Even with injuries and defection, a 13-12/3-9 record is disappointing largely because none of the highly regarded young players have shown more than flashes of ACC ability with the possible exception of Prentiss Hubb who, while not playing star caliber basketball, is holding his own as the starting point guard. A 1.7 assist/turnover ratio in ACC games is solid for a freshman especially considering how few of his passes to perimeter shooters are converted to baskets.

Let me start with the three Notre Dame freshmen who have played a lot this season.

Prentiss Hubb – 32 mpg, 7.7 ppg, 3.0 rpg
Dane Goodwin – 23 mpg, 6.4 ppg, 3.0 rpg
Nate Laszewski – 19 mpg, 6.6 ppg, 4.0 rpg

Now let’s compare them to a selection of highly regarded (but not 5 star) ACC recruits who improved significantly from their first to second seasons. These players’ freshman stat lines resembled the production of Notre Dame’s rookies this season.

Louisville’s Jordan Nwora

Freshman – 12 mpg, 5.7 ppg, 2.2 rpg
Sophomore – 32 mpg, 17.5 ppg, 7.7 rpg

Miami’s Chris Lykes

Freshman – 21 mpg, 7.8 ppg, 1.2 rpg
Sophomore – 34 mpg, 17.1 ppg, 2.6 rpg

Virginia’s De’Andre Hunter

Freshman – 20 mpg, 9.2 ppg, 3.5 rpg
Sophomore – 31 mpg, 15.0 ppg, 5.5 rpg

Virginia’s Ty Jerome

Freshman – 14 mpg, 4.3 ppg, 1.6 rpg
Sophomore – 31 mpg, 10.6 ppg, 3.1 rpg
Junior – 32 mpg, 13.0 ppg, 4.3 rpg

Virginia’s Kyle Guy

Freshman – 19 mpg, 7.5 ppg, 1.7 rpg
Sophomore – 32 mpg, 14.1 ppg, 2.6 rpg
Junior – 34 mpg, 15.1 ppg, 4.3 rpg

UNC’s Luke Maye took three seasons to emerge, but he became a pretty fair player.

Freshman – 5 mpg, 1.2 ppg, 1.2 rpg
Sophomore – 14 mpg, 5.5 ppg, 3.9 rpg
Junior – 32 mpg, 16.9 ppg, 10.1 rpg

Notre Dame’s own John Mooney

Freshman – 4 mpg, 1.2 ppg, 1.6 rpg
Sophomore – 15 mpg, 5.6 ppg, 3.9 rpg
Junior – 28 mpg, 14.0 ppg, 11.0 rpg

Also consider the two ND guys who have a season of college basketball under their belts but also had to recover from injuries.

DJ Harvey

Freshman – 19 mpg, 5.8 ppg, 2.9 rpg
Sophomore – 26 mpg, 10.9 ppg, 4.5 rpg

Harvey has improved as the season has progressed, and he has not reached his peak by a long shot. An offseason building strength and regaining the physical gifts we saw last season instead of getting his knee healthy enough to be cleared for activityu before the start of the season will help him a lot as will additional passage of time from the injury itself.

Juwan Durham

Freshman – 8.3 mpg, 1.6 ppg, 1.5 rpg
Sophomore – 14 mpg, 5.6 ppg, 4.0 rpg

I also don’t believe Durham is a finished product. Is doubling his points and rebounds next season a preposterous notion?

My message to Notre Dame fans is simple. Young players get better.

This season has been a painful part of a journey. The young players on the Irish roster are talented. They will improve, some significantly next season; so don’t panic.

Women’s Basketball Notes

Several Notre Dame school records will fall over the next few weeks. Here is a rundown.

Points

Arike Ogunbowale now has scored 2,324 points in her college career. She passed Beth Morgan/Cunningham for second place last night and is 33 points behind Skylar Diggins. She’s capable of a 34-point outburst on national TV Monday, but it’s more likely that she will get the record Thursday at home vs Duke.

Three Point Shots Made

Marina Mabrey has 249, tied with Sheila McMillen for second place and 13 behind Alicia Ratay’s school record. If we figure 4 more regular season games, 3 ACC Tournament games, and 4 NCAA Tournament games, she has to average just a little more than 1 per game to get the record. Mabrey’s average made per game is 2.6 this season; so barring catastrophe, it’s a matter of when she will catch Ratay, not if. Senior day vs Virginia would be a nice time to get the record. 

Blocked Shots

Brianna Turner has 334 blocked shots, 36 short of Ruth Riley’s record 370. Using the 11-game model, she must average 3.3 per game to catch Riley. That is not a lock and not a long shot either. Add two more games by making it to the national championship contest and the necessary average falls to 2.8. Her season average is 2.7 blocks per game. 

Rebounds

Turner’s 935 rebounds trails Riley by 72. She must average 6.5 per game to catch Riley in 11 games. Her season average is 7.4, so I like Turner’s chances a lot.

The post Don’t Panic appeared first on NDNation.

• He averaged 18.8 points and 12.4 rebounds during his three-year career (1966-67 through 1968-69)
• He is #5 on ND’s career rebounding list.
• He is one of five Notre Dame basketball players with more than 1,000 career points and 1,000 career rebounds.
• He is #3 in career double-doubles at Notre Dame including six 20-20 games.
• Two of his seasons are tied for sixth on the season double-double list, 1966-67 and 1967-68
• He is #15 on the Fighting Irish career scoring with 1,580 points.
• He owns the #12 Notre Dame scoring season, 661 points in 30 games (1967-68).
• He was named to Notre Dame’s All-Century Team in 2004 along with teammate Bob Arnzen.

But statistics only tell part of Whitmore’s Notre Dame Basketball story.

The Greatest Game Ever Played

It began at DeMatha High School in Washington DC where Whitmore played for a promising young coach named Morgan Wootten. It gained legend status in 1965 when undefeated DeMatha ended Power Memorial’s 71-game winning streak in a game many still consider the greatest high school basketball game ever played. Power Memorial, from New York City, featured a pretty good center named Lew Alcindor.

The two teams played the previous season, a 65-62 Power Memorial victory. Whitmore, DeMatha’s 6’7” center, was responsible for guarding Alcindor.

From the CapitolBasketball.com account of the game:

“We will use a man-for-man defense and (6-foot-8) Bob Whitmore will guard Alcindor,” Wootten announced. “But we plan to give him some help.”

The enormity of DeMatha’s task became all too clear at a special dinner the evening before the game that brought both teams together. When it came time for the invocation, everyone in the room stood up – including Alcindor.

As the New York giant rose from his chair, DeMatha forward Sid Catlett elbowed his buddy Whitmore in the ribs to get his attention and nodded toward Alcindor.

“He just kept going up and up – like a rocket ship,” Whitmore recalled. “And my heart started going down, down, down. I’m realizing I have to contend with this guy at 6-7 or 6-8.”

Whitmore’s worst fears were realized. Alcindor was every bit as good as advertised. He dominated inside, scoring 35 points on 16-for-24 shooting. He also grabbed 17 rebounds and was clearly the difference in Power’s 65-62 victory.

Then came the rematch. Paul Mirengoff covered the game.

DeMatha had no superstar and its starting center, Bob Whitmore, was 6-7. Yet there was little doubt (at least at my Maryland high school) that their fab five — Whitmore, Bernie Williams, Sid Catlett, Ernie Austin, and Mickey Wiles — had the potential to beat Power Memorial. In fact, DeMatha had nearly done so the previous year at Cole, falling by a 65-62 margin after Whitmore fouled out (if I remember correctly). Alcindor scored 38 points in that one.

