Mission number one on Wednesday night for the Fighting Irish basketball team was to secure their 12th ACC victory. Mission number two was to send off seniors Steve Vasturia, V.J. Beachem, and Patrick Mazza in style. Check and check. The Irish defeated Boston College 82-66. The comfortable margin allowed Mike Brey to insert Patrick Mazza, a young man with the distinction of walking on to both ND football and basketball, into the game. The Legion called for him, and the Notre Dame head coach answered. Mazza might not have had the smoothest few minutes on the floor, but his emphatic dunk brought the house down.

We here at 18Stripes will have many more words to spill in appreciation of Steve Vasturia and V.J. Beachem once their illustirous careers finally come to a close. For now, let’s just take a peek at how ND secured 2nd place in the ACC standings.

Slow Start

Just like the trip to Chestnut Hill, Wednesday night started with an uneven Irish performance. At one point, I found myself questioning if Beachem’s flu was making its way around the squad. The Irish found themselves down seven after a Jerome Robinson three with 7:15 remaining in the first half. From that point, Notre Dame ripped off a 15-0 run. Sparked first by a T.J. Gibbs steal and Beachem dunk, the run propelled the Irish to an eight point halftime lead.

Notre Dame pushed the lead to 12 early in the second half, only to see it cut in half by consecutive BC threes. Thankfully, the Irish responded quickly with a run of their own and pushed the margin back over double digits, cruising through most of the last 10 minutes.

Numbers Breakdown

The Irish put up 1.168 ppp against BC’s defense. a tad below their adjusted KenPom rating. Defensively, they held BC to only 0.940 ppp. From a four factors perspective, the Irish dominated all around. They outshot BC by a a healthy 53.7 to 49.2 eFG margin. They turned it over on 10% of possessions to BC’s 22%. They gathered 30% of their own misses to BC’s 22%, and their FTA/FGA rate was 20.6% to BC’s paltry 13.3%. Notre Dame did a good job holding a team under 1.0 ppp without fouling.

By far, the saddest number of the night was ND’s 9-14 (64%) performance from the FT line. There were a number of uncharacteristic misses from the charity stripe. Any hope of catching the Harvard record is likely gone after Wednesday’s 5 misses.

Individual Performances

The Irish story begins with the play of Bonzie Colson. National guys are finally paying some attention:


Again, we’ll be revisiting Bonzie’s case for ACC PoY in a deeper article, but Wednesday was the perfect microcosm. Colson’s stat line is amazing: 18 points on 7-18 shooting, 11 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 blocks and a steal. Bonzie Colson is a warrior.

Colson’s classmate, Matt Farrell, had another very uneven performance. The junior PG scored 14 on 5-11 shooting. Once again, he hit some big 3’s when the Irish needed them most. Once again, he struggled on defense, committing 4 fouls and frequently losing his man on that end. He was only charged with a single turnover, but there were several challenging moments where he had balls defelected or mishandled. Farrell has been a great leader and contributor, and no one can question his heart and effort.

Welcome back to the party Marty Geben. While it was clearly senior night, the junior from Lithuania found ways to contribute in his 10 minutes of playing time. It will be interesting to see if Geben can secure a place in the post season rotation with tonight and another opportunity in Louisville.

Sophomores Rex Pflueger and Matt Ryan also saw extended run. Interestingly, Ryan exceeded expectations on the defensive end with some tough play and good rebounding. Pflueger scored six and contributed an assist and 3 boards.

Freshman T.J. Gibbs was aggressive on both ends. His active hands led to several BC turnovers, and he frequently attacked the rim. You’d love to see TJ finish a little more consistently, but he’s moving the ball and deforming the defense – both of which help the Irish tremendously.

Of course, then you have your two senior captains. Vasturia had another steady, smooth performance. You’d like to see a few more shots go down for the Jersey product, but he still scored 10 and pulled down 5 boards. Beachem was very aggressive hunting his shot and putting the ball on the floor. It looks like the calendar has flipped to March and Beachem rang in his favorite month with a game-high 22. When V.J. is looking athletic and aggressive, it bodes very well for this Irish team.

Final Thoughts

The Irish are now riding a six game winning streak into their final ACC regular season showdown with Louisville. Notre Dame sits in 2nd in the ACC with 12 wins – a number that exceeds preseason expectations. A win in the Yum! Center would guarantee the Irish a double bye in Brooklyn and give ND a chance at sharing the regular season ACC title. A loss in Louisville requires Notre Dame get a little help to secure the double-bye.

On the one hand, you could call ND the hottest team in the toughest league in the country. You wouldn’t be wrong. On the other, 5 of these six wins come against opponents in the bottom half of the standings, and FSU can’t seem to beat good teams away from Tallahassee.

Boston College doesn’t represent a good enough measuring stick to know if the Irish are simply riding an easy schedule or playing great basketball. The true test for Mike Brey and has charges comes Saturday in Louisville.