Scheduling the Notre Dame Fighting Irish for a noon tip the day after St. Patrick’s day is a bit of cruel irony. Irish fans clearing their heads after a few Friday pints were hopeful the luck would carry in to Saturday. Sadly, it didn’t and Bob Huggins’ West Virginia Mountaineers ended Notre Dame’s season with a decisive 83-71 victory.
It is all still a little fresh to go through our normal depth of recap. Sadly, we now have an entire off-season to remember an excellent season of Irish basketball. We’ll also have time to peek in to what could be a bright future. For today, we’ll simply say it wasn’t our day.
West Virginia did what they do. They managed to rattle several Irish ball-handlers with their physical pressure. Fourteen turnovers on the afternoon were more than the Irish could afford. Notre Dame also couldn’t counter a WV team that was unconscious from deep in the final twenty minutes. The Mountaineers were 8-14 from three-point-range on the evening. If West Virginia can maintain that hot hand, they could be dangerous in the 2nd weekend.
For Notre Dame to get to the second weekend their duo of senior captains had to play well. Steve Vasturia and V.J. Beachem have compiled impressive 13-5 post season records. They graduate from Notre Dame not only with degrees, but with ACC Championship rings and E8 banners in the JACC rafters. I wouldn’t blame V.J. Beachem if he never sets foot in Buffalo again. His 3-23 performance with 1-12 from behind the arc was as cold as the brutal upstate weather. For a guy who had an outstanding ND career, it is a tough way to go out.
Steve Vasturia also struggled from deep in Buffalo. He made two of his seven tries from distance. While he was able to find his way in to double figures in both games, neither were performances he’ll cherish. Vasturia has been one of ND’s all-time greats. His all-around four year contribution to the program should be celebrated. We’ll have a big picture look at Steve an his career at ND in the coming weeks.
I try to make sure we all see a little silver lining when I put these together, and I have two important things for you. First, Bonzie Colson is a warrior. Very few guys can do what he did for this Irish team. Brey finally admitted in his post-game comments what he and Bonzie had been denying – the ankle was not 100%. Still, he was the best player on the floor again Saturday, and I hope he sticks to his “four year guy” talk from a few weeks back. We’ll revisit Big Baby’s stellar year in a future post.
Much respect and love for this young man @BonzieColson. He shows up to work every day! pic.twitter.com/tZho4MXwQ5
— autry denson (@autrydenson) March 18, 2017
The second glimmer of hope was the performance of Matt Ryan. Left for dead much of the season, Ryan had transfer whispers swirling around Irish message boards. It was great to see him come out and contribute again this post-season. He doesn’t look smooth or polished all the time, but that quick trigger and shooting form is a sight to behold. Let’s all hope Matt can get a healthy off-season and some good work with both Ayers and Humphrey be next year’s “never saw him coming” guy for the Irish.
This wasn’t the storybook ending anyone had written. Hell, I was checking prices on Phoenix flights. This was a remarkable team that did remarkable things all season long. They showed us glimmers of what they could be. They gave Nova a healthy scare. They won 5 straight ACC games twice. They earned another double-bye. They finally slew the Bennett beast.
All of these are wonderful things. However, the bitter pit in our stomachs churns because we saw them at their best, and their last 3 post-season games were not Notre Dame’s best basketball. The flow wasn’t there when Notre Dame needed it most. Sadly, that’s just basketball. You have some hot days, you have some cold days. Today was a cold day.
7 NCAA wins.
School-record 82 wins in 3 years.
School-record 97 wins in 4 years.#Legacy pic.twitter.com/OwAUF83y2I— Notre Dame MBB (@NDmbb) March 18, 2017
Let us not be the kind of fans who let that deter us. We shouldn’t wallow in frustration. Mike Brey has taken a team that gets unconscionably low institutional support and turned them in to an ACC power. He guided Steve Vasturia and V.J. Beachem to remarkable careers. Notre Dame basketball has gotten some big monkeys off their back with these two men on the roster and Brey at the helm. Don’t let a cold trip to a cold city sour you. It was all the success these guys brought to Notre Dame that spoiled us. Don’t be so spoiled that you can’t appreciate them, even on a tough day with a bad Guinness hangover.
I had this thought after I hit publish, so I’ll leave it down here. We all saw Pat and J go down swinging with their best stuff. Demetrius and Auguste too. Those guys programmed us to expect greatness on command, and that’s really freakin’ hard to pull off consistently.
Totally agree about not feeling too bad about this game. The better team played a better game and won. Brey tried a bunch of different stuff, but they just had better players playing better (Bonzie excepted). ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Hell of a season. The guys were fun to watch.
