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.

 

 

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.