DeMatha coach Morgan Wootten spent the next 12 months gearing up for the rematch. For example, Catlett, who was 6-8, is said to have used a tennis racket during practice to allow the offense to practice against Alcindor-caliber shot blocking.

This time around, Wootten had Whitmore and Catlett double-team Alcindor. The strategy helped limit the great one to 16 points and DeMatha triumphed 46-43. Catlett (only a sophomore) had 13 points, including seven out of his team’s final nine. Williams contributed 12 points.

The game was covered by Sports Illustrated and the two major weekly news magazines. The coverage brought high school basketball a level of exposure it had never enjoyed before.

The two games also put DeMatha and its young coach on the map. The program would become perhaps the most storied in the country. When Wootten retired in 2002, his teams had amassed 1274 wins (and 192 losses), and he had already been inducted into the basketball Hall of Fame.

Each member of DeMatha’s fab-five would play major college basketball — Whitmore and Catlett at Notre Dame; Williams at La Salle, Austin at Syracuse, and Wiles at Maryland. Whitmore would have the dubious honor of guarding Alcindor in the annual UCLA-Notre Dame contest. UCLA won each game, but Catlett played for the Notre Dame team that defeated UCLA’s national championship team in 1971, after Alcindor graduated.

Only Bernie Williams had a substantial pro career (two years in the NBA and three in the ABA). But the fab-five is still remembered after all of these years for their landmark victory, a triumph of teamwork over individual prowess.

Notre Dame

Notre Dame Basketball was not performing to its historical standard in the early and mid 1960s – 10-14 for the 1963-64 season, 15-12 in 1964-65, and 5-21 in 1965-66. Three freshmen who were not eligible to play in those days were determined to change ND’s fortunes – Dwight Murphy, Arnzen, and Whitmore; but it was Whitmore opening the DC pipeline to Notre Dame that changed Irish fortunes.

Head Coach Johnny Dee’s long time friend Frannie Collins identified Whitmore as a potentially great player and great fit at Notre Dame; and once Whitmore was on campus, Collins made sure a young black man’s transition from Washington DC to Northern Indiana was as easy as possible.

Whitmore told author Michael Coffey for Echoes on the Hardwood, the definitive history book about Notre Dame Basketball, “I can’t say anything about Frannie without including his wife, Helen. Outside of my family, They were probably the biggest influences in my life. They’d send me articles from the paper at home when I was lonely that first year… And they never got anything out of it other than maybe coming to see us play a couple of times. I have so much love for them, it’s hard to find the words. They’re classics.”

The promise of a Notre Dame turnaround didn’t appear to be in the offing early in Whitmore’s first season of varsity basketball. The Irish started 2-9 including a blowout loss to UCLA and that Alcindor fellow from Power Memorial; but a stunning upset victory over Elvin Hayes (defended by Whitmore) and the University of Houston convinced the Irish that better days were ahead of them. They finished the 1966-67 with a 14-14 record.

The next season was Whitmore’s best statistically, 22.0 points and 13.8 rebounds per game; and the Irish improved to 21-9. Meanwhile three talented freshmen from DC, Whitmore’s high school teammate Sid Catlett, Collis Jones, and Austin Carr were preparing to join Arnzen and Whitmore on the varsity for the 1968-69 season.

Whitmore and Arnzen both averaged 17.7 points that season while that Carr guy started to make a name for himself with his 22.1 ppg average. Whitmore averaged 9.4 rebounds, and Arnzen grabbed 11.6 boards per game as the Irish again won 21 games.

Ring of Honor

“One of the class acts that we’ve had here,” Mike Brey said after last Saturday’s game. “You can argue who should go up next in the Ring of Honor. I always tell our former guys, ‘Work with me. We’re starting late. I know there’s a lot of guys who should be up there.’

“When we’ve selected a guy, I’ve always gotten an email or a phone call asking ‘What about so-and-so?’ It was unanimous with Bob Whitmore. What a great choice! He needs to be up there.”

Why unanimous? Because Whitmore was and is much more than his eye-popping statistics say he is. As DC stars followed Whitmore to Notre Dame, even through the days of Adrian Dantley and Duck Williams; Whitmore paid Frannie and Helen Collins’ kindness forward.

“He did a heck of a job with young players, especially African American players at a time when they were trying to get a feel for Notre Dame,” Brey said. “I know he was an unbelievable mentor to a Dantley and a Shumate. They all talk glowingly about him.”

Trailblazer, mentor, star… and member of the Ring of Honor. Congratulations, Bob Whitmore.

The post Trailblazer, Mentor, Star appeared first on NDNation.

“I’ve never had a situation like this, not five years at Delaware or 18 years (at Notre Dame) where I’ve had so many new guys.” Mike Brey said after the Fighting Irish defeated Duquesne 67-56 in their fifth game of the season. “We’re obviously in a total youth movement. We’ve sprinkled in some really good veterans, but I’ve never had it like this.”

Brey’s team was 4-1 at that point – three ragged wins against low level teams, a loss to a pretty good Radford team (still a game that an ACC team should win every time), and the just completed victory over a middle of the pack Atlantic 10 team.

“We’ve got a long way to go, which we kind of knew,” Brey said after the Radford loss. “Everybody can beat us. That’s who we are right now.”

Process

Every team goes through the same process each season. It’s only a matter of degree. Players have left the program. Returning players expect more significant roles. New players must earn roles, must be integrated into the program, and must adapt to college itself as well as college level basketball competition.

Forming a cohesive team with clearly defined roles is an annual task for every coach, almost a drill, as two or three players leave the program and two or three are added. Forming a cohesive team with clearly defined roles is not a drill when four leave and six are added, seven considering DJ Harvey’s limited time in the program before a knee injury ended his season last January. That takes more time.

Brey looked to define roles by using a ten-deep playing rotation. “My attitude was to play 10 guys in the first half, and they’ll tell us who’s going to play in the second half,” Brey said after the opener against UIC.

Brey experimented with player groupings and tried different starting lineups. “It’s night to night,” he said after game #7 of the process, a 76-74 home win vs. Illinois. “I don’t know if I’ve ever sat there with my staff and discussed personnel. That’s our challenge as a staff, to find that right mix at different parts in the game to help us.”

By then, Elijah Burns had left the program, skewing the team’s experience level even more to “lack thereof.” Brey described Burns as “a talker and a positive energy guy,” traits that would be missed on a young team; but the setback of his departure opened more minutes for the new players. Juwan Durham took advantage.

Durham, whose limited playing time included a DNP-CD vs Radford, had a breakout game against Illinois with 10 points, 4 rebounds, and 5 blocked shots in 17 minutes of playing time. He continued to play well and has found his way into the starting lineup.

In terms of basketball ability, Burns is replaceable. He’s a good all-around player, but there is no one aspect of his game that leaves observers asking how the team can fill the void. Points, rebounds, assists… Plenty of options, but quality people who work hard every day often aren’t missed until they’re gone. Steadiness hasn’t been this team’s strength.

In addition to Durham, Nate Laszewski stood to gain playing time after Burns left. He is known for his three point shooting, but Laszewski’s more consistent contributions have been rebounding and defense. “He’s a good position defender,” Brey said after the DePaul game. “He’s not the strongest guy, but he plays smart.”

Talking about the number of players in the rotation early in the season, Brey said, “At some point, you’re going to have to make some decisions.” One decision was made for him with Burns’ departure. Then came a second.

Freshman Robby Carmody already had to leave two games with shoulder pain before playing against UCLA. Then came the finals week announcement. Carmody needed surgery for a torn labrum. He was done for the season. Decisions made. Rotation set. Bring on Purdue.

