The 2016-17 Notre Dame basketball squad survived their first true test in the Legends Classic semifinal, withstanding a late Colorado charge to advance to the tournament’s championship tomorrow night.
The Irish started the contest furiously, feeding leading scorer Bonzie Colson early to grab a quick lead. Matt Farrell looked extremely confident running the Irish offense, knocking down a couple of early threes and getting to the rim at ease. Farrell embodied the Irish’s confident swagger as they built a double-digit lead that they maintained to halftime.
While it looked like the Irish might coast to a convincing victory, the shots stopped falling as the Irish slogged through the second half. Despite keeping Colorado at arm’s length early in the second half, the Irish couldn’t quite find the key run to bury the Buffaloes, despite Steve Vasturia and V.J. Beachem’s best efforts.
In other Notre Dame news, Steve Vasturia did this a few plays earlier: pic.twitter.com/Fyk5Fr9hbg
— Basketball Society (@BBallSociety_) November 22, 2016
Put him on a poster! 💪 #SCtop10 https://t.co/GtQIJitLtS
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) November 22, 2016
Beachem’s obliteration of a dunk put the Irish ahead by 14 with 8 minutes left, and it felt like the exclamation point that could push the Irish across the finish line. However, that was not to be as the Irish promptly followed it with a brutal 4-minute scoring drought, allowing Colorado to pull within 6.
Crunch time got more interesting than the Irish would have hoped, but the Irish got a few big buckets to keep them ahead. Despite not having a great night shooting, VJ Beachem flashed his improving midrange game to end the Irish’s scoring drought and give the lead a bit of a buffer. Matt Farrell, having a career night, continually burned Colorado defenders on drives to the lane, notably hitting a clutch lay-up with 2:40 on the clock.
Colorado just wouldn’t go away, hitting some difficult shots to pull within 5 at one point. However, the Irish were unfazed at the charity stripe, going a ridiculous 27-29 (93%), with the only two misses coming from Austin Torres. A Steve Vasturia turnover on a baseline inbounds gave Irish fans one final heart attack, but calmly sunk free throws prevented Colorado from ever getting within one possession.
Big Day for Matt Farrell
Matt Farrell had indisputably the best game of his college career, setting career highs with 20 points and 6 assists to along with 0 turnovers and 7-13 shooting. What impressed me the most about Farrell’s performance was his ability not only to penetrate the lane, but to finish at the rim. Mike Brey has always loved Farrell’s driving ability, noting it as one of the key reasons he introduced him to the starting lineup last postseason. Tonight, not only did he break Colorado’s perimeter defense, but he made them pay at the rim. He also had some characteristically good passes, finding Beachem in the corner to set-up his monster dunk, and getting the ball forward in transition for some easy buckets.
The only downside for Farrell tonight was his shot selection down the stretch. He over-dribbled and ended up took a few contested jumpers when the Irish offense was out-of-sync. I won’t fault him too much for chucking a little bit on a career night, but the Irish clearly need to work on their crunch time offense. Farrell also made a heads-up defensive play late on, diving for an inbounds pass in the backcourt, which was incredibly close to being a gut-punch to Colorado’s comeback. If Farrell can maintain this level of play, he may keep the promising TJ Gibbs confined to the bench in late game scenarios.
Crunch Time Offense
Despite the big-time win, the Irish will have to be a bit concerned with their late game offensive sets. In the past few seasons, the Irish had a couple of future-NBA point guards in Jerian Grant and Demetrius Jackson that could dribble down the shot clock before getting into the lane and either finishing or finding a wide-open look. Although Matt Farrell had a big night, he is not the kind of dominating point guard that can create single-handedly. The Irish will need to find a way to get some different looks in late game scenarios.
The Irish have two highly skilled scorers in VJ Beachem and Bonzie Colson, and they need to keep them involved late in games. Despite Bonzie being guarded by guards on some late possessions, the Irish ball-handlers weren’t able to find an entry pass to allow Colson to exploit the match-ups. While Beachem has never been a guy that looks to create his own shot very often, he has shown the ability to use his length and athleticism to get off decent midrange looks. The Irish didn’t do much of either of these things tonight, and Mike Brey will probably look to include his stars more in crunch time.
