What a bounce-back performance by the Irish on Saturday afternoon. For the first time since both programs moved to the ACC, Notre Dame beat the Syracuse Orange. The victory an 18-point trouncing as the Irish brought it in all phases of the game while the Orange looked like a team heading for the NIT.
Notre Dame stays atop the ACC standings after moving to 6-1. That 6-1 start is still a little hard to believe compared to how difficult the January schedule looked coming in.
But this one was a relatively easy one. After 6 games in which the final margin was 7 points or less, this blowout was a welcome sight for Irish fans, with a one-game respite from the sudden spikes in blood pressure this season.
Let’s get into it.
VJ’s NBA Reel
The story of the game was clearly VJ Beachem. The senior wing has had an up-and-down season but lived up to the NBA potential hype with a career-high 30 points. VJ was ready to fire away and put up 22 FGA, hitting 12 of them including 6 of his 10 from three. Beachem also added 7 rebounds despite only averaging 4 a game this season. It’s not coincidence that the Irish dominated the boards throughout with Beachem’s contributions.
Beachem displayed the entire scoring array: proficient from three, threw down a big dunk, a couple nice mid-range fall-aways, and a nice lay-in that should’ve been 3 the old-fashioned way.
What else is there to say? This was perhaps VJ’s best performance in an Irish uniform. Can we get some more of this moving forward? Getting 75% of his production against Virginia could be key to finally beating that pack-line defense. It could also permanently boost the senior’s confidence the rest of the way. Here’s hoping.
12-0 at home.
30 pts for @VjBeachem
Today was a GOOD day. pic.twitter.com/enPLxEEqbW— Notre Dame MBB (@NDmbb) January 21, 2017
Matt Farrell on Point
Matt Farrell has had some pretty rough first halves the past couple weeks. Not so today. Farrell was really, really good throughout. He forced very few shots and ran a patient Notre Dame offense against a defense that usually gives them trouble.
Farrell finished with 9 assists to just 3 turnovers. He also added 15 points on an efficient 6 of 10 shooting. He stayed quiet in the second half, but the Irish offense flourished anyway with him just playing distributor. Syracuse’s defense pretty much gave up once an entry pass was made, so Farrell needed to just get things going and the Irish were firing on all cylinders.
WATCH: Quick Play | Behind-the-Back Slamma-Jamma
VIDEO: https://t.co/ApoU4a76ME pic.twitter.com/7Mz1dCTdIz
— WatchND by @stjoemed (@WatchND) January 21, 2017
It should also be noted that Farrell’s counterparts John Gillon and Frank Howard were pretty much non-existent, and Farrell deserves plenty of credit for that. It always impresses me when, despite his lack of size, Farrell is able to put in a good day of work on the defensive end.
Boeheim Sputtering to the Finish Line?
The much-hyped Syracuse Orange have fallen flat in a big way this season. They now sit at 11-9 on the season and don’t remotely resemble a NCAA tournament team. Granted, you could’ve said the same thing last season, when a thoroughly-mediocre 17-win squad was given a bid anyway. They salvaged their season by a great (if fairly lucky) run to the Final Four, but that hid from everyone how bad they were most of the season.
Well, they’re bad again, and this time I’m not sure that they really have enough to get into the tournament. If Boeheim is really going to retire in the next couple years, I’m not sure he really has a roster to go out with a bang. This season sucks, then he loses 4 of his regulars and possibly another if Tyler Lydon declares early.
He swung and missed big time recruiting Quade Green and has no point guard for the foreseeable future. I think the end to Boeheim’s career is going to get ugly. Can’t say I feel too bad for the whiniest coach in sports.
Double-Double Machine
Bonzie Colson has stepped right in for Zach Auguste as designated double-double machine on this team. He was quiet on the afternoon, sitting for all but 6 first half minutes with foul trouble. But still, Bonzie made his minutes count with a 14 and 14 double-double.
Colson is leading the ACC in per-game rebounds and is right near the top in PER. If Notre Dame can stay near the top of the standings, that type of production is going to have first-team all-ACC written all over it. I can’t help but feel that Colson is going a little underappreciated, even from Irish fans, with most of the praise diverted instead (not wrongly) to the Farrell-Steve Vasturia backcourt.