And I think they might be better next year.
Tough final loss. Beachem really cost us with his shooting. 1-9 from 3 with many of them pretty open is not going to cut it against a good team. Farrell was taken out of the game not getting many opportunities on offense. And we did not handle their pressure well at all. Surprising.
Still love this team and we lost to a team playing really well.
Another good year, but man was that a brutal ending. Watching WV effortlessly nail deep 3s while the Irish couldn’t hit open looks was painful.
Great writeup, I really needed that positive spin. WV will be tough for anyone to beat if they continue to shoot like that.
I am already looking forward to next year.
One last time; Bonzie Colson somehow was not the ACC player of the year.
This thread looks all finished, but I just want to thank you 18 Stripes hoops gang for helping me appreciate and enjoy this team and this season. I was never a super huge Irish basketball fan way back in the day, besides rooming next to center Bob Whitmore, and certainly do not know the insides of the game, but these teams from the last three years have been crazy fun to get to know, and it would not have been the same without you guys taking so much of your own time to write terrific and informative commentaries. Like several above, more than anything, besides being really sad it had to end this way, I am proud of these Notre Dame men, and you guys as well.
Thanks for taking the time to write that. It means a lot. Merci.
De rien!
That said, I have a question: one of you a week or so ago, mentioned something in passing, when commenting on the drop off in FG and free throw %, and balls clanging off the front rim, that this might be a sign that fatigue had really started to bite, esp for VJ and Steve V. Is there anything to that? Seemed like they did play a lot of minutes?
There’s really a lot to that. Steve actually played fewer overall ACC minutes this year than last year. I’m working on a full retrospective for him. He was an amazingly durable guy who has started literally all but 7 of Notre Dame’s ACC games.
Brey was spotting him in 2-3 minute bursts this year, which is an improvement. For a veteran, those are manageable minutes, and Steve clearly learned to manage his body. Minutes played are pretty easy to measure, but Steve also plays a lot of difficult minutes. He always runs the full length of the floor every possession, because he’s asked to inbound the ball. He’s the pressure release against full-court defenses. Most importantly, he’s asked to guard the opponent’s most dangerous perimeter player. Whether that guy has a speed or size advantage really doesn’t matter, Steve drew the assignment. Watching him defend off the ball in Raleigh, when he chased Maverick Rowan around for the afternoon was exhausting. He got bumped and jostled and held for the entire shot clock, then he was asked to make it happen on offense off the bounce.
It wasn’t just the quantity of minutes for Steve, it was the load he was asked to carry. Late last year (when he was playing 90+% of the minutes), his shot got flat and short. The legs are the “engine” for a shooter, and when they start to go, the shot flattens and tends to be short. Steve already had a pretty flat shot, so you saw his numbers drop off from the floor late last year and late this year. Those were just hard miles.
VJ is a little tougher to figure out. He ends his career as a 39% 3FG shooter, but he shot nearly 44% last year. Like VJ himself, it is a bit of an enigma. Last year his numbers were better against better competition. This year, his numbers took a nosedive against better teams. I don’t know if ti was pressing or taking on a heavier minute load, but he lost his confidence and his stroke at the worst possible time.
We can overanalyze these poor 23 year olds all we want, but sports are hard, and drawing on your best when you need it most isn’t easy. For all the search for answers in the numbers we do, perhaps it is more realistic to admit it just wasn’t their day.
Well said Joe. Steve has been somewhat of an unsung hero outside the ND fan base, overshadowed by first Connaughton and Grant, then DJ, and now Colson. Don’t get me wrong, those guys deserve all the accolades they received, and Bonzie is still underrated. Vasturia’s consistency and durability have been amazing. No one should ever question his toughness.
Extremely well said, if I may. More answer than I deserved, but most illuminating. VJ does seem enigmatic, and so the confidence seemed there, up until towards the end, but I suspect it was not. And loss of confidence in any endeavor is very hard to deal with.
Steve V is indeed amazing, your answer helps me understand why.
I also think people expected 44%, which was not a fair expectation in my opinion. VJ had an out of body, amazing experience in the 2016 ACCT and NCAAT, going 19/35 for a 54% clip. If you take out the ACCT and NCAAT, he shot 67/163 from the field, for a 41% clip.
This year, VJ shot 39.5% from 3 during conference, with some struggles in the non conference and tournament slate. I just think he fell victim to heightened expectations from a small sample size.