The Unkindest Cut

Rex Pfleuger started the season shooting poorly and making uncharacteristic turnovers, but he played his best basketball games against UCLA (14 points, 5-6/4-4 shooting, 6 rebounds, 4 assists) and Purdue (10 assists, only 1 turnover) until…

Pfleuger tore his ACL on an awkward landing late in the Purdue victory.

Notre Dame lost its only senior, its best defender, a 35 minutes per game player. More significantly, Notre Dame lost its team leader.

“I know we’re the two captains on the team, but I look up to this guy too,” TJ Gibbs said when talking about Pfleuger after the DePaul game. “When I need a leader, I look to Rex. Just having this guy here with me and letting him lead me last year and my freshman year, I learned a lot from him. I can’t thank him enough. The way he’s leading this team is great.”

“He’s been a great leader. He’s been a great captain,” Brey said early in the season. “A lot of these young guys are comfortable because of the time Rex has spent with them unselfishly.”

Pfleuger will be around the team as a leader, but it isn’t the same when he can’t be on the court for practice and games. It isn’t the same when he can’t show the way as well as tell it. His stats can be replaced. His defense will be hard to replace, but the Irish don’t lack willing guards and wings. Rex Pfleuger’s leadership on the court will be missed, already has been missed.

What’s Next?

The Irish opened the ACC schedule with a loss at Virginia Tech, as expected. Still a work in progress, Notre Dame was outclassed by a very good veteran team.

To have a chance to make the NCAA Tournament, the Irish will need to be 9-9 in the conference which established itself as an up-and-comer in the final month of the season. Is that possible? Yes. Is it likely? Let’s look.

The Irish have home games against Syracuse, Boston College, NC State, Virginia, Duke, Georgia Tech, Wake Forest, Virginia Tech, and Clemson. Two of those games are probable losses (Virginia, Duke), and the Notre Dame team we’ve seen so far looks like a 4-3 team against the other seven. They really need to be no worse than 5-2 to have a shot at 9-9. We’ll know if that’s possible after Saturday’s game vs Syracuse.

That leaves the Irish needing to be 4-4 in their remaining road games against North Carolina, Georgia Tech, Boston College, Miami, Virginia, Florida State, Louisville, and Pittsburgh.

The bad news is that three of Notre Dame’s last four games are on the road. The good news is the same, three of ND’s last four games are on the road. If this team begins to overcome its youth and play to its potential come February, it will be more equipped to get the quality road wins it needs to make the tournament.
Tune in Saturday for the next chapter of Youth Movement.

The post Youth Movement appeared first on NDNation.

It’s easy to point at another team that made the NCAA field and make a case for its exclusion and ND’s inclusion especially given the injury losses Brey’s team had to overcome just to be considered. It’s a different team with Bonzie Colson in the lineup, 13-4 with its best player and 7-10 without him; and when second leading scorer Matt Farrell missed five games while Colson wasn’t available, the Irish were 1-4. On top of those losses, talented freshman DJ Harvey was lost for the season’s final 15 games (and counting) just as he worked his way into the starting lineup.

Missed Opportunities

It’s admirable that the team overcame so much uncontrollable adversity to be in consideration for the NCAA Tournament, but there were many missed opportunities along the way. Having Colson certainly would have made a difference in close losses to North Carolina, Louisville, Virginia Tech, and Miami, but the Irish were healthy for December losses to mediocre Ball State and Indiana squads. Those two games are the counterpoint to Brey’s “top 20 team when I have all of my guys” argument.

Still there were missed opportunities during the conference season, none more significant than the home loss to Miami on February 19th. The Irish had a chance to improve their conference record to 7-8 with Wake Forest and Pittsburgh to follow. They led the Hurricanes as late as the 7:00 mark of the second half only to lose by three points, 77-74.

“I thought we gave it away,” said an obviously angry Martin Geben after the game. “I thought we had a chance to win. It just came down to us needing to have heart, getting possessions, getting rebounds, getting some stops. I thought we gave it away.”

Understanding the significance of the loss, Matt Farrell was despondent.

“No excuses,” said Farrell. “We had guys on the floor who know how to play. This one hurts a lot.”

More than a lot, as it turned out.

The Shooting Roller Coaster

Notre Dame’s three point field goal percentage, 37.1%, ranks sixth in the ACC. That seems pretty good until one considers variance.

We all understand that there is an average because sometimes a team shoots a little better and sometimes it doesn’t shoot as well; but a coach hopes for consistent shooting. It’s hard to make a game plan for a team that is capable of making 55.2% and 60.9% of its threes in the two games against Boston College and 44.0% against North Carolina State but also made only 22.2% if its threes at Georgia Tech, 25.8% at Clemson, and 21.7% against Duke in the ACC Tournament.

Then there is the double overtime loss to Louisville, a 28.9% three point shooting performance. A performance to the team’s average in that game wouldn’t have gone to overtime.

The chart to the right (click here for larger view) shows the team’s three point shooting percentage from game to game against major conference competition (plus Wichita State and Ball State) during the 2017-18 season. Until the end of the season, good shooting was a random event. Then it stopped being an event at all.

The Irish were 6-4 against major conference competition when they exceeded their three point average. They were 7-10 when their three point percentage was below their average. More importantly, Notre Dame shot worse than its average in 17 of the 27 significant games on its schedule. Consistent shooting was the key to winning with Colson out of the lineup, and that didn’t happen.

The Future

Robby Carmody and Dane Goodwin should change the shooting variance over the next several years. Both incoming guards, known as outstanding shooters, should alleviate the consistency issue on their own; but there is additional good news tied to their shooting prowess. TJ Gibbs was a 42.2% three point shooter with Farrell in the lineup with him, but he was only a 34% three point shooter when his shooting was the focal point of opposing defenses when Farrell was injured.

Add talented transfer big man Juwan Durham, Nate Laszewski’s inside-out presence, Prentiss Hubb’s penetration game, and Chris Doherty’s physicality and you have a group that will complement the veterans immediately before it develops into the foundation for an ACC contender on its own.

More immediately, the Irish will play in the NIT. They have the ability to win it, but the inconsistency I described above makes it hard to envision a five game winning streak against good competition. I’d like to be wrong.

The post First Team Out appeared first on NDNation.

“The NCAA’s got a problem. It’s making zillions of dollars,” Dick Vitale told TMZ Sports “Why not allow it? Let them get paid. I really believe that in my heart, because this has gotten totally out of control right now.”

Saying the players deserve a cut of the considerable revenue that college basketball generates sounds reasonable, but it’s as superficial as prescribing cough drops for pneumonia. It’s a little relief for a serious disease.

“Eventually, I think these kids are eventually going to have to get paid,” former Arizona Wildcats star Mike Bibby told USA Today’s AZcentral reporter Richard Obert. “It’s tough for a kid who can’t even get a slice of pizza.”

This is about pizza money? Wasn’t that problem addressed with the stipend for living expenses?

“Everybody knows everybody’s getting paid,” Los Angeles Lakers rookie Lonzo Ball told CBS Sports’ Kyle Boone. “That’s just how it is. Everybody’s getting paid anyway, you might as well make it legal. That’s how I feel.”

It isn’t corruption if we change the rules.

Mind you, I am not opposed to compensating the athletes; but I would like to know that whatever changes are made actually will fix the major college sports.

The Myth

Colleges use the carefully chosen term “student-athlete” when discussing those who play varsity sports at their institutions… just college kids participating in an extracurricular activity just like the Glee Club except the Glee Club’s members don’t get tuition, room, board, and books in exchange for their participation.