Shortened Rotation
This particular Irish team has earned some early hype as being Mike Brey’s deepest team in recent memory, as he has shown the willingness to give meaningful minutes to as many as 11 men in the Irish’s first three games. This changed drastically tonight in Brooklyn, with the Irish getting only 7 points from their bench, and Elijah Burns and John Mooney getting DNPs.
The chief benefactors of this shortened rotation were the Irish’s two most experienced 5s, Martinas Geben and Austin Torres. Each of them received their most minutes of the season, with Brey even playing the two alongside each other for stretches. In a way, these big lineups did their job, as the Irish surprisingly won the rebounding battle 41-38. There were a good amount of volleyball-type rebounds that bounced around for a while, and having true bigs out there helped the Irish to secure some big defensive boards. However, the Irish offense predictably struggled with the two clogging the lane. Austin Torres was particularly guilty on that side of the ball, missing all three of his field goal attempts and both of his free throws.
To remedy this, the Irish will probably allocate more minutes to Matt Ryan as he continues to work his way back from the injury that caused him to miss the preseason. He drained his only three tonight, but did not look great defending in the post.
Other options at the forward position, Elijah Burns and John Mooney, have shown flashes in the first few games, and could perhaps show more two-way potential than Torres or Ryan. We’ll see if either can use the remainder of the non-conference schedule to impress their way into the rotation.
The Irish will take on Northwestern for the Legends Classic championship tomorrow at 6.
Terrific post!
And very helpful personally as I live in France and don’t get to see a lot of the games unless they are on Armed Forces Network, which is rare.
It’s funny; in past years I’ve gotten mad that Brey hasn’t given enough time to bench players to help them develop for the future, but then I didn’t want Farrell playing last year. I just need to trust Brey. Farrell was incredible for 85% of this game.
That being said, he does need to work on his ability to recognize mismatches and feed the post. I don’t think Bonzie receive a single entry pass in the last 5 minutes.
I liked Brey going defense for offense with Torres and Rex down the stretch. When he has that many timeouts left late, he might want to consider doing the same with Gibbs and Farrell, as Farrell has a hard time staying in front of driving guards. Brey’s teams have never been great at the defensive end when trying to ice a game, always just trusting that they will hit their free throws. It would be nice to be able to mix in a few stops.
Impressive win against a big team, leading the entire way. Hopefully the same energy is there tonight against Northwestern. It would be great to wrap up this early season stretch with wins against both the Pac 12 and Big 10.
First game I’ve gotten a chance to watch this year. Farrell was excellent, creating points out of nothing on a couple key possessions where an extended scoring drought would have killed the lead. And here I was thinking TJ Gibbs would be the starter by conference play…
On the negative side, there were a lot of missed points around the rim that could have kept this from sneaking back into single-digit territory. That may be where the team misses Auguste even more than on the glass.
I love watching Colson’s turnaround jumper. Vasturia and VJ’s highlights were obviously awesome as well. Really good win to kick off a little competitive basketball. This team will definitely still be fun to watch regardless of where their ceiling ends up.
Farrell had a great game. It looks like he worked hard on his finishing around the rim, as last year he got plenty of penetration but then would fling up a wild shot at the rim. He looked in control with both hands at the rim. He also didn’t go airborne on his passes as much, which is going to help cut down on turnovers.
But…Gibbs gives you so much more defensively and I honestly feel more comfortable with him handling the ball as well. Farrell has a high dribble and has a lot of wasted fancy dribbles that don’t get him anywhere. Top notch ACC guards are going to pick his pocket 2-4 times a game. His jumper is not quite consistent and he takes a lot of heat check shots that make you cringe. I still think he deserves 25 minutes a game at this point, but wouldn’t want him seeing 35 on most nights.
Beachem and Bonzie keep shooting. These guys are so good on offense. Defense is still a work in progress, it seems like they still play for the highlight block at times. Steve is solid and knows his role so well.
