things the Irish could have done to take back control of the game. Regardless, Farrell atoned and then some with his key plays down the stretch. A fastbreak alley-oop to VJ Beachem with 3 minutes left. His aggressive game-winning lay-up. The three free throws to ice the game, giving him the game’s final 5 points. It was a terrific performance, full stop. We’re all thankful for Matt Farrell this Thanksgiving.
Vasturia Finds His Mojo
There has been a lot of uncertainly surrounding senior Steve Vasturia, particularly following his struggles late last season. He answered a lot of those concerns in Brooklyn, especially in the championship game, as he turned in a nice 18-point, 8-rebound, 3-steal performance. Vasturia joined Farrell on the all-tournament team. He shot 6 for 11, including 3 of 5 from three and a couple more nice drives to the basket. His shot looks better, with a little more arc, and he looks like he has a lot more bounce than when we last saw him in March.
Milestone Alert
With his 18th point vs. Northwestern Steve Vasturia becomes the 61st ND player to score 1,000 pts in a career. pic.twitter.com/EKRdjz3B4F— Notre Dame MBB (@NDmbb) November 23, 2016
Struggling Stars
It’s a good thing Farrell and Vasturia brought their A-games, because the leading scorers for the Irish really struggled in this one. VJ Beachem scored just 11 points on 3 of 11 shooting (and three missed free throws), and Bonzie Colson had 13 points on 4 of 13. Were they fatigued after big games the night before? Maybe (Doris Burke sure seemed to think so), and it’s not like the team is going to play on back-to-back days other than for (hopefully) the ACC Tournament. Whatever the reason, you expect better from your star players in big moments, so let’s hope it was just a one-off as these guys round into form.
So Do We Have Great Depth or No?
The Irish got just 8 points from their bench. Only Rex Pflueger played more than 10 minutes with 19. Matt Ryan and TJ Gibbs played 10, and Austin Torres played 8. I know this was a big spot and one in which Mike Brey just wanted to pull out a win and regroup from there, but he has got to find a way to get Gibbs more work, carve out a real role for Ryan, and figure out what he’s doing in the post. Brey acknowledged this post-game but clearly sees playing Gibbs, Burns, and Mooney more with a “getting young guys some experience” mindset rather than “guys who can contribute”. Same old Brey.
I hoped this would change some this year, but he tightened his rotation as soon as things got real. Brey did find ways to get breathers for his main guys throughout the second half especially, so that was good at least. Still, the post position does need some sort of solution, as Geben only earned 11 minutes and clearly seems like he will be a 10-15 minute guy. Is going small for most of the remaining minutes good enough? Probably not against some opponents. Will Torres be the guy when needed? I just don’t think that’s going to be good enough in the ACC slate. I think it’s obvious that this team will need Mooney and/or Burns at some points. Let’s hope Brey can find more ways to get them ready to genuinely contribute as the schedule toughens.
Great Start
To the extent you care about the hoops program, this was a pretty cathartic win on what was an otherwise bad day for Notre Dame athletics. It was a struggle, but these guys just found a way, and they did it with toughness, clutch plays, and a genuine commitment on the defensive end, just like last March. And though the Irish weren’t exactly in the best early season tournament, bringing home a trophy and starting the season 5-0 sets a great tone and has to have the team feeling good. No one really knew what to make of that 2010-2011 squad, and they really got the ball rolling with an early season championship. Will these guys do the same? Probably not to the same extent. But it’s becoming easier to envision this team having a great season and another great March.
The Irish have tough tests the next two Tuesdays, as they host Iowa for the ACC/B1G Challenge followed by Summit League favorite (and IU upsetters) IPFW the following week, with a couple of should-be walkovers sprinkled in. Can Notre Dame make it 9-0 after this homestand before heading to Newark to take on Villanova and Indy to play Purdue? What a start that would be.
I’m going to the ‘Nova game. I believe it is in Newark NJ, not Philly.
Indeed it is. Don’t go to Philly that day.
These classic Brey wins sure do get the heart rate up. Big lead thanks to beautiful offense, then a strange cold spell midway through the second half. Then, just when you’re about to lose hope, 5 or 6 fantastic defensive possessions to pull right back into the game, with clutch free throws at the end to seal it. The formula keeps working, even if I’m always sure that this is going to be the time it fails.
Great job again by Farrell. If he can keep playing turnover free ball on the offensive end, I can live with the defensive lapses. Incredible job by a guy I thought would be at 10 minutes per game by ACC season.