Athletes get those benefits just like other gifted students the university wants to attract: musicians, mathematicians, et al. They will excel academically in their chosen discipline and, as professionals, bring honor to the school and its program… except athletics isn’t an academic discipline unless the student-athletes are physical education or kinesiology majors who will distinguish themselves as the gym teachers and health club managers those curricula prepares them to become.

I would buy the student-athlete model if every sport resembled lacrosse. The game is fun to watch. The game features skilled, athletic competitors who can advance to a professional league, but that isn’t a big money proposition.

Notre Dame’s Arlotta Stadium has a grandstand that holds approximately 2,500 spectators, and there is a grass berm on the other side of the field where fans spread blankets or sit in beach chairs. Watching a game in a full stadium is a great way to spend a few hours on a warm spring afternoon. Adults pay $5.00. Kids pay $3.00.

Most college sports resemble lacrosse, student-athletes who take their sports seriously competing at a high level within the context of a college education; but NCAA Division 1 football, men’s basketball, men’s hockey, baseball, and an increasing number of women’s basketball programs are nothing like lacrosse. Those sports are professional minor leagues that benefit from the State U and alma mater brand. These professional minor leagues perform in high priced stadiums and arenas with luxury suites and video boards. Ticket prices resemble the NFL’s and the NBA’s, not lacrosse’s. Media contracts bring tens of millions of dollars to each major conference school.

There is nothing inherently wrong with this arrangement until one considers:

1. The disconnect from a college’s mission
2. The abusive labor arrangement

The Mission

Let’s consider some mission statements.

Alabama

The University of Alabama will advance the intellectual and social condition of the people of the state, the nation and the world through the creation, translation and dissemination of knowledge with an emphasis on quality programs in the areas of teaching, research and service.

Penn State

Penn State is a leader in higher education and carries out its mission of teaching, research, and service with pride and focus on the future.

Our leadership in administration, faculty, and staff make our mission come alive every day. The Board of Trustees reviews and approves the budget of the University and guides general goals, policies, and procedures from a big-picture perspective. The President’s office ensures that all aspects of the University are running smoothly and promotes overall principles that students, faculty, and staff abide by for the long term. The University Faculty Senate represents the Penn State faculty with legislative authority on all matters regarding the University’s educational interests.

We strive to celebrate diversity in all aspects of our educational and operational activities. Our strategic plans are designed to result in ongoing improvements that help prepare future generations of leaders. Our budget is an integral part of our strategic process.

Michigan

The mission of the University of Michigan is to serve the people of Michigan and the world through preeminence in creating, communicating, preserving and applying knowledge, art and academic values, and in developing leaders and citizens who will challenge the present and enrich the future.

Notre Dame

The University of Notre Dame is a Catholic academic community of higher learning, animated from its origins by the Congregation of Holy Cross. The University is dedicated to the pursuit and sharing of truth for its own sake. As a Catholic university, one of its distinctive goals is to provide a forum where, through free inquiry and open discussion, the various lines of Catholic thought may intersect with all the forms of knowledge found in the arts, sciences, professions, and every other area of human scholarship and creativity.

I can find room for competitive sports in these contexts. I cannot find a basis for operating professional sports franchises in either the words or implications of these mission statements.

How did this happen? How did colleges go from the lacrosse model to the football/basketball model? It happened step by step over decades, and now we’re here with tail wagging dog. It’s an entrenched system that, at best, doesn’t conflict with the colleges’ missions. Unfortunately the FBI’s investigation and any number of other incidents as serious as assault cover-ups and child abuse have put these professional sports businesses at odds with missions.

This is a problem that has nothing to do with athletes’ compensation.

Labor

The labor issue, on the other hand, has everything to do with athletes’ compensation.

It’s important to acknowledge the compensation athletes already get. It isn’t trivial. Free college that costs others as much as $65,000 per year has more than nominal value. It has annuity value for life. In addition, trainers, facilities, and nutritionists prepare college athletes who aspire to professional athletics careers.

While significant, any reasonable estimate of this compensation’s dollar value does not reflect the economic value that football and basketball athletes create for their schools. Do the math.

• 80,000 tickets sold for $80 apiece, a sold out football stadium, is $6.4 million in ticket sales. Plus concessions. Plus parking. Plus licensed merchandise sales. Plus suite sales. Seven times a year.
• Average attendance of 12,000 for a basketball game with an average ticket price of $35 results in $420 thousand. Plus concessions. Plus parking. Plus licensed merchandise sales. Plus club sales. Eighteen times a year.
• Big Ten schools have a new series of media contracts that will bring each conference member school more than $50 million per year.

NFL players receive between 47% and 48.5% of total league revenue. The minimum salary is $465 thousand for rookies, and it escalates for each year of service.

NBA players receive 44.74% of total league revenue. The minimum salary is $815 thousand for rookies, and it escalates for each year of service.

More math:

• Ignore concessions, club memberships, etc. Just add the ticket sales for football and basketball and the media revenue cited above and you get $102 million in revenue.
• Apply the NBA’s percentage of revenue, the lower number, to the $102 million to get a players’ share of $45.8 million.
• Allocate the players’ share among 85 scholarship football players and 13 men’s basketball players because they’re responsible for virtually all of the revenue. That gets you to compensation of $467 thousand per athlete.

Granted, that’s back of the napkin analysis; but even if I’m off by 25%, it still is hard to claim that tuition, room and board is reasonable compensation given the economic value the athletes create. It’s such a good deal for the schools that they can fully fund scholarships at the limits set for every one of their sports and still pay less in compensation to all athletes than 44.74% of their football and basketball revenue; and the cynical part of me believes funding those scholarships merely is a cost of being in the business of football and basketball. It justifies an employment model that keeps labor cost low while keeping employment law, collective bargaining, workman’s comp, and any number of other employment issues out of the equation.

The employment model is a complicator when considering payments to athletes. If football and basketball players are student-athletes, no different from the lacrosse team or the rowing team, how can payment to one group not apply to all groups? Title IX is going to require equal treatment for the men and women athletes. This is why college athletics administrators don’t complain about the challenges of Title IX compliance. It’s another cost of keeping the cheap labor model alive.

This is a problem of equity. Colleges take advantage of athletes who don’t have good alternatives if they aspire to the NFL or the NBA. They impose the rules of an amateur model on their minor league sports, and enforce them arbitrarily and ineffectively as an underground fills the compensation void the colleges created.

Better compensation might be an answer. A minor league system like baseball’s might be an answer. Something else might be an answer. All are worth discussing, but let’s not soft peddle the problem. In terms of compensation, colleges are treating their athletes like the professional sports leagues treated their athletes until the athletes started to fight for a fair share in the 1960s. That’s unconscionable.

The Biggest Problem of All

“When I decide that a kid has the talent I am looking for, then I try to find out about his character. I once had an elementary school principal in Wichita, Kansas tell me, ‘Coach, I wish you’d say academics is the second priority.’

“No ma’am,” I said. “because if he’s a great player and a 4.0 student but he’s going to be a pain in the rear end, I want it to be somebody else’s rear end.”

 – Roy Williams

Williams’ North Carolina program engineered academic fraud for years; and when it was discovered, he and Athletic Director Bubba Cunningham successfully argued that NCAA punishment was not appropriate because the same courses athletes passed without doing any work were available to non-athletes. At the same time, the university told its accrediting agency that it was an athletic department problem, not a university problem.

But character counts.

“I’m at the stage of my career when it’s not only about winning and developing players.”

