There’s a saying in golf that goes: “There are no pictures on the scorecard.” Whatever it takes to get the ball in the hole. Mark down your score and move to the next hole.
Mike Brey and his Fighting Irish earned exactly zero point zero style points as they opened the NCAA Tournament Thursday. If you feared a hot Ivy team in a noon-time 5/12 match-up, collect your analysis prize for today. To call it frightening would be an understatement. I think it took a few years off of my life.
However, Notre Dame scored just enough of the points that matter and beat Princeton 58-60 to open the round of 64. South Bend’s Devin Cannady tried his best to give CBS the #narrative they clearly sought, but his late 3 was long and right. Steve Vasturia secured the rebound that sealed the Irish victory.
This was a pretty crazy game with a little bit of everything. Matt Ryan dunks, Rex Pflueger stitches, shady officiating, cheering broadcasters, missed FT’s, and a nearly 6 minute FG drought. While it wasn’t good for the cardiac health of Irish fans, it was enough to propel them in to the second round.
Numbers
For a game marketed as a showdown between efficient offenses, it didn’t really feel like that. Both teams played well defensively. Notre Dame managed 1.00 ppp while holding Princeton to 0.97. From a four factors perspective, the Tigers actually slightly outshot the Irish 44.2/45.6% eFG. The critical edge for Notre Dame was winning the turnover battle 10/15%. Those 3 extra possessions due to turnovers and Notre Dame’s 26/21% advantage in offensive rebounding percentage allowed the Irish to survive being outshot. Despite my howling about shady officiating in this game, the Irish dominated the FTRate 40/11%. Sadly, the Irish cashed in on only 14 of their 21 attempts, while Princeton was a perfect 6-6 from the stripe.
We need to be honest here. We came out of the Duke game thinking the Irish outplayed Duke and just needed a few clean looks to fall. If you’re a Princeton fan, you’re doubling down on that feeling right now. They managed to hit only 8 of 31 threes, for a paltry 28% after shooting 38% on the season. They just needed a few to drop to sink the Irish.
Performances
I know it is self-serving, but I’m putting Matt Ryan first. A few of us picked him as the breakout Irishman in this tournament, and the sophomore delivered in the first half. Ryan scored 6 first-half points without attempting a three-point shot. He had 2 dunks and sunk both his FT attempts. When the Irish had the floor open and were moving, Ryan looked great. He also did a good job low when Brey experimented with the 1-2-2 in the first half. Shame he didn’t see the floor in the 2nd. Sometimes America’s Loosest Coach ™ isn’t.
Matt Farrell put up 16 points on 6-9 shooting, including 3-5 from deep. He also dropped 4 assists and picked up a pair of steals. This is a case where I’m glad I look at the numbers before fleshing out my own #narrative. Like Mike Brey, I though he struggled, but that’s a decently efficient night against a decent defensive team. Brey absolutely ripped his Jersey PG apart with a little tough love before a timeout. Thankfully, as Luke Winn captured, Farrell has the toughness to respond.
The Irish were once again paced by Bonzie Colson. Despite looking slowed by his tender ankle, Colson scored a game-high 18 and picked up 7 rebounds. Let’s hope another day of ice, elevation, and time in the boot help the Irish MVP’s ankle. This wasn’t Bonzie’s most efficient performance. Fighting consistent double teams, he was 6-13 from the floor and forced a few looks. He was a disturbing 6-10 from the line. Let’s hope he can shake this one off quickly.
Speaking of shaking things off, Notre Dame’s senior leaders are very fortunate to be extending their storied careers. Neither Steve Vasturia or V.J. Beachem played a game that you’d want to see be the capstone of their time in an Irish uniform. Steve was 3-12 from the floor, scoring 10 points. He did a great job snagging 8 rebounds to lead the Irish. Steve was also very good defensively and secured the final rebound. V.J. Beachem did his best to assert himself in this game, and Princeton had a good plan for him. His 2 points on 1-9 shooting should have likely included more than a few looks from the FT line, but that wasn’t meant to be. The Irish are going to need more than 12 points from their senior captains if they want to realize the dream of a deep run in this tournament.
Got some stitches today but also got a W so it’s been a great day!🍀 #OTTNO pic.twitter.com/1pJc3m0KK4
— Rex Pflueger (@rexpflueger) March 16, 2017
Rex Pflueger personified giving it up for his team. The sophomore swing man received 6 stitches to the forehead and got back in the game in the same half. Rex was great on defense and scored 4 points in the first half.
Austin Torres contributed a very nice block in the first half. Marty Geben managed a nice put-back in his extremely limited action. T.J. Gibbs went for 2 points in 13 minutes for his first NCAA Tournament seasoning.
Big Picture
For about 30 minutes Thursday afternoon, Notre Dame looked pretty good. It seemed clear Bonzie wasn’t moving great, but they were doing enough to maintain a healthy margin over a worthy opponent. They were contesting shots around the rim and mostly getting out to shooters. The problem was that they could never shake the pesky Tigers. To open the second half, they got a patented kill, but couldn’t get a bucket to push the lead out.
Then, there was the patented ND drought. The Irish went 6 minutes in the second half without a FG. The stretch was plagued with very static offense and lacked of decisive cutting/movement.
The offensive game plan for Princeton wasn’t fantastic. The Irish didn’t take advantage of switches and infrequently ran their core floppy and pin-down initial sets with precision. Credit to Princeton’s defensive effort and game plan, but it was troubling to see the Irish lose their offensive flow.