We really need to figure out how to work our way out of these offensive funks/droughts more consistently and quickly. In particular, we need to get Bonz a post touch, or get VJ a nice off-ball screen to get him moving. We get static for multiple possessions. I think I’m going to start coining “suicides.” When the defense gets 3 stops, Brey calls that a “kill.” A suicide will be when the offense comes up with 3 consecutive empty possessions.
All that said, what a nice win. It sucks consistently giving back double digit leads, but a little game pressure and trailing in a 2nd half is probably good experience for this group. It isn’t always going to be easy, and this team answered the gut check pretty well. This is certainly a likable group. Fun guys to watch and cheer for.
The other thing that merits documenting. I was dead wrong about Farrell. Those were 2 decent teams (bottom half of ACC quality) and he performed wonderfully. He’s going to be a valuable asset in ACC play.
Joe- I know its early and Farrell will come down to earth, but he has to be one of the most surprising players in the country.
He had 25 points versus 3 cupcakes and 38 versus two legit teams. Both CO and NW have the potential to finish in the 5-7 range in their conferences.
Getting worried about Rex and his improved offense. The defense is excellent, but that take to the basket was awful. Go strong or pull up- he did neither.
Matt Ryan- he better start shooting at least 40% on treys or there is zero reason to play him. Unless ND goes very small, he is not going to play much at the 3.
Brey noted he went for the win last night, but none of the big 4 (can’t believe I am type that now) should have played over 30 minutes in a back to back.
Torres made his 2 gimmes, but IMO his defense and rebounding is not good enough to justify playing 4 on 5. Last season it was “Free Rex”, this season there are 2 options with Free Burns or Free Mooney. It would be great to get them some time, because they could come in handy versus some ACC teams with size.
As grating as Doris Burke can be- she was spot on regarding her comments about VJ and the NBA wanting to see him play tough. He failed last night. Hopefully this was a major wake up call for him.
I can’t stand Tom Crean, but I am sure he could have vetoed playing in FW’s gym and he did not. Fort Wayne may likely be a bigger handful at home than Iowa (which has zero proven players other than Jok).
Agreed with the concerns about Pflueger and Ryan. Especially on the offensive end, we’ve seen almost zero outside of the “big four,” which I also can’t believe I’m typing. We need Pflueger to become a slashing threat, Ryan to start making threes, and for some big to step up. Lot of season left to go, and it’s been a good start, but the current formula isn’t going to last us through ACC play.
With respect to the back-up big conundrum, in my mind there are 3 possibilities how this could shake out.
1) Torres remains the first big off the bench for the rest of the season. Probably not ideal with his severely limited offensive game, but it seems to be where Brey is leaning right now.
2) One of Burns/Mooney goes off in one of the walkover games coming up and earns looks in meaningful games. I’m still hopeful this can happen, but who knows if they’ll get enough time to prove anything.
3) One of Burns/Mooney “pulls a Bonzie” and unexpectedly pulls through in ACC season, working his way into the rotation. I actually feel like this isn’t unlikely, especially if Torres has a couple of bad games.
I don’t mean to be overly critical of Torres because I actually enjoy watching him with such boundless energy, but he is just too limited to be leaned on for more than like 5-8 mins per game.
Big ups to Matt Farrell. If he can continue to shoot this well, he seems like he will be one of the better offensive PGs in the ACC, which is something I never really thought I’d say.
“And though the Irish weren’t exactly in the best early season tournament…”
Honest question: how (and how far in advance) do schools decide to participate in these tournaments? Is participation in a competitive (or less competitive) tournament at the school’s discretion, or is ND’s inclusion in this somewhat weaker field a result of poor performance at some point (I can’t imagine this was scheduled in the past 3 years if that is the case)? Just curious if anyone knows. Thanks!
It’s hard to say how it happens. I would imagine it’s a fairly complicated “first come, first served” set of negotiations, although all of these tournaments want to spread out their conference representation, so they are probably targeting a fairly manageable set of schools.
So schools are probably in conversation with a couple of tournaments and just have to figure out where they want to go and how they want to fit it into their schedule. Agreeing to the Legends Classic is a pretty safe bet to have 4 reasonably quality teams, and a school like Notre Dame probably doesn’t get strung along by the tournament waiting for someone higher profile, since it usually doesn’t get any of the blue bloods. Also, this tournament in particular is useful in that it helps fill in some of the riff-raff part of the schedule since teams like Seattle are also a part of it (but not in the main event).
It gets a lot worse than this one; there are some really bad tournaments, and plenty of teams get shut out entirely (whether by choice or not).
ND is in the Maui Invitational next season (honestly, the field kinda sucks given that this is usually one of the best every year – not sure what happened). Fields are announced 1-2 years in advance, so there isn’t that much lag time.