 – Rick Pitino

Pitino was fired after embarrassing the university one too many times via the FBI investigation. Louisville already was in the NCAA sights because Pitino’s player development activities included hiring prostitutes for recruiting visit weekends. Of course Pitino denied any knowledge of such activities and blamed someone from the non-coaching staff. Vacating UL’s 2013 national championship is among the penalties assessed.

“I’m myself,” Sean Miller said. “I’m the coach and I’m going to push our team to be the best we can be. I’m going to push each of our players to be the best they can be. I’m going to love them. Once in a while they’re not going to like things that you do. It’s like a parent.”

 – Sean Miller

Miller didn’t coach his Arizona Wildcats on Saturday after being recorded authorizing payments to a recruit. The University is trying to decide what to do with him.

“That we are the gold standard, not just for college basketball but for all of college athletics.”

 – John Calipari

Every victory Calipari’s Memphis 2008 NCAA Tournament finalist earned was vacated for using an ineligible star player. It wasn’t a first.  His 1996 UMass squad’s had to vacate its NCAA Tournament victories for using an ineligible star player. Now Calipari talks about running a gold standard program while filling his team with players who never intend to stay longer than one season. That isn’t illegal, but is this a gold standard for college athletics?

“Every person has a different view of another person’s image. That’s all perception. The character of a man, the integrity, that’s who you are.”

 – Steve Alford

When he was at Iowa, Alford met with one of his star player’s assault victims to introduce her to the leader of the local Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Under the guise of counseling, they tried to arm-twist her into dropping the charges. Indeed, the character of the man is who he is.

“Well, you know, one of things about…and I think first from coach Wooden is just, you know, the pyramid of success. And I think the Wooden leadership academy and what they’ve instituted here just continues that. And that’s something that I think that attracted me here. About the development of the student-athlete, not only on the field but off the field. And how important that Dan and the people in the athletic department think of it.”

 – Chip Kelly

Kelly left Oregon ahead of the NCAA posse. His indiscretions included a cover-up of illegal recruiting tactics; and during the investigation, we learned that he interfered through an intermediary to have a recruit’s grandmother declared his guardian because the mother wouldn’t sign the letter of intent for Oregon. Oregon received 3 years of probation and a reduction of scholarships. Kelly received an 18-month show-cause penalty that prevented other universities from hiring him.

The show cause penalty expired during Kelly’s unsuccessful time in the NFL. With Kelly eligible to coach in college again, UCLA awarded him a five-year, $23.3-million contract to continue the character building mission he started at Oregon.

There are so many more examples. Joe Paterno squelched child abuse reports. Hall of fame coach Jim Boeheim’s program was penalized for academic fraud. Michigan State coaches and administrators covered assault complaints and allowed the perpetrators to play. Mike Krzyzewski, once the shining example of winning while graduating players from his prestigious university, has fully embraced Calipari’s one-and-done approach.

Bad people are front and center in college sports. They are rewarded financially. They are lionized.

This is not lost on the athletes. It isn’t just financial inequities. They see that almost everyone involved is talking one way and bahaving to the contrary. Why should they follow the rules? Their leaders don’t. Why shouldn’t they get theirs by whatever method is available?

In a Nutshell

Major college sports are enterprises that embrace and reward dishonest people in leadership roles, don’t fit the universities’ missions, and impose a compensation model on the athletes that takes advantage of their limited options.

Cure that.

The post Diagnose Before Attempting To Cure appeared first on NDNation.

“If we go 2-0 and we get to 7-8 in the league, if you squint, you’ll see the bubble; and we’ll see what happens down the stretch,” Head Coach Mike Brey said after the BC victory.

So, Coach Brey, you’re telling us there’s a chance.

Brey isn’t counting the chickens yet. He has his team focused on the next step.

“We didn’t talk much or celebrate in there (the locker room),” Brey said. “We talked about getting another one. We need to go back, get some rest, get Rex healthier… I think he’ll be fine. It’s a bruise… and play against a good Miami team on Monday.”

The Path

Let’s look at the schedule:

Although this team cannot take any opponent lightly, Wake and Pitt are should-win games. The road finale is a likely loss unless Matt Farrell wants to make nine three point baskets in a row again. That makes tonight’s gave vs Miami the key to a spot on the bubble. A loss will require a trip to the ACC Tournament finals for NCAA consideration and, probably, a win in the finals to make the tourney.

Teamrankings.com gives the Irish a 67% chance of beating Miami. That’s the good news. However, the Team Rankings computers also project a final ACC record of 8-10. That’s a factor of Miami’s 33% chance to win tonight and whatever Wake Forest’s chance to beat Notre Dame on its home court is. If the Irish beat Miami, I expect the projection to be 9-9 when I get the Team Rankings email in the morning.

Miami

Miami is similar to Florida state, a team the Irish defeated 84-69 at home on February 10th – consistently a winning team, big men who don’t score a lot, athletic wings, well coached. Statistically, the Hurricanes mirror the Irish except when it comes to shooting, and ND runs hot and cold in those percentages.

Notre Dame is a team that must shoot well to beat good teams.

“I’ve felt, this week, like our program at the offensive end of the floor,” Brey said after the Florida State game. “This kind of feels like nothing is forced. The last two games I didn’t feel like we were forcing anything. Hopefully we can stay in that mode.”

The Irish did not stay in that mode in the North Carolina game. They missed early and often; and the more they missed, the more they forced shots.

They returned to a more normal offensive flow in the Boston College game, but it always looks better when one or more players is hot. Matt Farrell made his first nine three point attempts while his teammates made 4-11. Averaging 12.2 points per conference game, Martin Geben has covered some of the post scoring threat the Irish have missed since Bonzie Colson’s injury; but this is a team that must make outside shots to win. That doesn’t mean it has to be a perimeter team. Both Farrell and TJ Gibbs are capable penetrators, but their forays into the lane are as likely to end with a pass to a shooter as a shot at the basket. That looks a lot better when the shots fall.

Playing For Time

The Irish are trying to keep their heads above water until Harvey and Colson return. DJ Harvey’s most recent setback has his return scheduled somewhere between the ACC Tournament and next season. Colson’s target is the Pitt game. When it comes to tournament selection, the question is whether the committee will make an allowance for ND’s injuries and consider Colson’s return a positive. If he stays on schedule, he will have two conference games and whatever the Irish do in the conference tournament to show that he is the first team All-American he was projected to be. It will be a great story is that proves to be the case, but it isn’t a reasonable expectation for a player who has been unable to work his legs into basketball condition for two months.

I don’t know how the story of the 2017-18 season will end, but it has been an interesting tale to date. Despite the injury losses and despite the January losing streak, this group has not folded.

“This group has been calm the whole way, even in January,” Brey said last week. “They’re not freaking out, and I don’t talk to them like that… They talk like a veteran group and a poised group. Their poise helps them in those situations. We don’t panic.

“We’ve played two games where it got interesting in the second half, and we’ve made big shots, assassin-like shots, which is who this program has been. We didn’t see it much there in January, but that makes me feel good. That makes me feel like maybe we’ve got a shot at this thing.”

So… There’s a chance, enough of a chance to stay tuned.

The post So You’re Telling Me There’s a Chance appeared first on NDNation.

Stevens neglected to mention that a team that can’t shoot doesn’t have many options. Effort, toughness, rebounding, defense… Those are important, but they won’t win many games if the team can’t shoot. A team that can’t shoot is going to be a bad team. Bad record. Hard to watch. Ugly.

Basketball is ugly when a team can’t shoot.

