The University of Notre Dame basketball team is your 2017 Maui Jim Invitational Champion. The Irish edged the Wichita State Shockers 67-66 in a thrilling title match up that stretched late in to Thanksgiving morning on the east coast.
I was up until about 3AM and have a Turkey Trot to get to this morning, so I’m going to keep it brief for now and we can talk it all through in the comments. Wow, what a victory. This was among the most thrilling games we’ve seen in ages. The highlight package doesn’t really do it justice, but it’ll try.
Notre Dame struggled throughout the first half to get stops, and WSU’s defense pushed the Irish out of their comfort zone. Mike Brey’s team was forced to initiate their offense high up the floor, and struggled to make any entry passes against the Shocker defense. However, this team has absolutely zero quit in them. They made the adjustments necessary. An even front (2-3) zone caused the Shockers issues. They settled for a lot more jumpers in the second half, and they finally stopped falling. Offensively, Notre Dame went to the horns look with two bigs to initiate offensive sets instead of motion.
More important than the X’s and O’s was ND’s willingness and desire to battle to the final buzzer. We could make a laundry list of incredible plays (and lucky ones) down the stretch. T.J. Gibbs’s banked 3 going down. Tournament Most-Outstanding-Player Matt Farrell’s steal. Martinas Geben’s heroic FT’s. Rex Pflueger’s tie up on the rebound to set up his perfect inbounds pass to set up his game-sealing steal. Bonzie Colson’s willingness to put a team down 16 on his back and drag them back. If ever there was a team victory, this was it. The leaders reflected on this in the press conference.
Statistically, the four factors bear out just how close this was. ND shot 52.9% eFG, WSU shot 52.5%. WSU got 35.3% of their misses to ND’s 25.9%. ND turned it over just 14.9% of the time to WSU’s 16.6%. That was a big factor. ND’s 6 steals helped make up for the extra possessions WSU was getting on the glass. Shockingly, in a game most ND fans would say saw most officiating breaks go the other way, ND’s FTRate (FTA/FGA) was the difference at 33.3% to only 8.5%. Defending without fouling in that zone was critical. If you really want the statistical story of this game, check out the win probability graph from KenPom:
Unreal… pic.twitter.com/H6hbucLg7s
— JoeSchu (@JoeSchuND) November 23, 2017
Looking forward, the Irish travel to East Lansing next week with a wheelbarrow of confidence and house money to play with. Winning in Maui certainly checks the box for “big non-league wins” when it comes to NCAA Tournament time. More importantly, the way Notre Dame won this tournament loads Mike Brey with a season’s worth of “we’ve been here before” huddles. I joked on twitter that anyone selling good red wine and cigars might need a resupply mission after Brey gets done with them Wednesday night. The Irish head coach certainly savored this one.
And you thought Maui Mike Brey’s sideline attire was casual …
MAUI CHAMPS!!!#NDinMaui pic.twitter.com/VDA32cCweH
— Notre Dame MBB (@NDmbb) November 23, 2017
The Loosest Coach in America game-situation-ed his way in to America’s heart with his t-shirts, smile, and enthusiasm for his team. He matched it with some masterful adjustments and empowerment of his smart, gritty, experienced seniors. His reward is a nice looking lei, a surfboard, and some nice additions to the trophy case back home. Go Irish!
There’s a rumor out there from unnamed sources that Jim Harbaugh is on the verge of getting a lifetime contract. I can only assume that the sources got the story half right, and Maui Brey is the coach actually about to get that deal.
One additional offensive adjustment worth noting in the 2nd half was that the ball handler on PnR was looking to throw back to the area they vacated. Much more drive and kick in the second half with the kick going back to where the drive started. Bonzie’s late 3 in all the highlight packages is a good example of that movement vs. our typical desire to kick it cross court in that situation. Great adjustment, and it happened so frequently, it had to be a coaching point at the break.
I truly still can’t believe we won that game, and don’t understand how we did it. Winning is a testament to the guys on the team, and their coach, neither of whom ever gave up. They definitely made me proud to be ND last night!
On the short list for all-time great regular season wins under Brey, for sure. You could tell this meant a lot to those guys. This team is just competitive as hell and has a unique edge to them.
I admit I was pretty bearish on Geben coming into the season despite his national team success. But he is so much better on both ends of the court than he has ever showed before. Just seems to have clicked with him. One underrated thing about him is that he always shows up in the exact needed spot to provide a release valve when the offense gets bogged down and resets things. Really happy to see his success so far because he’d really answer a lot of question marks we had about this team coming into the season.
Frustrated as all hell with Rex’s lack of offensive development but that dude just makes winning plays. I wish someone tracked total ground covered during games like they do in soccer. I’m guessing Rex would be way at the top of the list.
Bonzie should’ve been tournament MVP. Averaged 20 and 10 and was the best player on the court in the final. Not outraged by any stretch with Farrell winning it, just surprised that Bonzie didn’t.
Really anxious to see Harvey continue to develop throughout the year. Hope that Brey starts to trust him enough for 20+ minutes a game and to initiate more offense, especially when Farrell is resting. As for the rest of the bench, I imagine the three bench bigs are going to fluctuate quite a bit for awhile. Not sure we need one to emerge as the guy but it would be nice if we could sneak some more minutes from some combination of them. Brey did a pretty good job of resting everyone in the first half then rode his guys in the second.
What a great win. I’m still riding high off the game despite the sleep it cost me. Now need to find a way to get one of those championship shirts.
Happy Thanksgiving, hoops fans!
Wow! That was a great game! I didn’t think they were going to pull it out. But they were just grinding out there. Definitely worth the lost sleep.
One thing I’m thankful for this Thanksgiving: that nobody listened to me 8 years ago when I was telling anyone that would listen that Brey was maxed out and needed to be fired. What a win, what a team, what a coach. Buckle in kids, it’s gonna be a wild ride this year.
I’ll absolutely 2nd this. What he’s done with this program is nothing short of unbelievable. He found a way to slam through the ceiling I thought had been set for ND Basketball.
And the best offensive coach in the country just led a comeback win from a double digit deficit with an incredible zone defense (which I was calling for him to scrap 2 days ago). Mike Brey is a legend.
So when is the basketball version of Crossroads coming? Both the Men and Women’s programs deserve some nice things.
What a gutty win. No one can ever accuse this ND team of being soft. I hate to make judgments this early in the season, but this may be the best defensive team during Brey’s tenure.
I was also in the get rid of Brey camp after one of our several first round tournament exits. I could not have been more wrong.
The stats, so far, mostly bear this out. After Wednesday’s triumph, the Irish are ranked 38th in Pomeroy’s adjusted defensive efficiency. In the Brey era, their peak end-of-season rating was 43rd in 2008. That was the excellent Sophomore Gody team with Tory, Kurz, McAlarney and Ayers. Incidentally, that’s the team that got trucked by Tony Bennett in the NCAAT. The spent the season giving up 0.956 ppp. The edition is currently at 0.957 ppp.
This got me looking at KenPom. I believe after that game, both teams improved in those rankings. ND moved up to #2 in offense in addition to the defensive rating improving. And WSU moved up from #4 overall to #3. That’s one hell of a championship game.