Colson has been excellent with a big increase in usage and importance in the offense. We might take it for granted because this always happens so seamlessly with upperclassmen under Mike Brey. But Bonzie deserves a ton of credit as an undersized power forward who is getting the job done better than most every other big man in the conference.
Closing Thoughts
Despite the dominant team performance, there were a couple setbacks. Most notably, Vasturia was quiet with a 3 of 9 day from the field. TJ Gibbs, who has thrived on the road in conference play, was quite poor in his few minutes, turning the ball over three times (two of them were unacceptably bad) and failing to score or register an assist. But the NBA version of VJ Beachem can cover up for some poor performances.
Notre Dame’s defense was great, digging in their heels for a legit 40 minutes today against an admittedly stagnant offense. The Irish also dominated the boards (39-28!). And they were money from the free throw line (15-16) with Ken Pomeroy in attendance the very week that he wrote about his doubts that they would set the all-time season record. Think again, KenPom!
Notre Dame plays host to 16th-ranked Virginia on Tuesday evening (8pm), yet another ACC game between ranked opponents that isn’t on national television. Virginia remains the only ACC team that Notre Dame has yet to beat since joining the league, with Tony Bennett clearly having Mike Brey’s number so far. Can this be the year that the Irish change that? Can’t wait for what should be a great performance between two great, underappreciated programs.
I think a game like this is a testament to the depth of this team. Not that Brey is ever going to pull a Leonard Hamilton and go 13 deep, but that if Onions and T.J. Struggle, there are plenty of other options to go to. They just have a lot of options. That’s a beautiful thing.
I think the headline in this one is the quality of the bounce back. We’ve all been saying January is brutal, but after flying to 5-0 on some emotionally draining wins, the Irish took a bit of a kick to the nuts on the road this week in another emotionally and physically draining slugfest. To bounce back and thoroughly put away an inferior opponent at home is a very good sign for the mental state of this group. I love what that says about this team.
Two unsung heroes in this one that bear mention:
Marty Geben scored 7 points on a single FG attempt. It was a beautifully efficient performance from the Lithuanian and he was solid on both ends again. What a wonderful surprise this kid has been. Brey’s step-up magic is working big time.
Austin Torres played a high-energy 12 minutes with 5 boards, a steal, and a whole lot of key plays that don’t show up in stat sheets. Great leadership by him. Torres played his role to perfection.
On to Virginia. After putting up 1.24ppp versus the vaunted 2-3, we could use a similar performance vs. the Fighting Bennetts.
Hi from a chilly Paris – yesterday being Father (Blessed) Moreau’s feast day, I was pretty pumped up about today, but worried — than it turns out the game was on AFN, and I got to see it! So far this year,and I was able to see today in real time, a very impressive group of young men… and as a big bonus, Alstein did the above very excellent wrapup. Merci, Monsieur! Warms me cockles, as they say.
That was fun. Esp since my Cuse alum friend was in attendance.
Now I’m jacked up about getting a shot at Virginia. Need to get 1 of 2 vs UVa/Duke in the next 10 days, while not tripping up against GT. Let’s get it.
Didn’t get to watch this one, but good to see VJ taking lots of shots against a team he should. That’s huge. The Syracuse 2-3 is a tough matchup for Steve, so it’s nice to see VJ playing unbelievably in a game where he’s needed.
It’s always great to beat Boeheim. I certainly won’t be sad if he never makes another NCAA tournament.
Also ND is up to #19 in KenPom and 63rd defensively. That’s gotta be by far the best defensive team Brey has ever had, right?
According to KenPom, the 2010-2011 team was quite a bit better, but this team’s offense is better. Overall, they are almost exactly on par with one another in terms of total efficiency. This is certainly one of the best defensive teams from Brey, though.
This team seems unique in their ability to execute different defensive game plans and try a few things on throughout the course of the game. For example, Brey decided to try VJ against Lydon after he torched Bonzie and Rex had some problem with his length. Turned out to work fairly well, and had the added benefit of locking VJ in on the offensive end. Much like they’ve been able to morph their offensive game plan, this group seems able to adjust defensive ideas on the fly too.
I really like how the schedule ended up giving us UVA at home right after we exorcised our Syracuse demons. I know we’ve yet to beat them, but this feels like easily our best chance. Our only two ACC home games against them were in 2014, when we were garbage, and in 2015, which was a tight loss over winter break without the Legion there to help.