Geben and Torres, too many missed bunnies. They were in position and working hard, but if these guys can’t finish, they need to see their minutes decrease. Missing Auguste for sure.
Ball security, FTs, rebounding all looked better as well.
On to Northwestern.
Farrell and Geben both took big leaps forward. Gibbs looks great already…I wish he had more minutes. Ryan also really should have gotten more playing time. I couldn’t understand Torres’ minutes…he was doing nothing against Johnson or any of their big men. I know Geben was getting into foul trouble, but there were times in the second when both were on the floor.
Does Colson have a doctor’s excuse to skip out of leg day? He looks even more asymmetric than last year.
Very nice win with another sneakily tough battle tonight. Bringing home a trophy, even one as modest as this would be, would be an excellent start to this season. Would feel a hell of a lot better than last year losing to Monmouth and Alabama in Orlando.
Northwestern is a good team; Collins has recruited very well since he took over and looks to have his program in a better place than any of the other Illinois schools. That they won in a blowout last night is a little fool’s gold; Texas is young, turned the ball over a hilarious amount early, missed a ton of free throws, and completely lost their cool. Still, they’re good, possibly tournament good, and would represent another quality win if we can get it.
Would really like to see more Ryan and less Torres tonight, given that NW isn’t quite as long or athletic down low. I hate to be harsh, but Torres has got to be out of the lineup by ACC season. The spacing was a bit of a mess in the second half, and we just had too many wasted possessions. Too reliant on individuals making plays rather than the flow of the offense, and I think the low assist rate reflects that. I like that we have a few guys who can see and make those plays going to the basket on their own, but we’re going to need more than that in ACC play. Ryan can help with that a lot (Doris had a nice breakdown of the set that led to Ryan’s three last night – THAT’S what our offense is supposed to look like).
I can’t help but feel that it is not coincidence that Ryan hit a three when he came in and almost immediately went back to the bench. I think Brey is trying to “train” him to avoid his shoot-first mentality.
I really don’t think that’s it at all. Colorado was huge and Ryan couldn’t hold up down low. I’m pretty sure the opposite is true. Any time Ryan gets a look at the rim, Brey wants him pulling the trigger.
Why pull him, then? If he comes in, hits a big three…has a hot hand…I’d much rather have his offense despite his defensive liabilities. I mean, it’s not like Torres was doing much defensively (and nothing on the offensive end). Why play Torres and keep Ryan on the bench unless Ryan did something Brey was upset to see?
Because having big dudes beat up on a guy coming back from injury probably seemed like a bad idea to Brey. Not sure why he would be mad about Ryan taking and making an open look in the flow of the offense.
Really I just can’t remember Brey ever pulling a player for taking a bad shot before. Ever. Hell, Farrell took at least 3 dumb pull up shots early in the shot clock and missed them all. Brey wasn’t even thinking about pulling him.
I just don’t see it. It’s not in Brey’s bag of tricks.
I think he wants to see more of Torres against real opponents before he permanently pulls the plug. This was a good opportunity to keep him in there up double digits most of the night. I think if Torres doesn’t shape up by Christmas time, he’s not going to be seeing much time in ACC play.
Brey also wants to make sure he rewards veterans who have spent their time grinding in practice and on the bench. This seems plausible to me.
But I want to see more Ryan too.
Yeah, I feel like this is probably pretty close to Brey’s thinking. He seems to know that Torres’s role is just an energy guy, and I think Ryan would have gotten the bulk of the Torres minutes had he been completely in midseason form. At the same time, I think he likes giving vets like Farrell, Geben, and Torres minutes early to keep them involved, even if he might go to more youthful lineups in the ACC season. Farrell and Geben rewarded that confidence last night, Torres not so much.
I wholeheartedly disagree with the concept that Ryan would ever be pulled for ripping an open 3.
