Due to a water main break near UNC’s campus, Notre Dame had to wait through a 19-hour postponement and relocation fifty miles up the road from Chapel Hill to Greensboro, but Sunday afternoon the Irish finally took the floor against the Tarheels.
Any good memories the Irish had left over from their 2015 ACC Tournament clinching win over the North Carolina on the same floor were quickly erased as Notre Dame fell into an early hole and were frustrated as every attempt to close the gap was held off by a North Carolina offense that seemed to score every time down the court. Ultimately, the Irish fell 83-76, moving them to 6-5 in conference and 17-7 overall. The loss is the fifth in six tries for the Irish who suddenly find themselves badly in need of a bounce-back effort after squandering a very promising start to ACC play.
All is not lost for the Irish, who now exit a very rough 3 week stretch of basketball against the conference leaders. What could have turned into an ugly blowout just a few minutes into the second half instead became a battle to the final whistle. Down by 48-63 with 12 minutes to go, the Irish picked up the intensity on the defensive end and worked to close the gap in a series of small runs. Steve Vasturia, T.J. Gibbs and Matt Ferrell combined to run off a quick 7-0 spurt to cut it back to 8.
After trading baskets and whittling the lead to 4, Vasturia allowed what looked to be a back-breaking bucket and foul to Tony Bradly (12 points, 5 rebounds) to allow the lead to creep back out to 75-68, but the Irish again responded with a Ferrell layup and V.J. Beachem three to cut the gap to just 2 with 4 minutes to play.
Unfortunately, that was as close as the Irish would get it, as a turnover and then missed three from Vasturia (9 points, 0/4 from 3, 3 turnovers) followed by a Matt Ferrell turnover allowed the Tarheels off the hook and push the game back out of reach.
It was the third straight poor outing from Vasturia who’s 1/13 from three and just 6/27 from the floor in that time. It represents an alarming drop in production from one of the proven and consistent leaders of this team and something that will need to get righted throughout the last month of the season if the Irish want to be a threat come March.
On the other side of Vasturia’s struggles, V.J. Beachem brought yet another good performance, leading the Irish with 20 points and reaching that threshold for the 4th time in the last 5 games.
Defensive Struggles
The main story of the game was a complete lack of ability to stop the balanced attack from North Carolina when they had the ball, especially in key possessions. North Carolina scored it’s 83 points on 68 possessions for an elite level 1.22 points/possession, right about their season average. North Carolina ended with 6 players in double digits, led by Justin Jackson’s 16 points and 4 rebounds.
The balance and efficiency was largely due to offensive rebounding mark that will make Irish fans cringe. Of the 35 Tarheel misses, 48% of them were corralled by the offensive team and served as a major boost to an average shooting performance otherwise. Kennedy Meeks managed 3 offensive boards (8 total) to go with his 11 points in just 16 minutes of foul plagued action before disqualifying himself on a charge. Isaiah Hicks added 7 rebounds with his 14 points as well.
When Notre Dame was able to get stops, they were able to climb back in the game, putting mini-runs together at points of the first and second half, but those stops were rarely strung together for a kill (Mike Brey parlance for 3 stops in a row) and it ultimately doomed the Irish.
What Does It All Mean?
Notre Dame heads back home for a Tuesday night tilt with Wake Forest. After the ACC rejected Notre Dame’s bid to move the game to Wednesday as a result of this weekend’s delay, the Irish will be on short rest in what has quickly become a near must-win game.
While the Irish’s schedule eases up a bit over the coming weeks, there is no true rest in the ACC and every win will be contested. With 3 games left vs. Boston College and Georgia Tech, the possibility still exists for Notre Dame to get on a run and land in the top 4 of the ACC to earn a double bye, but it will require a quick turn around to the form of the last few weeks.
A must win game on short rest against a team fighting for its tournament life. Not looking forward to that one.
Yep, I agree, it’s not an ideal situation.
On the flip side, we could probably argue that if this team has any guts and fight to it, this an opportunity for them to bludgeon a lesser team and “get right” before FSU comes to town next Saturday. How they come out Tuesday will say a lot about the long term prospects of this squad.
My big concern here is the short rest. Vasturia looks like the season is getting to him; he doesn’t seem to have the elevation on his jumper, and he can’t finish at the rim. It would be really nice if we could somehow get a big lead and give him a ton of rest. We need to get him right very very quickly.
Steve has played 90% of minutes in ACC games, but that’s actually down from 95% last year. His shot got so flat in the back end of last season, and it is looking really flat again. It would be awesome to find a way to have him play 30 a couple of times in the next few weeks.
Speaking of rest, because I like to harp on it and Brey likes to dismiss it…
The Irish have 3 of the top 11 guys in ACC % of minutes played. Onions is at 8, Farrell at 9, Beachem is 11th. We’re the only team with 3 in the top 15. We have 4 in the top 25 with Bonzie at 22.
Virginia has 1 in the top 25 (Perrentes at 24)
UNC has 1 in the top 25 (Jackson at 19)
Duke has 2
Louisville has zero
Whether it is correlation or causation. None of the top teams have 4 guys in that ranking.
Welcome to the team Zibby, hopefully the team starts shooting and rebounding a little better so you get to write lots of tournament game reviews.
I thought Farrell’s late turnovers were back-breakers. It looked like the moment sped him up a bit, and both were instances where he wasn’t probing the lane productively. It looked like he was trying to jam the ball into a crowded lane when the Irish needed to run some offense and shorten a tight game where the opponent isn’t great from the line and gets frustrated by long possessions.
There’s a really fine line between good Matt who picks his spots and keeps the ball (and team) moving and bad Matt that wants to ISO-ball you and jam it into unproductive trips in to the lane.
As we look at the balance of the season, it is pretty clear we’re going to have to start shooting the ball much better. The only way to stop bigger teams that go to the offensive glass is to hope we can turn them over enough to get a few more possessions. We were only +2 on turnovers in a 68 possession game. That isn’t enough to make up for giving your opponent nearly 1/2 their misses back as offensive rebounds. The only way out of that hole is to rebound better (unlikely) or outshoot your opponent so badly that they can’t keep up.
Interestingly, Mooney could help both columns.
Does this underscore how much more important it is for a Vasturia or a Rex to have a good game vs. Beachem having one? It seems like Beachem has turned it on as of late but we’re still losing games.
For example, when Vasturia is having a good game, he not only is scoring the ball, but he’s making assists, getting loose balls and playing good defense. He can still do those things when he’s having an off scoring night, but you would think they are diminished as well as his minutes.
When VJ is on, the scoring is a thing of beauty, but I’m not sure that it translates into him doing well in other areas and it doesn’t end up benefiting the team as much.