Not sure if this has been discussed, but will Jackson/Vasturia/Beachem/Torres go down as Brey’s all-time greatest recruiting class? They certainly seem to be on pace to have the most wins. One NBA guy, one player Brey has mentioned as a possible future Ring of Honor guy, one possible-future-NBA-er/solid 3-year scoring threat, and one reliable role player. Pretty remarkable group.
Talent wise, I do think that foursome will go in the books as an all time great. Since Torres red-shirted the awful first year, he’ll likely walk away one of the winningest Irish players of all time, along with Colson, Geben and Farrell.
This probably merits a whole post, and certainly hinges on the balance of this year, but I think this run of success will have an interesting historical perspective. Getting Jerian (a solid 3*, but far lower profile than Demetrius) then getting Connaughton and Auguste in the next class laid the foundation for this success. The leadership of Connaughton and the maturity and evolution of Grant and Auguste put down a baseline that let the program turn the corner in the 2nd year in the ACC. That group got themselves over a bunch of humps and “firsts” that needed to happen. With that, you add the talent of the Jackson/Vasturia/Beachem/Torres class, which were key to the ’15 and ’16 runs and are building a nice looking ’17 so far. Colson/Geben/Farrell could end up getting the winningest class ever. All three guys are on 4 year plans, and if they play well this year and (God Willing) have a good ’18 season, they should sail past the “winningest” mark because Vasturia/Beachem were saddled with the Garrick Sherman experience in their first year while Torres sat.
Brey likes to point out that Vasturia already has 6 NCAAT wins, and was quick to throw in that he expects more. If Steve were to get to 9 (or please please please 12), then he’s in a class all alone that will likely never be touched. Yes Torres and Beachem were there for all those, but Steve will have started and closed every single one. That’s why Brey has him as an all-timer and “Ring of Honor” kind of guy.
What makes my heart go pitter-patter is how good the pipeline is. The Rex/Ryan/Burns class has already delivered a solid closer in its second year and has a ton of upside. Gibbs/Mooney/Djogo looks super promising, and we’re all anxious to see what Harvey can do.
Are you at all concerned about our recruiting right now? I feel like after back to back elite 8’s, we should have been able to close on more than one (admittedly spectacular) prospect. We really needed a shooting guard in that class. I realize that Brey is dealing with a ton of built in disadvantages (facilities, academic standards, fans caring more about football) but now is the time and atmosphere to go get another ’13 level class. If we don’t start racking up some ’18 commits early this summer (looking at you, Carmody and Finke) I’m officially going to be panicked. Is that fair?
I don’t think you’re right or wrong to feel nervous about recruiting. I appreciate that they went all in on Morsell, and they almost had him. He wanted to stay home at the end, but ND was neck-and-neck with Maryland the whole way. Either way, I don’t think the need for another guard is really there until the year after next, given how good Farrell is (which no one knew would be the case during last summer’s recruiting season). Farrell, Rex, Gibbs, and DJ, not to mention Djogo and Ryan? I think the minutes are pretty much taken already. For 2018, from all reports, Ayers and Humphrey have really rejuvenated the program’s efforts. They are seemingly more active and aggressive than before, as I think Brey used the new blood to re-strategize how they go about recruiting. Certainly, at least one SG is a MUST. Carmody makes me nervous; he’s really stringing it out and never seems to tip his hand. He visited ND a ton without many visits elsewhere, and it looked like an inevitability that he would be Irish. Now he’s making a lot more visits and is getting recruited by a different echelon of schools (including Arizona and perhaps Kentucky). I really don’t know anymore. But there are other guard options. Finke, Cormac Ryan, Luther Muhammad (why wouldn’t another NJ guard want to come here?), Jahvon Quinerly (same thing!), Jalen Carey (same thing!) and Prentiss Hubb are all being actively recruited by the staff and go to schools that project well to ND. We’ll see how things progress, but it’s a good early-ish board so far. I think we are a sneaky good threat to land Carey. They probably need 2 bigs, too. But I think they are in good position there as well. They have two lower-tiered guys who seem like they would have a great chance of landing if they pulled the trigger with an offer after this high school season. Riley Battin and Sean Good (probably better chance with the former). That gives them time to feel out some higher rated guys while still having a good feeling that they won’t strike out completely. Do they really have a shot with Bol Bol or Simi Shittu? Or, a little bit lower, Jerome Hunter? I’m sure other names will come out as well. So, personally, I’d reserve freaking out until after the season, and if it doesn’t look like we are in or near the lead for a couple of these guys, then I think it’s cause for concern. It might basically suggest that the staff tried for a couple years to elevate the level of prospect that it gets but couldn’t quite consistently do it. That would be a bit disappointing, but hey, Vasturia, Grant, Connaughton, Beachem, Auguste, and Colson have made for a helluva core and none were better than top 75 recruits. We’ll see. I’m tracking, but it’s hard to get much concrete hoops recruiting info due to a ND media that is… Read more »
Thanks for that info! Yeah I wish there was 1/10th as much effort put into bball recruiting news as there is into fb. Your post there is the most informative source I’ve seen yet. Outside of @ndhoopsrecruits, it’s a wasteland. Here’s hoping we can really turn it on with the new staff.
