The questions remain the same for Notre Dame men’s basketball after another ACC loss.
How and why?
How did it get this bad for the Irish in head coach Micah Shrewsberry's second season? And why isn’t it getting any better?
Saturday’s 65-63 loss to Virginia Tech felt painfully familiar as the Irish dropped a third consecutive conference game. A return home for 574 Day in Purcell Pavilion didn’t make things any better in front of a reported crowd of 6,959. Notre Dame (10-13, 4-8 ACC) lost a game in which it led by at least 10 points for the sixth time this season.
“I deserve every bit of criticism that is coming this way,” Shrewsberry said. “I’ll sit here, and I’ll own it, and I’ll take it. But nobody’s hurting more than our guys. Nobody wants this more than them. They’re fighting, they’re fighting, they’re fighting. They’re getting back and doing stuff. I still believe in those guys.”
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There wasn’t much to believe in Saturday against the Hokies (11-13, 6-7) beyond a trio of Notre Dame starters: guard Markus Burton and forwards Tae Davis and Kebba Njie. Burton scored a game-high 23 points with four rebounds and three steals. Davis added 18 points with a team-high eight rebounds. Njie chipped in eight points, seven rebounds, two steals and one block.
The rest of the eight Irish players who took the court combined for 14 points. Four of those points came from freshman guard Sir Mohammed, who made his second career start in place of Matt Allocco, who missed the last two games with a wrist injury. Mohammed had another up-and-down performance with a team-high five turnovers to accompany his three rebounds, two assists, one block and one steal.
Fellow starting guard Braeden Shrewsberry logged zero points on 0-of-8 shooting, including five misses beyond the arc, in 32 minutes. Only Davis played more than Shrewsberry. Shrewsberry, the head coach’s son, at least took care of the ball with three assists and no turnovers while compiling four rebounds and three steals.
Of Notre Dame’s six bench players to see the floor, only forward Nikita Konstantynovskyi contributed more than two points with four points of his own. Micah Shrewsberry’s decision to give time to 11 players is a clear sign he’s looking for answers. But it might not be helping Notre Dame’s offensive production, which ended with 39.3% shooting from the field (22-of-56) and 17.6% shooting from 3 (3-of-17).
“We’re just trying to stay fresh,” Micah Shrewsberry said. “We get to the end of the games, we’re trying to play with pace. Sometimes we look like we’re tired out there. So I’m trying to get more guys in. I’m trying to be able to play at the right pace.
“The hardest thing to do is play short minutes and be really good in those short minutes. But you can be really good at effort. Effort doesn’t take anything. I can play three minutes and empty my tank and beg for me to come off the floor. I’m not asking people to come in the game and give me 40. I just want you to come in and sustain effort.”
Notre Dame’s starters committed 11 of the team’s 17 turnovers. After Mohammed, Davis had three, Burton had two and Njie had one.
“It’s my group. We’re undisciplined,” Micah Shrewbserry said. “We had 17 turnovers. Maybe we need to do something different in practice so we’re not turning the ball over. Whatever it is, we’re gonna find it.”
Virginia Tech found a way to win despite shooting 39.3% from the field, 19.4% from 3 and committed 13 turnovers. The Hokies were worse than the Irish in most statistical categories. The biggest differences in favor of the Hokies were turnovers (four fewer) and assists (four more).
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In Notre Dame’s three-game losing streak, the Irish haven’t scored more than 63 points in a game. Notre Dame was averaging 74.7 points per game prior to that stretch. The offensive reliance on Burton may have haunted the Irish in the second half Saturday, particularly after Burton took contact to the head which required ice to settle down the swelling.
Burton went out of the game with 13:36 remaining in regulation, the Irish up 10 points and his personal stat line at 19 points. The Irish lead decreased to five by the time he returned at 10:01. Notre Dame made just one field goal (a Davis layup) and four free throws from Davis and Njie without Burton on the floor during that stretch.
In the last 10:01, Burton went 2-of-7. Burton’s final make put Notre Dame up 54-51 with 4:24 left. The Irish didn’t score from the field again until Njie hit a jumper with Notre Dame trailing by five points with 18 seconds left. The game was practically out of reach at that point.
“I gotta be better for them,” Micah Shrewsberry said. “I’ll take them blame on this. I’m the one calling the plays down the stretch. I gotta put us in a better position for us to take advantage of how we can score, how we can rebound. Go back and learn from it. That’s it.”
Notre Dame’s best offense came at the free throw line in the second half. The Irish finished a perfect 16-of-16 at the line with 12 of those makes after halftime. But Notre Dame never got back to the charity stripe after Julian Roper II hit a pair of free throws with 1:45 remaining to pull the Irish within two.
Burton settled for missed jumpers on Notre Dame’s next two possessions in attempts to tie the game.
“We’re trying to get to the line the entire game,” Micah Shrewsberry said. “We were in the bonus early. We’re getting to the paint sometimes. We gotta finish those. We gotta get buckets, or we gotta get to the free throw line on some possessions where we didn’t get anything.”
To make matters worse, after Virginia Tech’s Brandon Rechsteiner missed the back end of a pair of free throws, Jaden Schutt secured an offensive rebound and got the ball back to Rechsteiner to get fouled again. Instead of the Irish being down three with possession, they trailed by five with 27 seconds left. Clutch shooting from the line from there secured the game for the Hokies.
At this rate, Notre Dame will be challenged to qualify for the ACC Tournament, which will include the top 15 of the conference’s 18 teams. The Irish entered Saturday sitting in 12th in the ACC. Notre Dame’s next opponent, Boston College (10-13, 2-10), is the only team on the remaining schedule for the Irish that’s below them in the conference standings. Notre Dame will play at Boston College on Wednesday at 9 p.m. EST (ESPN2/U). The Irish beat BC in South Bend, 78-60, in South Bend on Jan. 13.
“We got a group of guys that are hurting right now, a group of guys that are disapozpointed,” Micah Shrewsberry said. “Nobody’s hurting more than we are. Nobody’s putting in the time and the effort that we are. When you don’t get the results, you gotta keep going back out there. Being vulnerable and putting yourself right back out there with no promise that it’s going to go your way.”
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