Notre Dame will try to end a seven game losing streak when Boston College comes to Purcell Pavilion Tuesday night. During that streak, the Irish have made only 37.3% of their shots from the field and only 31.7% of their three point attempts.

The loss of Bonzie Colson has left Martin Geben as the only post scoring threat. Geben is a fine secondary threat and a good scorer off of screen and roll, but he isn’t a player who will draw a double team. That has made the Irish an outside shooting team with a whopping 43% of their shots taken beyond the three point arc over the last seven games. That would be fine if the shooters could make a decent percentage; but three point shooting has been abysmal. Why?

• Aggressive defense on the perimeter without fear of inside scoring
• Good shooters connecting at a lower rate than their historical norms
• Few good shooters in the first place

It isn’t as if the Irish aren’t getting enough open shots to score more than 66 points per game. They simply aren’t making them; and without an inside game, they can’t compensate by getting to the free throw line.

Wait Until Next Year

Barring Colson’s return and a run through the ACC Tournament that resembles the Maui Classic performance in November, an incredible long shot, the rest of this season is preparation for next season.

It isn’t even close to being too late in their careers for players like Nik Djogo and Elijah Burns to emerge, but they haven’t grabbed their seats on the 2018-19 train yet. With four top 100 recruits arriving in the summer and Juwan Durham becoming eligible after doing NCAA transfer penance, roles not defined now will be hard to create next season.

Freshman DJ Harvey has shown how good he can be (but isn’t yet). Sophomores John Mooney and TJ Gibbs have earned their stripes, Mooney as a promising scorer and rebounder and, more importantly, Gibbs as a leader.

I asked Gibbs what he has learned about leading after the Virginia Tech game.

“I have to be vocal,” said Gibbs. “Usually when Matt and Bonz are there I defer to them and feed off of their energy. Now it’s me trying to provide energy for our guys and making sure we’re all in the right positions. I’m pretty much learning a new role and position. I’ve always been able to look at Matt for the last year and a half and say, ‘Hey, man. What are we doing?’ He’s always been there and had my back. Learning it now is something that’s going to help me for next year and help this team.”

Accountability is an important leadership trait, and Gibbs is accepting that responsibility.

“I know I could have done a lot more,” Gibbs said after scoring 27 points against the Hokies. “I could have gotten my teammates more involved. I missed a layup. There’s a couple of things I could have done better.”

“He takes it really personal,” Mike Brey said when asked about Gibbs. “It’s powerful to be around, and I love it.

“His voice is more there in huddles at timeouts,” Brey continued. “He speaks up and has really good stuff (to say). He is an emotional guy, and most of that is good; but he gets so mad at himself when he makes a mistake. I’m trying to get him to move on to the next one, but that’s why he’s special. He’s got such an edge about him.

“He and Rex (Pflueger) do a good job of running our group and keeping it organized. They have become very good leaders and talkers to the rest of the guys.”

What to Watch

Train your basketball eyes on the following between now and mid-March:

1. Gibbs, Pflueger, Mooney, Harvey, and Durham are the likely starters for Game #1 of the 2018-19 season. When Harvey returns, all but Durham will play together regularly through the end of the season. Will that combination look like it’s a post player and some rotation depth away from being an ACC contender next season?
2. Watch Djogo and Burns. Will they make cases for roles in next season’s rotation?
3. Find live streams to state high school playoffs in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Massachusetts so you can catch Robby Carmody, Dane Goodwin, Nate Laszewski, and Chris Doherty against their states’ best competition. Who of those four will have rotation spots next season?
4. Prentiss Hubb is recovering from an early season knee injury, but you can put his junior highlight video on a continuous loop.

That’s what I’ll be watching.

The post Basketball Is Ugly When a Team Can’t Shoot appeared first on NDNation.

This is a process that unfolds as surely as spring follows winter and summer follows spring… except for the 2017-18 Fighting Irish basketball squad. Its story isn’t the usual straight line. Its story has plot twists in quantities that would make a B-movie screenwriter self-conscious.

The Good

The story began in Chicago where the Irish helped DePaul open its new home, Wintrust Arena. It was a typical opener – sloppy and competitive longer than it should have been; but in the end, ND pocketed a 14-point win. It was time to focus on the Maui Classic tournament and its challenging field as the Irish eased through a couple of tune-up games.

Notre Dame won the Maui Classic championship with a dramatic comeback victory over top ten Wichita State. The week was what a storyteller would call a narrative grabber. Returning to South Bend with the prestigious trophy affirmed preseason optimism. This was to be an exciting, fun cakewalk to the postseason.

The Bad

Every good story has a set of problems to solve, and we began to learn what they would be the week after the team returned from Maui. It started with a trip to East Lansing where Michigan State crushed the Irish 81-63. Notre Dame started slowly, trailed by 20 points at halftime, rallied to make the game somewhat competitive, and faded at the end.

Michigan State has an outstanding team, a legitimate national championship contender; so one poor performance could have been considered an anomaly. The Irish could right the ship against St. Francis and Ball State, grab a win at Delaware, and be ready to beat Indiana in the Crossroads double-header.

Nice plan. Didn’t happen.

Slow lackadaisical starts and general inconsistency began to define the team. The Irish trailed Ball State at halftime, rallied to a second half lead, surrendered the lead, and rallied again to tie the game with 21 seconds left only to allow Ball State’s winning basket with a second to play.

“We tried to get it to overtime but probably didn’t deserve to get it to overtime,” a frustrated Mike Brey said after the game. “They outplayed us.”

If slow starts were a problem, a consistent spark from the bench wasn’t part of the solution. No reserves played meaningful minutes before this season, and it showed in the players’ inconsistency. This team was struggling with roles, playing time roles as well as leadership roles. Asked if he would be more hands-on or would work through his leaders, Brey said, “I’m still trying to figure that out with this group.”

The Delaware game brought another slow start, but the Irish rallied late in the first half, led by nine at the half, and dropped 54 second half points on former ND assistant Martin Ingelsby’s team. Maybe the team was starting to gel.

It looked that way when Notre Dame built a 12-point lead in the first half of the Indiana game; but the Irish played poorly in the second half, missed free throws at the end of regulation, and lost in overtime. Lapses by the leaders at key times contributed to the loss.

“This is extremely disappointing for us,” Brey said after the game. “I loved how we were ready to play, but we couldn’t get away from them.

“We didn’t make some very smart plays down the stretch and overtime that really cost us.”

Slow starts? Lapses in key moments? Those things can be fixed over the course of the season. The staff and the team knew what was needed. They just had to work through the issues.

The Ugly

It was time for the story to turn to resolution and preparation for the big finish. The 2015-16 Fighting Irish had a similar start – losses to Monmouth, Alabama, Indiana, and Pittsburgh, games they were favored to win but lost thanks to sluggish first halves that put them in deep holes. That team rallied to go 11-7 in the ACC; beat Duke twice, once in Cameron Indoor Stadium and once in the conference tournament; beat eventual national champion North Carolina in South Bend, and make it to the regional final in the NCAA Tournament. A 2017-18 repeat would take work, but the Irish had the talent to achieve it.

But no…

Notre Dame opened the ACC season at home against Georgia Tech. Another slow start had the Irish trailing at halftime, but they rallied to a 68-59 victory. Bonzie Colson had 22 points and 17 rebounds. More importantly, Colson displayed the on-court enthusiasm and leadership that had been missing from this team. He refused to let his team lose.

“I thought our defense was better when we started to build the lead,” Brey said. “We didn’t have the let-down.”

The seniors led in the locker room at halftime, too.