He did a great job noting all the names. I am sure others will emerge in the spring.
I still believe there is a great chance for ND to take a transfer this spring.
One other thing- we will see coaching changes this spring which means some 2017 recruits will be let out of their LOI’s. IMO at least one will one of them will be on ND’s radar.
Michigan ended up with a future NBA player with this scenario in Caris LaVert
He committed to play basketball for John Groce and the Ohio Bobcats men’s basketball program in November 2011.[3] Meanwhile, when future teammates Mitch McGary and Nik Stauskas joined Glenn Robinson III by committing to Michigan in November 2011, Michigan became the fifth best recruiting class in the country.[4][5]
When Groce got hired by Illinois Fighting Illini men’s basketball in March 2012, LeVert got lost in the shuffle and decided to commit to Michigan.[3][6] Ironically, Groce’s 2011–12 Ohio Bobcats‘ upset of the 2011–12 Michigan team in the 2012 NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Tournament was probably the reason that Groce was hired by Illinois and LeVert withdrew his National Letter of Intent to play for Ohio.
For the 4-Factors fans out there, here’s how we fared:
Raise your hand if you thought we’d beat SU by pounding them on the glass. I had to go back and check that twice. That’s a hell of a stat and something to build on. Granted, this is a crummy SU team, and it turns out, the 36.4% they gave to us pales to the 50% they allowed vs. UNC. They’ve had a ton of games in the 30’s and 40’s already this season. It is also worth noting that the 19.4% against is the best number since the St. Peters game and the 3rd best defensive rebounding effort of the season. Mostly, that lends credence to this being a Syracuse team that doesn’t try very hard.
That’s 3 games in a row with better than 58% eFG. That’s a trend we’d all like to see continue along with keeping opponents in the 40’s. We hadn’t done that since Miami.
The turnover thing is kinda confounding. Some of the additional TO’s on Saturday were driven by a conscious effort to beat the zone down the floor. That’s a good tradeoff, and 1.234ppp is nothing to sneeze at, so it worked fine. You just hope that when we really need the “perfect game” out of this group, they can tighten that up and put together a solid 40 minutes of taking care of the ball and staying under 9 TO’s.
I’m kinda done talking about FTRate, because all it’ll do is lead me down the “we’ll never get a f’ing break” rathole. What I will say is that it was good to see 15 of 16 drop from the line to continue our assault on Harvard’s season mark. It was nice to have Ken Pomeroy in the building to witness that after he said he doubted we’d surpass that record. Despite the #goaccrefs disparity in FTRate, the Irish outscored the Orange from the stripe by one. Shooting from the line as well as ND has helps negate deficits in the 4th factor. Sadly our FT defense hasn’t improved all that much. We’re out of the basement, but only up to 342nd nationally. We’ve got to find a way to dig deeper and play harder when the opponent is at the line.
Have you officially raised the floor on this team yet? They look like a team that should be playing in the 2nd weekend of the tourney and haven’t dropped a game to a team that isn’t a top 5/6 seed (although we’ve been close).
Out rebounding the Cuse is a nice surprise, but this does look like a team that has quit on the season a bit. They also don’t have a Warrick or Christmas or Onauku caliber physical presence to terrorize us. Lydon looks like he can be a role player in the NBA though.
