Slow Start Dooms Notre Dame
Notre Dame (7-9, 1-4) has struggled in tough environments during the first two seasons under Micah Shrewsberry and Saturday’s trip to Duke (14-2, 6-0) was no different.
The Irish fell behind 14-0, which is also a consistent trait when facing top competition for this group, and Duke finished off a late Notre Dame run to win 86-78.
Now, the other consistent trait under Shrewsberry is the fact his team didn’t give up. In fact, Notre Dame went on an impressive 13-0 run to trim the lead to 80-76 with 32 seconds to play.
“Credit to Duke,” stated Shrewsberry. “They’re a fantastic team. Jon’s done a great job with this group in how they defend and how they’re playing offense. I’m proud of our guys for our fight playing against one of the best defensive teams in the country. To shoot a good percentage and not turn the ball over a lot, I’m proud of that.”
Markus Burton led the Irish with 23 points and pulled down a team-high five rebounds. Braeden Shrewsberry added 14 points and four assists, while Tae Davis and freshman Sir Mohammed each scored 11 points.
“When they’re allowed to stand and just stare at the ball, they’re unbelievable defensively,” stated Shrewsberry. “We thought movement was the way we can try to get some kind of crease, some kind of advantage. Markus only needs a little crease to drive it. Braeden is really good at knowing when to set it and when to slip it.
“I think going into next year and the year after, we should have the best backcourt in the ACC with those two guys.”
Where did Notre Dame lose this game?
It couldn’t stop future NBA lottery pick Cooper Flagg. The freshman scored 42 points on 11-of-14 shooting from the field and 16-of-17 from the free throw line. Flagg also added six rebounds and seven assists. The 42 points from Flagg set a new ACC freshman scoring record.
“He’s a good player,” said Shrewsberry. “It wasn’t as much him, but it’s everything that happens around him. He manipulates the defense because he’s a good passer. You have to try to take away certain things. This goes way back to 2011 when I was at Butler and we were playing Duke with Kyrie Irving. With the shooting around him, and the lob sets they have around him, Cooper is an unbelievable player, but Khaman makes him better. Tyrese Proctor makes him better.
“He shot more free throws than our team. They got the right mix of guys with him. If they had him and didn’t have shooting or had people who needed the ball, then it probably wouldn’t work. They’ve done a good job of finding people to put around him.”
Flagg’s classmate, Khaman Maluach, added 19 points and 10 rebounds for Duke.
OFFENSE, OFFENSE, OFFENSE
The Irish stayed in the game due to a blistering 61 percent hit rate from three. Notre Dame hit 14 treys on the day as Markus Burton hit four and Shrewsberry nailed three. In fact, Notre Dame likely would have been blown out in the first half, but the Irish were able to weather the storm and finished 8-for-12 from downtown.
That said, the Irish also struggled to find any type of success inside the arc. In the first half, Notre Dame made just four shots inside the three-point line as Duke’s length stifled any drive or rim attack for the Irish offense.
On the flipside, Duke went 7-for-17 from deep in the first 20 minutes to hang with the Irish hot shooting, but in the second half, the Blue Devils shot just 1-for-7.
DEFENSE AND EVERYTHING ELSE
Notre Dame’s defense was non-existent for most of the day. The run at the end was likely due to Duke getting a little too comfortable and Cooper Flagg pushing for the 40-point mark more than anything the Irish did defensively.
It’s likely Shrewsberry entered the game knowing Flagg was going to get his and Notre Dame would have to live with it. Yet, there were little changes throughout the game after Flagg got hot. Even in the second half, Duke was still able to switch Burton onto Flagg, and adjustments need to be made so that doesn’t happen.
Notre Dame did use a variety of rotations and ended up playing small ball for a significant amount of the game to try to get back in the game. The ability to play around with various lineups is progress for this program as they weren’t able to do that a year ago.
“For us to be able to go from game to game and be able to change some different stuff is a credit to our guys defensively in a short amount of prep time to get ready for what they did and what they try to do,” explained Shrewsberry. “We had some stuff we were going to do early, but we let them get going too quick, so we had to scrap some of the stuff because we had to fight to come back.”
Shrewsberry did go to a zone defense in the final minutes, which slowed down the Duke offense and allowed the Irish to make up ground in a hurry.
“To be honest with you, they took their foot off the gas,” said Shrewsberry. “That’s probably something he’s talking about right now in the locker room or watch film with them about. Some of the threes they missed, they had some turnovers and some guys turning shots down. They relaxed. They got up big and relaxed.
“Our guys kept fighting. Credit to our guys for keeping the fight and giving ourselves a chance. We had to try and do something and mix things up. There’s stuff we’re just doing on the fly to try and change it up and get momentum our way.”
The Irish have been a competitive team on the glass this year, but Duke dominated the boards 33-21. In addition to the glass, Duke scored 26 points in the paint, while the Irish totaled just 16.
Notre Dame was not able to do anything inside the paint, which prevented them from sticking with Duke at the free throw line. Duke went 30-of-35 and Notre Dame finished 10-of-16, which also included Shrewsberry going 1-of-4 from the line. He entered the game 20-of-22 on foul shots.
UP NEXT
The Irish will have a quick turnaround as Notre Dame will host Boston College on Monday night at home. Tip is set for 7:00 PM ET on ACC Network.
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