I hope when the staff looks at the tape they note the difference in the two halves. Guys like Geben and Ryan can come in and give you good minutes in both halves of these games. Send them in and ask for 2-3 minutes of absolute max effort and movement. There’s nothing in the rules saying that’s exclusive to the first half.
The big thing to take away from Thursday is that Notre Dame used their defense to win an NCAA Tournament game. They held a potent offense under 1.0 point per possession. That’s a pretty remarkable thing to say, and it gives Irish fans hope. Defense can soothe over shooting woes and cold nights. Let’s hope this afternoon was a chance to get the misses out and the kinks out. Nothing better than winning and learning at the same time. The Irish should have a productive film session this evening and can work out some of these kinks before their round of 32 game Saturday.
We’ll have a full preview of the next opponent before the Irish tip off Saturday.
Complaints about the officiating aside(and I’ve never been a fan of basketball officiating personally) ND got super lucky to be moving on today.
Clearwall is complaining about the officiating so it must be serious.
Although I was chuckling at the “block” on Bonzie in the first half that they replayed a few times like it was a highlight and it was zero ball and all on Bonzie’s arm.
Followed on the other end by Princeton driving elbow-first into Pfluger.
@You can’t prove that Pfluger got hit in the head — no evidence. Sad!@
I’ve never liked basketball officiating as a whole. I’m not specifically complaining about THIS game as I am the profession in general. There never seems to be any real criteria that determines what is or what is not a bball foul. I see guys getting their hands whacked or getting run into in the lane and depending on who’s name is on the back of the jersey determines if it was an offensive or defensive foul. Bball officiating has always been way too subjective for my tastes.
Matt Ryan had 2 dunks. We won by 2. Coincidence?
I watched the whole game standing around and pacing. That was nerve-wracking. They missed *a ton* of very open looks from 3, even more than we missed against Duke (as Joe noted). Based on how they played, Princeton probably should have won today, and, if Bonzie is as limited on the glass on Saturday as he looked today, WVU could run us out of the gym. But they’re only up 8 with 4 to go, so go Bucknell!
Another way of putting it: we brought our C- game, Princeton brought its B game, and that was *just* enough for us to win.
I think someone mentioned this in the game preview – no matter what happens, the fact we got the double bye, won 12 games in conference, and got to Saturday in the ACC tournament constitutes a successful season. Tournament time is called madness for a reason.
However, I just want a run in this tournament so bad for our seniors – Steve and VJ have done so much for this program. I actually believe the attempts by WVU to speed us up will help us play our game better – we’ll know we have to pass and cut, rather than thinking we could go 1 on 1 against an inferior opponent during the 2nd half rough v Princeton. Survive and advance!
It me.
The best thing about winning that game is that they don’t have to hang a, “but they didn’t play to their seed in the tournament,” asterisk on the back of a wonderful season.
To their credit. Steve and VJ have always played above their seed in the NCAAT. Today wasn’t a pretty game, but no reason to give up hope or turn on the guys.
Still dancin’
What was with Bonzie going to the right side underneath the hoop to finish when there was a wide open layup on the left? The announcers were all over it the first time, but it inexplicably happened a second time too. I’ve never noticed, but does he just never use his left hand to finish a layup?
And was his ankle actually bothering him? I didn’t notice a limp or anything – though the announcers mentioned it when he (it wasn’t clear to me) maybe re-injured it. I really hope he’s fine. We need Bonzie playing his best.
The attitude in his answers in the press conference seemed to indicate that it is a problem. He’s working too hard to convince people it is fine.
That makes me a lot less confident against a good WV team. The other big 3 are going to have to step up big time.
I’m guessing he’s in the boot tonight and tomorrow. Hopefully, the treatment works.
Just to the eyeball test, it looked like it was affecting him. While he isn’t the highest jumper in the first place, it seemed like the barely got after rebounds. And on that one play where the announcers were speculating he very obviously winced when he made impact with his foot. Looked about 80-90% (if 50% or worse is “clearly shouldn’t play”). Hopefully gets closer to full speed with a couple more days.
Thanks to the Big 10 for allowing the only upsets of the day. I know, efficiency numbers, vegas lines indicated these weren’t much of upsets but Minnesota and Maryland still had that 5 and 6 in front of their names.
Thoughts on this game…we scored more points than Princeton. We left so many points in the paint out there, I think the fact that Ryan got 2 dunks is indicative of that. Colson got way too cute on some of his finishes but was definitely hobbling running down the court. Luckily his style of play can survive a nagging ankle to an extent. Beachem looked lazy on his drives as if he didn’t expect Princeton to put up any resistance, instead he got blocked twice. Trick or treat Farrell was a net positive because of some big 3s.
Defensively, Princeton’s movement is hard to cover for 30 seconds, but I think we could have had 3-4 more steals on floating passes across the court. In the first half especially they missed a lot of open 3s, but that will happen when you’re playing in a hockey arena.
I expect a much better effort against WVU. Looks like we got the early game again. I see us jumping out to a lead, WVU pulling us back in and it being a dog fight from there. They got abused by Bucknell’s big man (he looked like a player to his credit). Colson should be able to do the same ankle willing. I like Steve to be better and help relieve pressure with his ball handling and I see VJs shots falling.
Friday is the day for upsets.