“Bonzie and Matt were fabulous,” said Brey. “I heard them before I got in there. It was, ‘Relax. Twenty more minutes.

“Bonzie, especially, has been great.”

Two days later, we learned that Colson played that great game on a broken foot. He is out through February and possibly for the rest of the season. No leading scorer. No leader on the floor.

North Carolina State was next, a chance to make Brey Notre Dame’s winningest coach; but it would have to happen without Colson. The Irish responded to the challenge with a 30-point win. It was a great occasion, except…

Matt Farrell, the team’s second leading scorer, severely sprained his ankle with seven minutes left in the first half. Farrell would be out indefinitely.

Next came a trip to Syracuse, a slog-fest game that the resilient Irish won at the buzzer; but they haven’t won since then. Demoralizing close losses to ranked teams, 69-68 to North Carolina and 82-78 in two overtimes to Louisville brought additional bad news. Emerging, talented freshman DJ Harvey injured his knee, a bone bruise that would keep him off the court for at least a month.

“These were two amazing gut punches,” Brey said after the Louisville game. “I feel for them, but I think we’re pretty darned resilient.”

As much as the personnel losses have hurt the Irish, their own poor shooting has made their play look uglier than it really has been. Farrell has shot 8-25 and 2-11 from the field since returning to the lineup. TJ Gibbs was 6-20 and 5-17 in the UNC and Louisville games. Rex Pflueger is 5-24 over the last three games.

The Gold

Set in the old west, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly is a Western about rivals in a cutthroat search for gold. That’s a bit like the way Brey sees the rest of the 2017-18 season.

“Last year we lost five out of six in the ACC,” he said, “and we found our footing and scratched and clawed to the end. I’m not sure if we can scratch and claw to twelve league wins and a double-bye. I don’t know if that’s realistic, but can we scratch out five or six more and then go to Brooklyn and see what happens… Colson’s maybe back. That’s the world we’re in. That’s how we’re going to manage it.”

There is some good news. Martin Geben is the #2 rebounder in the ACC, averaging 10.9 per game; and he has made 63% of his shots from the field this season.

“He’s as good as any big guy in the league right now,” Brey said. “Thank God we have him.”

John Mooney is carving out a nice role for himself by playing better defense highlighted by 13 points and 7 rebounds in 23 minutes at Clemson; and Nik Djogo is emerging after it looked like he was a year away from being a significant contributor. Djogo’s three point baskets were crucial to keeping the Irish in the North Carolina game to the end.

We need him to get good fast because he’s going to play a lot of basketball,” Brey said of Djogo, “but I definitely like how he’s trending. How he’s played against two good teams in big time atmospheres… I’m really proud of him. He’s come a long way from October.”

If Farrell and Gibbs can return to their historical shooting percentages, the current rotation players continue to grow, and Harvey returns with his basketball growth not stunted by the injury, the Irish will be a tough draw in the ACC Tournament; and if Colson returns, the Irish will be as tough a lower seeded draw as there can be.

Every good story includes obstacles that must be overcome; and if it’s a good story, we don’t know how it will end until we actually get to the end. Often it looks bleak only to have the protagonist overcome.

There were three outcomes in The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. Sentenza (played by Lee VanCleef) was killed. Tuco (Eli Wallach) had his share of the Gold, but Blondie (Clint Eastwood) left him tied up in the desert. Blondie rode into the sunset with his share of the gold. Will the 2017-18 Notre Dame basketball team’s outcome be more like Sentenza’s, Tuco’s, or Blondie’s?

The post The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly appeared first on NDNation.

Let’s count the winning plays in the final minute of the championship game.

0:34 – Wichita State’s Landry Shamet made a short jumper to give his team a 66-63 lead.

0:19 – Colson missed a three and the ball went out of bounds. WSU ball. The game should be decided by WSU’s ability to make free throws.

0:17 – Instead, Matt Farrell took the in-bounds pass away from the WSU player and fed Colson for a short shot. WSU lead cut to 66-65. Winning play count – 1.

0:13 – ND fouled WSU’s Austin Reaves to stop the clock and send him to the line.

0:13 (part 2) – Reaves missed the front end of one-and-one. Colson got the rebound and passed to Farrell. Farrell drove to the basket but had his shot blocked. WSU’s center got the rebound; but Rex Pflueger reached in, cleanly grabbed a share of possession, and caused a whistle for a held ball. The possession arrow favored the Irish. One more chance. Winning play count – 2.

0:03 – In the timeout huddle, Brey talked the team through an in-bounds play it hadn’t practiced recently because he knew that WSU’s defense would do whatever was necessary to keep Colson and Farrell, from getting the ball. They were the first two options. The third option was Geben cutting down the lane after setting two screens, first for Farrell and then a second screen for Colson. If when WSU’s guys tried to play through the screens, Geben would be able to cut to the basket. That’s exactly what happened. Pflueger patiently waited for the play to unfold and got the ball to Geben. The WSU defender fouled to prevent a dunk. Winning play count – 3.

0:02 – Geben went to the line and made both free throws. The Irish led 67-66. Winning play count – 4.

0:02 – Time for a last ditch effort by WSU. Pfleuger was assigned to WSU’s best shooter, Conner Frankamp, to make sure he didn’t get the ball with a running start; but instead, Frankamp set a baseline screen to get the passer a clean look at a throw to Shamet at half court. As soon as Pflueger saw the screen, he ran to midcourt and stole the ball as soon as Shamet caught it. He traversed roughly a third of the court as quickly as a thrown ball traveled the same distance. Winning play count – 5.

3.5 Seconds

Several people made important plays in that last minute; but if you’re looking for tough, start with Pflueger. I don’t know how a guy can do more in three and a half seconds to help win a game than Pflueger did Wednesday night.

1. He tied up the WSU center on the rebound to get the ball back for ND.
2. He patiently waited for the third option to come open and made a good pass. Timeout wasn’t an option. He had to remain calm in the moment.
3. He made the final steal to prevent a last second desperation shot.

“The guy is unbelievable, one of the great winners ever” Brey said. “The man just wants to win, and man did he make every little play in the last 20 seconds.”It isn’t just Pflueger. There isn’t a soft player in the nine man playing rotation. “Bonzie and Matt Farrell were born chip-on-the-shoulder guys” Brey said. “When you were the 104th rated recruit in Bonzie and not even in the top 200 in Matt, there’s always that chip.”

That’s this team. Nobody is entitled. They come from the poor side of the basketball tracks, and they want to show the blue bloods how tough they are. I don’t know if this is a championship team. There are plenty of contenders, and they’re tough too; but I’m confident this team will not underperform its talent.

Michigan State

The Irish will play #2 Michigan State in East Lansing on Thursday. The Spartans should win. Tom Izzo is an outstanding coach, and this appears to be his most talented team. The TeamRankings stats site gives the Irish a 35% chance to win. Maybe those odds are statistically sound, but I expect the Irish to acquit themselves quite well; and if the game is on the line, they will make the winning plays.

Brey seems to agree. “This is an older group,” he said. “They expect a lot of themselves. They’ve been in big games, and they’ve delivered in big games. I’m excited about taking them north on Thursday. It’s another let it rip, nothing to lose kind of night.

“If we stay true to what we do for 40 minutes, and I think we have the ability to do that because we’re smart, we know who we are, we’re tough… we’re going to be in it. The full 40 minutes is the full 40 minutes, and I’m really pleased with how our group understood that and stayed in character (in Maui). That’s going to put you in game situations on the road on Thursday.”

Then the team that makes winning plays will prevail.