It looks like our FT excellence is inspiring our opponents to shoot better.
Well, the “official floor” for this group now sits at 6-12. Zibby did a great breakdown on Twitter that I tend to agree with…
https://twitter.com/chidan9d/status/822906106657837056
The KenPom projection is now 13-5. However, if you look at KP’s projections, we’re favored in 9 of our 11 games, which would be 15-3.
I dunno. We’ve done so well without me moving the floor, I’ll just keep saying I’m happy when we have our bid to the big dance, but we can all agree this team has a lot more than that in them.
Thanks for the plug, Joe.
The long and short of it is a bad (bubble-ish) team manages to get 4ish wins (against BCx2, GTx2, plus NC St/Wake) out of the rest of our schedule. That’s an obvious floor for the team, would clearly get us in the tournament already and would be very disappointing.
A 11th/12th win is probably right for “holding the line”. That would likely be grabbing one win against Virginia/Duke/FSU at home and climbing to 5-1 vs those easy games listed above. Based on how we’very played, that seems reasonable, maybe even a half win low.
Every additional win, whether it be getting to 6-0 in the easier games, getting more than one of the home games vs top 20 teams or stealing a road game vs UNC/Lou, is gravy. A top 30ish team probably doesn’t grab any of those (or trades one for an extra loss somewhere), a top 20 team probably gets one and a top 10-15 team gets two and lands at 14-4. That would (most likely) end up being 3-4 vs top 20 teams (FSU, Duke, UNC, Lou, UVa) while not dropping a single game (of 7) to the huge middle class of the ACC. That’d be pretty impressive (if you disagree, consider Duke circa 9pm last night).
I’m excited for the next two weeks. The most likely “bad” game we drop is GT on Saturday given the trap spot and road games are hard. The other 3 games are massive opportunities vs elite competition that could raise the ceiling of this group dramatically. 1-3 is acceptable, 3-1 makes me think we win the ACC.
Go Irish, Beat Hoos!
Kinda feels like tonight’s game is the biggest one remaining on the schedule. Win this one, and that’s so much breathing room in the standings and would have to be such a mental victory to finally beat these guys. Lose it, and things can start slipping on you really quickly. I don’t know, it’s probably just me projecting my feelings of REALLY wanting to finally beat these guys. But this seems big. Really, really big.
I get that. In terms of proving things, this would be a good one cause they’re a team we haven’t beaten and it would get us off on the right foot for a tough 2 weeks. That said, if you guaranteed me that it doesn’t send us into a tailspin, this one is no more essential than Duke or FSU. Obviously the long term prognostication drops a bit if we lose tonight, but if I had to rank the order of games I *think* we’d win, this one is lower than Duke or FSU. So if it makes any sense, this one could help us prove the most of the home games but is the least important of them if we lose.
You’re being far too logical!
I know alstein well enough to know that both he and I are going nuts over this game tonight. I’ve been checking my watch and using a random curse word every 10 minutes or so and wondering why it isn’t 8PM yet.
We’re all secretly dreaming of:
Both of these make tonight the big game. Honestly, they make every game the big game, but tonight gets the bold treatment because of #1.
If any of you listen to the Rakes Report podcast (which you should), even Chris wraps it with “please beat Bennett.” We need this.
Sorry, don’t let any of my above logic bury the point that I’m jacked up for tonight’s game. I had friends that wanted to do dinner tonight as far back as last week and I told them no chance.
This is a HUGE opportunity tonight (as is all of next week). It makes me mad that this game won’t be seen in most of the big markets, but a win will make people take notice. A win raises the bar on this season to places I had no idea it could go. Let’s go get it…
Similar to this analysis, I’ve found ESPN’s Strength of Record metric really interesting to look at recently. It basically compares your team’s record to how many other teams would be likely to have a better record than you if they had played your schedule so far. Per ESPN, it’s likely that only 6 other teams would have a better/same record as ND if they had played this schedule. This season has been pretty remarkable.
Now I’m looking at your analysis, and it really has me thinking. We beat UVA, I don’t think anybody other than ND, UNC, and FSU have the schedule remaining to make a push for the regular season crown. We could amazingly be looking at a 3 team race, and missing out on the bye would be a huge disappointment. Man I can’t wait for this game tonight.
WE ARE AGENTS, OF THE FREEEEE
