SOUTH BEND, Ind. — A few weeks ago Mike Brey thought he’d do a little scouting and tuned in to watch Marquette go up against Baylor.
It wasn’t long before he turned it off.
That kind of a 26-point destruction of a ranked team was hard to watch.
It was much harder to watch in-person, Sunday.
“I thought they could do that to us,” Brey said about the peek at Marquette against No. 12 Baylor, “and they did.”
Marquette, 8-3, unranked and picked to finish ninth in the 11-team Big East, used its relentless attack-mode style to throttle the Irish at Purcell Pavilion, 79-64. A crowd of 7,098 — a good portion of those Marquette fans — took it all in.
Close losses to Purdue, Wisconsin and Mississippi State have kept the Golden Eagles out of the rankings for now, but it doesn’t figure to last.
On a day that started out festive with the buildup and halftime induction of former Notre Dame star John Shumate into the program’s Ring of Honor, the Irish got slapped with the reality that its defense is lost.
“I told them, I said ‘Guys, I gotta figure out how to help you get better, and we'll keep working on that as a staff,’” said Brey, whose club dropped to 7-3 heading into next Sunday’s game against Georgia in Atlanta.
A step — sometimes two — slow in its man-to-man defense, the Irish were beaten to the bucket for 19 layups in 32 shots compared to 6-for-18 for them.
For the game, Marquette totaled 50 points in the paint to Notre Dame’s 22. The Irish forced a measly three turnovers — Marquette averaged almost 13 coming into the game — and yielded 15 offensive rebounds.
“We had how many (shots) around the bucket that we didn’t finish?” Brey said, “and especially early, we got frazzled a little bit because of their athletic ability. Even though I thought we got into the lane, you have to make them pay more. And I don't think we really did that.”
Notre Dame freshman JJ Starling did most of the work getting to the bucket, but he was just 4-for-12 for the day from the field and totaled 12 points. Marquette’s speedy 6-foot-4 sophomore Kam Jones was 4-for-12 on 3-point shots but 6-for-8 in and around the lane.
He finished with 25 points, 10 above his average, and was one of four Golden Eagles in double figures. Oso Ighodaro, a 6-9 junior, had 16 points and 18 rebounds, seven of those on the offensive end.
“They are really good, between their ball pressure and speed off the dribble, which is our Achilles’ heel,” Brey said. “I mean, we really didn't have many answers. But I think you’ve gotta give them credit — the physical, athletic defense pushing you out kind of sets the tone.
“We are who we are right now. We'll figure out later in the week after a few exams how to help our group get better, but I give a lot of credit to Marquette.”
Things started to go south on ND late in the first half.
A basket in the lane by Cormac Ryan gave the Irish a 28-25 lead with 5:40 to go in the half, but they would score just one more point before the end of the half and trailed 34-29 at the break.
In that final five minutes, Notre Dame missed four 3-pointers and had two turnovers. Slowly, the Golden Eagles pulled ahead with their control of the lane.
And they took over the game in the first few minutes of the half.
A 7-0 run looked easy with two layups and made it 41-29 before grad student Nate Laszewski, who led the Irish with 20 points (7-for-15 from the floor), connected on a 3-point shot.
Marquette did the Irish a few favors when it settled for some 3s, rather than drives in the lane. The Golden Eagles finished at 48% shooting for the game, but was just 6-for-23 (26.1%) from 3-point range.
Notre Dame’s best chance to apply some pressure came at the 10:42 mark of the second half, when David Joplin was charged with a flagrant foul.
Laszewski made the two free throws to get it to 54-47, but a miss by Dane Goodwin on the ensuing possession reduced the threat.
The margin never got under eight after that and grew to as much as 20.
“We’ve got to keep getting better and we have the tools to do it,” Laszewski said. “And we’ve done it before this year, so we’ve just got to get back to that.”
Brey won’t have his team back for practice again until Thursday.
Georgia, unranked at 7-3, is at least a Power 5 opponent and could mean something at NCAA Tourney bid-reckoning time.
But Brey needs to find answers somewhere fast. This team needs balanced scoring and help all around and didn’t get enough of it from the four other grad students on the floor.
“I think Marcus Hammond, he's coming,“ Brey said of the grad student transfer from Niagara who was playing in just his third game because of a knee injury.
He had eight points in 23 minutes.
“There's a great chance we get that darn (knee) brace off him on Friday. And he’s a guy who can get in the lane and make some plays. He's still feeling his way and he's still getting there. We get that brace off him, and he's going to be really more of a key for us.”
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