It's been a really long season.
Fair play to Penn State. I really doubted them and still don't think they're all that great. Still, the Lions deserved to win and really outplayed us tonight. I wish the Irish could have made one of their seven or eight wide open layups to make this competitive, but it was not to be. A really poor offensive showing throughout.
Thanks to the guys for working to make it competitive and showing some heart down the stretch, but the outcome was really never in doubt. A Kyle McAlarney layup (why he froze under the basket with no defenders within sight, I'll never know) and a Ryan Ayers three pointer would have cut the lead to one with over three minutes left. Unfortunately, it was not to be. When you shoot under 25% in the first half, you really don't deserve to win.
Tory Jackson was pretty good tonight. 9 points, 5 assists, no turnovers. Kyle McAlarney missed a bunch of chances near the basket and was the culprit on a few of those missed layups. Ryan Ayers was ice cold. 1-7 from the arc really killed us. Zach Hillesland had 2 points and 6 rebounds and was 1-5 from the field. Luke Harangody bounced back from a completely awful first half to finish with 17 and 10 on 5-16 shooting.
Off the bench, Jonathan Peoples provided a couple nice threes to keep it respectable. 8 points for him. Ty Nash had 7 rebounds before fouling out. Luke Zeller had 8 on 2-5 from beyond the arc. Carleton Scott made a three pointer in less than a minute of playing time, making you wonder why he hasn't seen any more action this year.
33% shooting for the team. That just killed us. Penn State played pretty solid defense, but the Irish shot themselves in the foot over and over. As you may have noticed, this was a pretty short recap. I'll try to knock out the year-end stuff tonight as well.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
21 comments:
Best of luck, Irish! This is the game I've been waiting/hoping for since the NIT teams were announced. Do us proud, ND.
Hope the Lions sleep tonight!
GO IRISH! Beat psu!
Soft and ice cold at the same time. This may be a blowout.
Why do we even show up at Madison Square Garden? It's like kryptonite to Superman. Except we're not even Superman.
Come on Irish - we can do this!
Our long national nightmare is over
Just what will it take for Brey to lose his job?
It's hard for me to say how Hansbrough and Martin will do, but my God! We could be as bad as St John's next year if Harangody bails.
Hillesland should stick to blogging.
God I hate the Big Ten. And that's only because there's not a better word than hate. Maybe if I learn Russian . . . they should have a stronger word.
Ron Franklin is usually pretty fair, but he is way too charitable to ND. The only thing we're not doing is shooting well? Wel, I suppose the mediocre defense we're playing is an improvement.
And Penn State's coach fired up his team by saying "the Big East thinks they're hot shit"?? Well, yes, Coach, it is. Any Big East team worthy of the name would be up by 35 at this point. Why are you letting us hang around?
Signs of life . . .
Perfect pass to Hillesland, and he gets stuffed. Honest to God, giving him playing time is like reading Shakespeare to a pig. A complete waste of time.
Actually, that might have been McAlarney, not Hillesland. In any event, a wretched display.
I love Mike Brey. He has done a ton with what he has to work with (facilities, money, etc - not the players). But that last possession alone is enough to put him on the hot seat next year. Down 7, 2 minutes left, and we run out the shot clock without a shot. I'm speechless.
Brey calls timeout, and it results in a shot clock violation. We could have gone five blocks west, pulled a drunk off the street, and he'd have done just as well.
And now Raftery comes out with the "Brey is a class guy" bit. So stipulated. He has proven that he will not take this program to where we need it to be. Every day he remains is a day wasted.
Thanks for the memories, Kyle and Luke. Happy trails wherever your Notre Dame education and experience take you. Enjoy your last few months at our Lady's university. We should all be so lucky to have those wonderful days back again.
Hey guys, I'm not here to gloat.
That really ended up being a great game. Even when we were up big, I knew it was just a matter of time before you guys started hitting some shots. Frankly, when you cut it to four, I had my head between my legs crying.
You guys should be proud of your players, they gave it their all tonight. A couple rolls going your way and it could have been us heading home.
Thanks for being good hosts, I don't seem to have any need to be here, so this should be my last comment. You run a great blog, Mike, and keep up the good work.
Good luck this football season, too.
Devon is far too kind. This was a performance all too typical of our season. Poor preparation, streaky shooting, no toughness, and failure.
Part of playing and competing on the road comes down to being prepared mentally. We were not ready to play - pure and simple. I think Mac and Luke H.'s legs were gone by February - good job Brey. Mac can't make open layups and Luke was short for about the last third of the season. Again, the question - Is this as good as it gets with Brey and, if so, is this acceptable? I think ND can, and should do better.
Tough conversations are needed between Swarbrick and Brey this off-season. Some glaring mistakes -
1) Wearing your team out by February
2) No defensive intensity
3) No set offense or even out of bounds plays
4) Not playing Scott - he does look good in warm-ups however!
5) Playing Hillesland
6) 0, none, nada, zip player development.
My son hit the nail on the head last night. He's 13 and during the first half he says, "This half exemplifies everything that was wrong with our team this year."
harangody went for 31 against patrick patterson, a pretty good player. i dont think legs were the problem. i respect your opinion but i dont think that was the problem.
A good point about Patterson. For some reason, though, Luke just wasn't Luke for most of the last third of the season.
I'm sure the dead legs played some role for Kyle, but I'm not sure about Luke.
He definitely wasn't the same over the last third of the regular season, though things did get a bit back to normal in the NIT. I think he was trying too hard. The seven game losing streak threw him off and made him start forcing bad shots. Once he wasn't hitting, the frustration kept him from getting his normal production. Looking at South Florida (6-15), Rutgers (7-25), @ UCONN (7-18), NIT Rutgers (3-17) we see a lot of really poor shooting games. Another factor is how relying on his midrange game took him out of position for offensive rebounds (he had four games that were not double-doubles down the stretch, equaling the number from before and during the losing streak).
Next season he needs to more patient on the offensive end and not force as many shots early in the 35-second clock. Just as importantly, however, he needs to keep up the effort on the boards at both ends. Rebounding will help a poor shooting night from psychologically taking you out of the game. It will also lead to second chances and easy baskets.
Post a Comment