It’s funny after watching Michigan beat UL to make it to the sweet 16. I laughed as I told my brother Michigan easily could have made a similar run last year, if it wasn’t for us outshooting them to the tune of over 1.2 ppp in the first round last year (much of that due to VJ’s 9/9 night from the field). I’ll surely take VJ shooting 54% last year rather than taking some of those made 3s and translating them to postseason play this year.
Nice summary. To me, the worst part about this loss isn’t the lack of ability to wear Sweet 16 or Elite 8 t-shirts this offseason, it’s that there’s still basketball to watch but it won’t include a team that’s been a lot of fun to follow this season. That seems to be a staple of Brey’s teams – if they are your team, they are easy to like. Even when you have guys that frustrate you on any given night like VJ.
Speaking of, I know distance shooting has been this team’s biggest weapon, but nine 3’s is way too many for any one player to shoot against a press team. Especially one with a propensity for reach fouls. Break the press and score in transition. If you can’t beat them in transition, attack with the ball. You know early if the shots are falling or not.
Still, the biggest frustration with the play was the inbounding into the corner against that press. That’s eighth grade stuff – not the style of a team that leads the nation in fewest TOs.
They were a fun team to watch, though, and sometimes you just run into the wrong team on the wrong day. WV never shoots like that. It was dumb luck that the Irish ran into them when they did. I’m already almost looking forward to next basketball season more than I am football season and if you knew me, you’d know that’s a crazy thing to hear me say.
The Irish ball handlers were confident in their ability to either quickly reverse the ball out of the corner or step thru the double. Yes, when I had my youth league teams, we said stay out of the corner, but when the athleticism at this level changes, so does strategy. In that case, if you go to the corner and either break the double with the dribble or quick ball reversal, you’re off and attacking the press with numbers. You want to bring that defense in, then move around it.
I’d like to see the Irish shoot MORE transition 3’s against press teams. First, their statistically very valuable shots. If you get hot and shoot 40%, you’re burning a 1.20ppp efficiency that is hard to beat. Second, you can chase down long rebounds in an open/unorganized floor. WV is a good half court defensive team too. I’d rather get a good look before they’re set.
V.J. Beachem is a shooter. His value for Notre Dame for 4 years was shooting the ball. He has to keep shooting. There are no “max” number of attempts for him. He (and his team) have to believe the next one is going in. I would have hated to see him simply hang his head and say, “I don’t have it.” His job is to keep firing and believe the next one is going in.
They really were fun to watch. They clearly loved each other, loved playing the right way, and loved doing things people didn’t expect. The best part of all of this is that the cupboard is far from bare. The worst part of it is that we’re 7’ish months to Maui.
I am tempted to agree that VJ should have taken less 3s, but I just don’t trust him to be able to consistently drive to the rim without missing badly or turning it over. He can give you a highlight dunk when there is minimal resistance, but will get stripped or blocked by competent defense.
When VJ is on it’s beautiful to watch, but when he’s off his mediocre ball handling, passing and defense make it hard to justify keeping him on the court for 30+ minutes. I wonder how much he hurt his draft stock by coming back this year? Probably mid-late 2nd rounder either way.
Ugh yes, can’t stand we don’t get to see these guys play again or Steve in peak form. Credit to WVU for their hot shooting, couldn’t miss in the 2nd half and they were mostly deep and somewhat contested. I thought we missed better looks at 3 on our end. They certainly were letting them foul…I mean play intense defense. The refs didn’t cost us the game but WVU was allowed to manhandle our guys a bit more than you would see in the ACC.
Okay okay, I sound a bit bitter. Their press got to us and we were sloppy with the ball. They deserved to win, just wasn’t the way I thought they would get it done. I thought they would beat us up a bit more in the paint if they were going to win.
I’ll say this much, if they had the same refs that did the Duke South Carolina game, things would have looked a little different. I’d never promise a win, but it would have looked different.
This is why you’r the esteemed hoops writer and I’m just a football-loving goon who needs something to do in the offseason. 🙂
You’re 100% correct, though. This team needs to go with what got them there and what got them there was “bombs away.” Still, there’s that side of me that wants to go with a football analogy. If you’re playing against a defense with great passrushers and shut down corners but who can be run on up the middle – sometimes you need to pound it to soften them up a little. The same would hold true vice versa if you’re playing against a team with a bunch of oversized stiffs who pack it in with a 2-3. Shoot over the top of them.
Really, though, it’s one small nit pick on my part. I keep thinking I won’t enjoy a team as much as I do the previous year’s version, and they keep proving me wrong. The program as a whole is fun to follow and they’ve earned the benefit of the doubt from us amateurs.
Seven-ish months is a long time. Hopefully we’ll have something to keep us content in the fall while we wait.