The Playing Rotation

Have you ever wondered how Brey decides on a playing rotation? I asked about the process and got an interesting stream of consciousness, first about getting playing time for Elijah Burns and John Mooney and then about developing talented freshman DJ Harvey’s role.

“What we try to do is kind of get a feel for what the rotation is going to be sooner rather than later,” Brey said. “I was freely throwing a lot of the big guys in there, rotating them through. I wanted Johnny and Elijah to feel that I believed in them. I felt getting them in the game, playing them in the first half… I just wanted them to feel good about it.

“One of the things that’s interesting with our rotation right now is we substitute first for Marty because he’ll get winded first,” Brey continued. “Then you’re going down the line with some other big guys, but I’m torn a little bit. Marty’s playing so well I may need to get him back in there after a quick rest instead of him sitting there for six or seven minutes. I think that’s going to be a night-to-night feel for the game.

“I’m really pleased with Elijah and Johnny. They’re our future after this year. I thought they played poised and gave us good energy as did DJ in Maui.”

Mooney and Burns have been in the program. They are part of the team’s culture. They know what kinds of work habits are expected. To Brey, it’s all about instilling confidence, but it’s different for Harvey. Harvey is gifted, but he needed to learn the habits necessary to succeed at the major college level.

“I’ve been very hard on him at times early in the preseason when he hasn’t been focused or he’s over-dribbled or he’s been sloppy,” Brey said. “I just thought he needed to be shocked some days. My standard for him is really high because he’s unbelievably gifted. I’ve been hard on him because I know how much we need him. The other guys have been the ones to hug him and teach him and make him feel good.

“Where he’s made great progress is not over-dribbling. He’s learned to move without it (the ball), get through screens, and cut. There’s where he’s made great progress.”

The long way of saying that player development is more art than science.

The post Winning Plays appeared first on NDNation.

Disclaimer

Disabuse yourself of any notion that criticizing the way a basketball player performed should be extrapolated to attitude and effort. If you don’t have the intellect to make that distinction, please stop reading now.

The Prophet, Part 1

If I heard Mike Brey say it once during the 2016-17 season, I heard it half a dozen times. “We aren’t going to be successful without our seniors.”

Unfortunately for the Fighting Irish, I always heard those words after a subpar performance by Steve Vasturia, VJ Beachem, or both. Also unfortunately for the Fighting Irish, Brey was right.

The two seniors have been major contributors to some of the great wins in the history of the Notre Dame basketball program, and they have been model citizens throughout their time in South Bend; but they weren’t able to put the NCAA Tournament exclamation point on their careers that their 2015 and 2016 predecessors had.

The duo combined to make 42.6% of their shots in ACC games and 37,5% of their three point attempts. Their make rates fell to 22.7% and 15.8% in the tournament. They averaged 28 points per ACC game but only 16 points in ND’s two tournament games.

What If

With half of its “big four” under-performing, the Irish barely defeated Princeton and lost to West Virginia. Seniors performing to their averages would have Irish fans checking airfare prices to San Jose. However, averages don’t tell a complete story.

An average is merely a mathematical calculation, the numbers from each box score divided by the number of games. Variance tells a more important story. Variance tells us if we can rely on getting 15 points from a player because he always scores right around that number. It tells us not to rely on the 15 points if the player gets 5 points one game and 25 points the next. This was a season of significant variance for the Notre Dame seniors.

I selected two groups of seven games from the Notre Dame season, the most significant wins and the most disappointing losses. The first swipe at the numbers told me what I expected. Performance dropped in the losses.

In the seven victories, the seniors made 47.3% of their shots, connected on 37.1% of their three point attempts, and scored an average of 27.3 points per game.

In the seven losses, the seniors made 33.8% of their shots, connected on 23.3% of their three point attempts, and scored an average of 21.3 points per game.

There is at least a little irony in that variance. Brey has spoken about his seniors’ even keel throughout the season. Their leadership strength has been keeping their teammates calm in the most stressful moments. Yet when it comes to their own basketball performance, the keel has been most uneven.

But there’s more.

The Prophet, Part 2

As I transcribed the numbers from the 14 box scores, a significant phenomenon started to become obvious. Vasturia and Beachem almost never had good games at the same time, at least not in the sample of 14 significant games.

Neither senior played poorly in all of the losses. For example, Beachem made 10 of 16 shots and scored 23 points vs Georgia Tech, and he played pretty well in both Duke Losses. Vasturia had good stat lines in the Villanova, Virginia, and West Virginia losses.

The phenomenon wasn’t limited to the losses. When Beachem played poorly in the Northwestern, Louisville, Miami, and last two FSU games, Vasturia played well; and when Vasturia struggled against Syracuse, Beachem scored 30 points. The duo played well at the same time in exactly one of the seven significant victories – the Virginia game in the ACC Tournament; and in both cases, their statistical success was moderate.

Meshing the two players’ games actually was a topic in Brey’s media day press conference last October. Asked about Vasturia’s 2016 tournament scoring struggles, Brey shared his view of the situation.

“All of a sudden, VJ Beachem just took off and took a little bit of (Vasturia’s) role. It’s interesting in the dynamics of a group sometimes, Steve… I give him credit. He didn’t want to force anything, but it was like, ‘We’re kind of rolling doing this, and I’ll defend, and I’ll play my secondary role.’”

Is it possible? Were two smart, talented, unselfish basketball players unable to make their games work together over the course of four seasons, or is their inability to play well at the same time a strange coincidence? Whatever the answer is, Irish fans will lament what could have been with consistent play from its seniors.

The Prophet, Part 3

The juniors had no such problems with consistency. Brey told us what to expect back in October.

Asked about replacing Demetrius Jackson’s and Zach Auguste’s points, Brey said, “I think we need to do that more as a group, but what’s been neat about our program is sometime during the year a guy has stepped forward and all of a sudden has been a key guy. A guy that’s on my mind a lot is Bonzie Colson with his career to date and his play in big games. He could be one of those guys.

“He’s playing facing the bucket more, and he seems to be more comfortable facing the bucket. He can make a jump shot. His three point shot is something we want him to take.

“I think Bonzie is going to be up there around double figure rebounds. He’s going to play those minutes, and he certainly has a great nose for the ball.”

Indeed, Colson averaged 17.5 points and 10.5 rebounds in ACC contests. He scored and rebounded in double digits 19 times over the course of the season.

Brey also talked about using his smaller lineup on media day. “For me, the challenge always is where are we using Bonzie at this point in the game. Will we downshift and play him as our only big? We’ll certainly come back to that. Does Pfleuger come in for Geben? Does Ryan come in for Geben? That has been really good for us.”

So good that Brey made small his primary lineup in early February.

The Prophet, Part 4

Talking about Matt Farrell’s 2016 postseason performance on media day, Brey said, “His decision making and his assist to turnover were things he needed to improve, and I think he’s made really good strides off of that. One thing I want him to do, and I got on him yesterday (in practice), he should not turn down shots. The guy is a heck of a shooter.”

Heck of a shooter? How about 45.3% three point shooting in conference games. Decision making needed to improve? Yes, that too. It still needs to improve.

The Prophet, Part 5

Clearly Brey knew his team’s strengths and challenges before it had its first official practice last season. Starting on media day and continuing throughout the non-conference schedule, he also indicated that he expected his team to be substantially better than the seventh and eighth place finishes that pundits projected.

That leads us to the 2017-18 season. Speculate all spring and summer, but if you want early information on the 2017-18 season that is accurate, the prophet will speak at media day in mid-October.

The post The Prophet appeared first on NDNation.