For every step of progress Micah Shrewsberry’s second Notre Dame men’s basketball team takes, there’s a message from his club that it’s not as real as it looks, or certainly anything approaching permanence.
Saturday night was a two-steps-back kind of alert.
Despite facing one of the worst defensive teams in the country, the Irish offense was sluggish, at times sloppy, and Miami’s offensive potential that Shrewsberry warned his team about going in was just good enough to upend the Irish, 63-57.
More Content
► Portal Roundup: Former Notre Dame OL Pat Coogan commits to Indiana
► Notre Dame OT Guerby Lambert can create opportunity this offseason
► Chat Transcript: Who's next at QB for Notre Dame and how soon will we know?
► Rivals100 OL Tyler Merrill commits to Notre Dame football
► Notre Dame makes it official as Chris Ash is set to lead the Irish defense
“This is a team that’s completely dangerous,” Shrewsberry said before the game.
It was a long time coming, but the Hurricanes finally proved it.
It was 5-17 Miami’s first win in 11 Atlantic Coast Conference games this season and 21 dating back to last season. And it gave interim head coach Bill Courtney his first win since taking over in late December following Jim Larranaga’s resignation.
Nijel Pack, one of the club’s top players who starred on the Final Four team two seasons ago, missed his 12th straight game with a leg injury.
The Hurricanes came in hurting and were 7 ½-point underdogs.
And 10-11 Notre Dame (4-6 ACC), which trails 18-13 in the series and has lost four straight, never made it look that way in front of an audience of 3,649 in the Watsco Center in Coral Gables, Fla.
How about this for a trying finish?
Trailing by four with 11 seconds to play, ND’s Matt Allocco was fouled on a 3-point attempt.
It was a gift from the ’Canes, a team ranked 353rd in the country in field-goal defense (49.5%) and 354th out of 355 Division I teams in 3-point defense (39.6%).
Allocco, who finished 1-for-6 from the field for the night, barely grazed the front of the rim on the first attempt, and each of the next two bounced around and out.
It concluded a 2-for-9 performance from the line for the Irish on a night when they were desperate for points, shooting 42.6% from the field, and finishing well below their season average of 75 points.
Leading scorer Markus Burton, averaging 20.4 points a game, led with 17, but was 7-for-17 from the field – 2-for-7 on 3s.
The Irish offensive movement often bogged down and as it did, Burton struggled to create his usual space for jump shots in the lane. With the Irish down three and just under a minute to play, he drove into trouble. Trying to stop in traffic, he instead slipped to the floor for a crucial travel call with 51 seconds to go.
On Miami’s next possession, Notre Dame couldn’t corral a rebound on an Austin Swartz 3-point attempt, the ball going off the hands of center Kebba Njie and out of bounds.
The Hurricanes then hit three free throws — they were 13-for-17 for the night — over the final 18.4 seconds.
The last field goal of the night for the Irish came on a Tae Davis dunk with 3:40 to play.
In a win last Tuesday over Georgia Tech, Davis had just four points, 12 under his average, and “was as sick as a dog,’’ according to Shrewsberry. His health was better Saturday. He went 5-for-11 from the field for 11 points, and had three rebounds.
Allocco had eight, as the Irish had 31 boards to Miami’s 29, but seven of those came on the offensive board in the second half.
ND’s biggest lead was 13, the last time coming with 17:26 on a Burton drive.
The momentum began to shift with four turnovers through the first seven minutes of the second half and the Irish finished with 12, nine in the second half. Worse, they did little defensively to upend Miami’s rhythm over the final 20 minutes.
Miami did not have a turnover in the second half and only six for the game, five below its average, and Miami outscored the Irish 38-21 over the final 20 minutes.
One-time Florida State transfer Matt Cleveland, averaging 16 points a game, had 21 for Miami and 6-10 Lynn Kidd, a grad senior who played at Clemson and Virginia Tech, had 15, going 7-for-9 against the Irish bigs.
Miami, which finished with 16 points off the Irish turnovers and had a 14-5 edge in fastbreak points, shot 46% from the field for the game.
ND’s Braeden Shrewsberry went 4-for-8 on 3s and finished with 14 points, but considering Miami’s struggles to defend the 3-point line, it was somewhat surprising the Irish couldn’t do more damage than its 9-for-24 (37.5 %) effort.
The Irish will be in Tallahassee on Tuesday to meet Florida State (13-9, 4-7) at 7 p.m. (ACCN).
• Talk with Notre Dame fans on The Insider Lounge.
• Subscribe to the Inside ND Sports podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, SoundCloud, Podbean or Pocket Casts.
• Subscribe to the Inside ND Sports channel on YouTube.
• Follow us on Twitter: @insideNDsports, @EHansenND and @TJamesND.
• Like us on Facebook: Inside ND Sports
• Follow us on Instagram: @insideNDsports
