I don’t really have much of a post-game recap in me after this one. Notre Dame is the best first half team in the country and, unfortunately, one of the worst in the second half of games. The Crossroads Classic was a major opportunity to pick up a resume-making non-conference win. Instead, the Irish blew it.
They let a 14-point halftime lead evaporate almost immediately, lost all focus on the offensive end, and had their defensive energy sapped, too. I’m not sure if it’s fatigue or adjustments or mentality, but something’s gotta change or this could start to get ugly in ACC season. What’s sad is that all of us writers predicted at halftime that this was going to happen.
Matt Farrell was excellent. Bonzie Colson was really, really good on one end of the court. Martinas Geben and TJ Gibbs contributed nicely in their roles. Steve Vasturia was, unfortunately, pretty terrible after a great 7-or-so game stretch. VJ Beachem was very good in the first half and disappeared in the second (the TV mics even picked up him yelling “Get me the [bleeping] ball” at one point).
Rex Pflueger was fairly invisible off the bench. Austin Torres did a few good things, and Matt Ryan air-balled the most important shot of the game.
It was pretty much a road game for the Irish. The crowd and the refs were both very into Purdue’s second half run and let everyone know about it.
If I keep going, Murtaugh will probably have to censor this post anyway. I’ll be back before conference play with (hopefully) some more measured perspective about what’s shaping up to be an 11-2 non-conference season. It’s a nice record, but it reminds me of ND football last year. Lost your only two real resume games and didn’t really have any strong wins to point to. It’s even worse because this hoops team led both by double-digits then let them get away. Sigh…
I hate the Crossroads Classic and never want to see it again.
Pretty spot on. Yes, the Irish didn’t play well in the 2nd half, but that doesn’t mean the refs have to be atrocious. Last week Nova 22 FT attempts to our 6 and today Purdue 23 to our 8. After the Ryan airball 3 Rex was blatantly pushed on the rebound, but the refs ignored it, and that’s only one of many bad calls. The one thing I will say is there are not many Josh Hart’s or Caleb Swanagan’s in college hoops and I know we’ll be okay. Just frustrating though.
Notre Dame sports are determined to kill me.
I’m not completely sure I’ve recovered from the bad mood this put me in Saturday afternoon. I had to go to a couple of Christmas parties and then golfed Sunday morning, so late Sunday was the first time I could really sit down and think about what I saw and how I’d recap that game.
I wish there was some grand statistical number or X’s and O’s feature that could capture what happened. I suppose we could try to quantify the performance and figure things out, but I’m becoming quite convinced that it isn’t that complicated. They’ve consistently stunk coming out of halftime all year. If I get some free time this week, I’ll write up some reasons for what I see and what I think is happening, but for now, it feels like they crapped the bed on national TV versus a lowly Indiana based B10 team in this stupid Crossroads thing – again.
The good news is that you win tournament games in March, not December, so that’s not tragic – unless, of course, you’re paranoid about our chances to make it thru the January slog with our tournament bid in tact.
I was at the game, so I never did get to see a replay. Did Ryan airball that 3 by about a foot? It looked like it wasn’t even remotely close.
That first half was fun. Is Brey taking his foot off the gas in 2nd halves of games? Is our defense just collapsing as we get tired, leading to fewer transition opportunities? It seems like there’s not just 1 thing killing us in the 2nd half of games, which is scary as we prepare for ACC play.
To your first question: It might have been 2 feet.
To your second: I’m going to put together something later this week to discuss it. It feels like a pattern comprised of a number of things.
I’ve never seen that kind of effort out of Vasturia. He always seems to be a constant, never going to truly take over a game but will always be good. Not only were his shots not falling, but there were a couple of times on rebounds/loose balls where he just stood around and watched.
Beachem…great scorer at times but this guy seems like he does none of the little things well. I would take consistent defensive position and getting back on defense over the occasional spectacular block from behind. I would take garbage 5 footers and easy buckets over the occasional spectacular dunk. That half court violation after Farrell worked his butt of to save the ball was so frustrating.
Geben did his best, but I really am worried about any teams going forward that has a post presence with even some skill and size.
Swanigan is a top-flight post presence. In terms of traditional back-to-the-basket bigs, this game was as tough as we’ll see all year. That’s why I’m so impressed with Geben’s effort. If anything, Brey underplayed him in the 2nd half. He’s been a massively pleasant surprised.
I think last night also sold me on the fact that VJ just isn’t an NBA level stud. He had an opportunity last night from about 3 feet with a smaller guy on him and just slithered up a lay-up that rolled off. If you have NBA level athleticism and attitude, you square up, gather, and dunk on a fool there. He’s just not that kind of guy. If he can take care of the ball, stroke 3’s and get in a defensive stance, he’s a big contributor to this team. Thankfully, Farrell’s emergence and Geben playing fairly well means we don’t need him to be a lottery-level guy to survive. He just needs to be good, not great. If however, he should choose to be great, look out! I think that’s what fans really want from him. It just remains to be seen if that’s what he can really do.