This was all about the opponent. Colorado wanted to crash the offensive glass, and Torres was needed to help play volleyball while we kept all 5 on the defensive glass. You saw as much when Brey absolutely ripped Torres after CO got an offensive board. It got him yanked from the game. Ryan doesn’t have the springs to get in a tip drill with the athleticism CO put on the floor, so Torres got the minutes.
Purely situational. No way Brey chastises Ryan for letting it fly. In fact, the opposite is far more likely.
Yeah torres is a black hole on offense – I do somehow feel better this year with Geben as our big man rebounding on the d-block than Auguste. Although this is only over a small sample size – check with me again in february.
I don’t know what happened to our offense late game – it’s as if something just clicked on the team and everyone expected DJ, who wasn’t there, to dribble to the hole. This needs to change, or else we’ll lose a fair amount of games in crunch time. I have only limited basketball experience, but is there a reason teams just lose any offensive flow come the end of the game (better defense perhaps, nerves?)
Ask Brian Kelly why teams lose steam at the end of games and stop scoring.
Trying to use all 30 seconds of the shot clock is another reason. The defense can defend much differently if there is really no threat of a shot for the first 20 seconds, or worse if the PG is dribbling 25 feet from the rim.
There are actually 3 pretty simple answers to this:
Fourth bonus reason: They missed a lot of bunnies around the rim. Torres needs to either dunk it home or kick it out. Nothing in between.
Agree, #TrustBrey. Can’t believe how good Farrell looked!
Matt Ryan, 6 minutes of PT? So weird. I thought he would be better this year, and hopefully he still will be.
See above. Brey favored rebounding over shooting vs. their lineup.
Is Beachem in prison? Because he straight up killed a man last night.
The sluggish last 10 minutes was mainly Brey- he does this all the time with his teams and then relies on FT shooting.
So we get Farrell pounding the ball and then having to take shots. Why not move the ball the way they did the first 30 minutes.
The first half the shooting was great, and it went away in the second half. The key in the second half were the fast break chances. Really like the way Farrell pushes the ball.
The Vasturia turnover was awful- he should know better. While ND was hosed on some calls, they dodged a big bullet Bonzie was not called for fouling King.
If Torres is on the court and the other team has at least 6 fouls, he should be hacked. To not do this would be coaching incompetence. He makes Deandre Jordan look like a good FT shooter. The other problem with Torres is he is usually bad rebounding position and relies just on his athleticism. Note to Brey- there are 2 other options with plenty of potential.
The missed 2 footers by ND (Torres, Geben, Colson) were a killer and made the game closer than it should have, but this sequence was terrible defense. These were all wide open treys allowed. Perhaps there was too much help on Derrick White?
10:25
George King made Three Point Jumper. Assisted by Derrick White.
64 – 51
10:03
Steve Vasturia made Layup.
66 – 51
play
9:56
Bryce Peters made Three Point Jumper. Assisted by Derrick White.
66 – 54
9:28
V.J. Beachem missed Jumper.
66 – 54
9:28
Derrick White Block.
66 – 54
9:28
Derrick White Defensive Rebound.
66 – 54
9:18
Foul on Matt Ryan.
66 – 54
9:15
Xavier Johnson made Three Point Jumper. Assisted by Derrick White.
66 – 57
A lot of the issues with the last few minutes were bizarre calls by the refs, too. I feel like Rex had a target on his back not seen since Burgett left.
While I think Gibbs is going to be great in time and he looks physically ready to play, I don’t understand the glowing praise. I feel that the offense just isn’t as fluid with him at point right now. Compared to other highly regarded freshman guards I’ve seen play this year (UK’s Monk and Fox, KU’s Jackson , and Marquette’s Howard), he looks clearly a ways away from contributing at their level.
Not down on Gibbs, just not as high as others.
I think his perfect-shooting debut in the exhibition season probably fueled a bit of the hype, as did the latent mistrust in Farrell. Thankfully, Farrell is proving his doubters wrong. TJ wasn’t nearly the high profile recruit that the guys you list were coming in to school. Those things likely combine to have TJ brought along a little slower than we assumed a few weeks ago. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as long a Farrell can continue to be solid.