Notre Dame’s V.J. Beachem Still Confident Despite Struggles

V.J. Beachem is an “ebb and flow” kind of player, according to head coach Mike Brey.

“We want to ride it, and hopefully — what, would flow be good and ebb be bad? We want to get flow more than ebb,” Brey said. “Can we get flow more than ebb to get into he NCAA Tournament? I’ll take that.”

The 6-8 senior wing has highs and lows to his game, and there’s been more ebbs in Beachem’s game as of late. The Irish will likely need that cold streak to come to an end if they want to upset No. 15 Purdue in Saturday’s Crossroads Classic in Indianapolis.

Tip-off is set for 2 p.m. and will be broadcast on ESPN2.

Notre Dame is coming off its first loss of the season, falling to No. 1 Villanova 74-66 Dec. 10. Beachem had just four points on 2-of-11 shooting in the defeat, including misses on all five three-point attempts.

Beachem is averaging 15.5 points and 4.6 rebounds per game this season, though he’s gotten off to slow starts over the past few weeks. He had 14 points in an 87-72 win over Fort Wayne Dec. 6, shooting just 4 of 14 overall and 2 of 11 on threes.

The Fort Wayne native is confident his game will turn around soon.

“I know eventually it’s going to come back around,” he said. “I just want it to be sooner than later. It happens to everybody, but the real test is going to be how I bounce back and how our team bounces back. We’re in a great position to do so.”

Beachem entered his final year at Notre Dame after a strong NCAA Tournament showing (17.5 points per game) and confidence-building workouts with NBA teams. He elected to return to South Bend and try to lead the Irish to their third straight Elite Eight appearance.

“V.J. is probably a guy that’s going to be overanalyzed the whole year,” Brey said. “V.J. is a guy that has to play longer minutes and he’s kind of a guy that all of a sudden can strike. One of the reasons you can keep him in there longer now, maybe if he isn’t making shots, is because he’s defending better.

“You can ride him longer now because he’s not killing you on that end of the floor.”

Following the loss to Villanova, Beachem said he treated the early part of this week like the summer. The senior did not have any finals, so he got in the gym, worked out, watched movies — “Burn After Reading,” in particular — and played video games.

“Sometimes, just not thinking too much about the game, because you get to thinking too much and you lose some confidence,” Beachem said.

Notre Dame’s offensive output has not dipped during Beachem’s downturn. The Irish (9-1) are ranked 16th nationally in points per game, averaging 86.6. The offense is mostly coming from senior guard Steve Vasturia (16.6 points per game), junior forward Bonzie Colson (16.5) and junior guard Matt Farrell (13.0).

“V.J. has always been confident and he’s always in the gym working on his shot,” Colson said.

Brey complimented Beachem’s defensive work against Villanova senior guard Kris Jenkins. The Wildcat standout is averaging 13.4 points per game this year, but had just seven against the Irish.

Beachem, Brey said, is also in a better state of mind now to handle these type of struggles.

“As a young player it was more getting his psyche right,” Brey said. “I don’t have to spend any time with him. Guard, rebound, cut. One of the things he’s doing is moving without the ball very well. He’s helping our offense by cutting and moving more.”

Attacking the basket early in games and starting fast is something Beachem is focused on doing moving forward.

“I missed pretty much my first shot in every game this year,” Beachem said. “If I can get an easy one early, that would definitely help me out a lot.”

And if Beachem gets going …

“If I play better, that can take us to a whole other level,” Beachem said. “… The sky’s really the limit for us.”

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