SOUTH BEND, Ind. – There was a thought that the dominant, high-scoring days that earned Markus Burton Indiana’s Mr. Basketball honor last winter as a senior at Penn High School in Mishawaka, Ind., were behind him.
As a Notre Dame freshman handed the point guard responsibilities by first-year coach Micah Shrewsberry, it was assumed the 5-foot-11, 166-pounder would be more distributor than point producer.
Then came the season opener Monday night against Niagara in front of 7,338 at Purcell Pavilion.
Working his magic primarily in the lane over and over, Burton brought the Irish offense and fan base to life with a dazzling 29-point, four-assist, four-rebound performance to help produce a 70-63 victory that wasn’t secure until the final minute.
The point total is a record for a freshman making his Notre Dame debut, held previously by LaPhonso Ellis at 27.
“It just comes naturally,” Burton said of the offensive effort. “My team trusts me to do what I do. And the coaching staff trusts me to do it. So, when they trust you and you’ve got everybody behind you, then you shouldn't have to worry about anything. I was out there having fun, and I was just doing what it took to help my team win the game.”
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Shrewsberry wasn’t surprised. He has seen Burton’s superior ball-handling in practice allow him to probe the lane and find cracks and creases in a defense.
But a couple things changed to present some extra challenges Monday night.
On Saturday, 6-10, 254-pound sophomore center Kebba Njie, a transfer from Penn State and expected starter, suffered a hand injury and will be sidelined for awhile, though it’s not expected to be long-term per Shrewsberry.
Then Niagara, led for the fifth year by former Duke player Greg Paulus (51-62 after a 16-15 mark last season), put up a scrappy defense that took a bite out of Shrewsberry’s plan.
“Yeah, I felt he struggled early,” Shrewsberry said of Burton. “But it was something new, right? Like, how they came out and how they guarded us was new, and like those are gonna be adjustments that he has to make on the fly right in front of everybody.
“I get it. I know exactly what he's going through. Two years ago, I was a first-year head coach in the Big 10 coaching in front of everybody. Like, every mistake is talked about. Every mistake seems huge. And this is a freshman point guard. And [playing] at home. I was eight hours from my home doing all that. But he's at home and doing this, and I thought he got off to a little bit of a slow start.
“But he showed his toughness when he just kept going and kept going and kept going. They took away what we wanted to do and how we wanted to play. They forced us to play one-on-one, right? That's why we only got nine assists. We're not a nine-assist team. Like we're a high-teens to 20-assist team. But how they game-planned for us, they forced us into a one-on-one game and I know one thing, he's (Burton) a good one-on-one player.“
There wasn’t much left of the Irish roster following the resignation of head coach Mike Brey after 23 years.
Just a few points and rebounds returned from a disastrous 11-21 season and Shrewsberry rebuilt the roster with incoming freshmen and transfers.
Matt Zona, a 6-9 senior center who has played little and averaged just seven minutes off the bench a year ago, got the unexpected start with Njie’s injury and played 16:35 of solid defense.
“We were gutsy, we were gutsy,” said Shrewsberry. “They made big shots … I'm looking at the stats like these dudes have made threes in their career. And they're stepping out making threes, making jumpers and like, we still would come down the next possession and get stops. Our guys didn't panic. And they just stayed with it and stayed with it. And then you do that and the game honors toughness, man.
“They slowed it down to a crawl and they executed and they made us guard. And I thought we had some guys rise to the challenge when we needed to get some tough stops.”
With 4:01 to play, Ahmad Henderson II weaved his way through the lane for a bucket to get the Purple Eagles within two at 63-61. They wouldn’t score again until 10 seconds remained.
A Burton drive gave the Irish a 65-61 edge with 3:36 go and his two free throws a minute later made it 67-61.
ND’s Tae Davis, a sophomore transfer from Seton Hall, added a free throw with 1:30 to play and freshman teammate Logan Imes hit a couple of free throws to produce the biggest lead of the night at 70-61 with 15 seconds to go.
It was a struggle, but hardly unexpected.
“I didn't come in here thinking we were gonna beat Niagara by 40 points,” Shrewsberry said. “I didn’t know how good Niagara was gonna be. And I know how young we are, right? So every game is gonna be tough for us. Every single game. We don't have a huge margin for error. So our details have got to be really good. And if we're doing that, we'll have success.
“I'm not putting numbers on anything. I want to play our best basketball in March. And we're a long way from it. But you see signs of us having success and doing good things together on offense and defense.”
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Notre Dame, which hosts Western Carolina at 2 p.m. EST on Saturday, struggled mightily offensively at the start.
Shrewsberry figures first-game pressure had something to do with it.
“I thought to start the game, every shot that we took was trying to be a 10-point shot,” he said. “We were so wound up and so tight, and then when they started scoring, we tried to hit 10-pointers, right? And that's not how you win. You’ve got to win it one possession at a time, one after another and you string stops together and you string buckets together.”
Niagara led by as many as 12 midway through the first half. That was about the time Burton started to hunt his shot. He finished 11-for-21 and 6-for-6 from the line.
Every time Niagara threatened to pull away, it was Burton who kept the Irish close.
Notre Dame trailed until the 14:24 mark of the second half when it finally caught Niagara at 38-38. The first lead came at 13:42 on a 3-pointer by freshman Carey Booth.
After Niagara tied it back up at 51 with 7:45 to go, Burton got to the rim on an inbounds pass for a layup to give the Irish the lead at 53-51. Then after Niagara pulled ahead on Luke Bumbalough’s 3-pointer, Burton responded with a 3-pointer in the next possession to give ND a one-point lead.
A Davis layup with 4:55 to play and Burton drive 20 seconds later produced a 63-59 edge the Irish would not relinquish.
Bumbalough and Henderson each had 14 for Niagara, which shot 42.4 percent for the game, including 7-for-17 on threes (41.2%).
Notre Dame struggled from the perimeter, going 3-for-17 on 3-point shots, but still finished at 50.9% from the field for the game, thanks to work in the paint, where the Irish had a 48-28 advantage.
Both teams protected the ball well, committing seven turnovers each, and the Irish had a 35-29 rebounding edge as Booth had a nice debut with nine boards to go with 10 points.
“Winning’s hard, man, winning’s hard,“ Shrewsberry said. “I’ve been a part of teams that lost a lot, and I’ve been part of teams that have won a lot. So (I told our team) when we walk in that locker room, no matter what the score is, no matter how you played or how much you played, you celebrate winning.”
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