Brey Blasts ACC
Notre Dame shot 27 free throws Saturday night at fifth-ranked Florida State.
It’s arguable the Fighting Irish should have had at least two additional charity tosses --- maybe even more.
Which means what might have been is an absolutely fair question to ponder in a game in which neither Notre Dame’s early lead nor its late charge was enough. The Irish fell, 85-84, to the host Seminoles.
Twice the Atlantic Coast Conference Network broadcast crew wondered aloud if Irish post Juwan Durham should have gotten opportunities for and-1 plays in the game’s closing minutes. Durham scored 10 of his 16 points in the second half, and Durham’s late steal of an FSU in-bounds play with a scant 16.9 seconds left provided the game’s final points.
Barely a minute earlier, Durham had scored on an expert feed into the paint and appeared to get hacked as he banked in a layup off the glass that left the Irish down 83-79.
It all was enough to leave Notre Dame coach Mike Brey fuming in his postgame comments.
“Durham get fouled on the last one?,” Brey asked, somewhat rhetorically. “He get fouled on that? How bout the walk on (Rex) Pflueger at halfcourt?
“Sometimes we’re treated, we’re treated by the officials like we haven’t brought football as a full member, but we get a full share of the ACC Network TV. Are you kidding me?”
In a chaotic, loose-ball scramble in which Notre Dame had turned over the Seminoles, Pflueger briefly possessed the ball, had it deflected away and then came back down with the ball and passed it out to the wing.
Officials ruled that Pflueger traveled in the wild sequence, which still did not seem clear despite the broadcast’s slow-motion replays.
That sequence of events brought a demonstrable yell from the fifth-year senior Pflueger and prompted a technical foul to be whistled on the Notre Dame bench.
FSU’s Trent Forrest hit one of the two free throws that stemmed from the technical – the very margin in the game’s final score.
“He tees up our bench from across the court because he’s pissed-off at us?,” Brey quizzed. “I’m frustrated, man. And a tip of the cap to Florida State. They made great plays, I love Leonard (Hamilton, the FSU coach), he’s a good friend and they’re a great team.”
Brey, however, wasn’t done sticking up for his team.
“You gotta be kidding me, man,” Brey exclaimed. “C’mon man! We’re in the league, too. We’re in the league, too, now. C’mon (ACC official/referee) John Gaffney!”
STREAK OVER
John Mooney entered Saturday night’s tilt as college basketball’s rebounding leader and the nation’s only player who averaged at least 15 points and 13 boards.
Mooney delivered 16 points in the losing effort, but he was held without a rebound for almost the first 14 minutes of the game and finished with just five boards in the narrow defeat.
The sturdy stat-line still represented an individual setback for Mooney, who had entered the game with a Notre Dame-best 12-straight double-doubles.