Next Up - Notre Dame
The Irish were expected to be a train wreck, but lately they’ve done a lot of wrecking themselves.
Date 1/5 || Time 6:00 || Venue Purcell Pavilion || Video ACCN
Duke heads to South Bend to play Notre Dame Saturday and that’s an interesting game and much more so now than it was before Christmas.
It was on December 19th that the Irish had a disastrous game against The Citadel. How bad was that loss? The Citadel is out of the Southern Conference and while it’s better than it used to be, the SoCon is still pretty weak. As of Friday, The Citadel is ranked #225 over at KenPom.
You may recall that after that loss, Micah Shrewsberry, who is just 14 games into his Notre Dame tenure, erupted. He said that he was trying to build a culture and that he didn’t like how his players responded. And further, if anyone didn’t want to play hard, he would be happy to help them find a new home:
“We’re building a culture, and that ain’t it. That is not the culture we’re trying to build. So, a message needs to be sent to some of these guys, like, if you don’t play hard, then you can sit and rot over there on the bench. And I’ll find a way.
“I’ll go and talk to the people in compliance. I will help you transfer. Because this culture is getting built the right way, and if you ain’t part of it, you’re out!”
Basically he threw down the gauntlet to his players and they seem to have responded. Notre Dame beat Marist three days after Shrewsberry’s comments, then shockingly destroyed Virginia on December 30th, 76-54 before just barely losing to NC State on Wednesday, 54-52 when DJ Burns hit a buzzer beater.
If you haven’t made the connection yet, the Irish have held the last three opponents to 56, 54 and 52 points. And not coincidentally, Marist shot 44 percent, Virginia 38.2 percent and NC State 28.8 percent.
So clearly Shrewsberry has gotten through to his team. Can they play as well against Duke?
Shrewsberry, remember, was a Brad Stevens assistant with the Boston Celtics and before that at Butler, where he was on the bench during the epic 2010 title game between Duke and Butler (which kind of puts a different spin on his coaching matchup with Jon Scheyer).
Almost everyone followed Mike Brey out the door after last season so Shrewsberry had to put together an almost entirely new roster. We might have forgotten somebody but the only two guys back that we can think of are JR Konieczny and Matt Zona and neither one was a factor last season. In fact, Konieczny redshirted (we did forget Tony Sanders, who is a senior, but he rarely played last year and isn’t playing a lot this year either).
Shrewsberry built largely around transfers and freshmen and the primary rotation goes nine deep. Markus Burton is a 5-11 freshman point guard and he’s good now and getting better. He’s had a serious problem with turnovers - 4.1 per game - and that’s a real problem. Shrewsberry doesn't have many options, so he’s letting Burton grow through his mistakes. It’ll be worth it. That’s a serious flaw, but the kid can play.
Julian Roper, who played for Chris Collins at Northwestern before transferring, is a 6-4 junior. His stats aren’t dazzling but he’s a decent player.
Konieczny, who was in the Brey bench seasoning program, has turned himself into a nice player. A 6-7 redshirt junior, he’s averaging a shade under 10 points and getting nearly six boards a game.
Coach’s kids aren’t always the best but Braeden Shrewsberry is pretty good. The 6-3 freshman was ranked as the #6 player in Pennsylvania, and there are a lot of great players out of that state every year. He’s a useful player today and he’ll continue to improve.
Tae Davis is a 6-9 sophomore who transferred from Seton Hall. A native of Indianapolis, he’s back in state and he’s putting up 8.1 and 5.5 rebounds a night.
Kebba Njie, a 6-10/254 lb. big, followed Shrewsberry from Penn State. We haven’t seen him but at a minimum, he gives the Irish a rugged big man off the bench.
Corey Booth is a 6-10 still-skinny freshman from Colorado. He’s playing but if the program was a little further along, or if Brey was still around, he might redshirt. We’re curious to see him. He might be one of those guys who is a few meals from being a major contributor.
Logan Imes is a 6-4 freshman from Zionsville. This seems like a good time to point to the obvious: having a native of Indiana coaching at Notre Dame should help recruit the state. That said, Imes is playing but hasn't made a huge statistical impact.
The final rotational player is Zona, who is a 6-9/252 lb. senior. He wasn’t particularly productive under Brey and he’s had limited production under Shrewsberry. But he’s in the rotation for a reason.
So what to make of Notre Dame?
We have been paying attention because we know that Shrewsberry is an excellent coach. We don’t know if he’ll get it turned around this season, but will he get it done?
He will. And he’s done a pretty solid job since The Citadel slapped his team around.
We don’t know him well enough yet to know what exactly what we’ll see but based on what Notre Dame has done lately, we’d expect that he is reflecting what he learned from Stevens. And if you remember that 2010 team, it was almost impossible to get any separation from them.
Our guess is that Notre Dame is going to try to make this game a low-scoring affair (see Virgina and NC State). And if they can do that, then the game may come down to the end, as it did against NC State and then they at least have a puncher’s chance.
Of course Duke has been playing well of late so it may not be as easy as it might seem. Kyle Filipowski is going to be tough to guard. He’s bigger than Davis and Booth and probably quicker than Nije. Mark Mitchell was seen as an offensive concern recently but against Syracuse he showed his full potential and he's also an excellent defender. Senior Jeremy Roach is a known quality of course. He’s very solid defensively and on offense, he’s shown a knack of stepping in when Duke needs a big play. He’s offered a lot of stability.
Tyrese Proctor is well-regarded by NBA scouts and he looked good in his first action back from an ankle injury Tuesday night. He was replaced in the lineup by Caleb Foster, who at an absolute minimum has been solid. Either way Duke goes, it’ll do fine.
And Jared McCain recently has played like a star. We’ve really enjoyed seeing him settle in. He’s a wonderful shooter of course but he’s also a wicked smart player and Duke is starting to reap the benefits.
Toss in a solid Ryan Young, Sean Stewart and TJ Power off the bench and that’s a tough out for anyone.
You may have noticed we didn't discuss Jaylen Blakes.
That’s because we wanted to give him a special mention. He’s rapidly becoming one of our favorite Duke reserves in years. All the guy does is to come off the bench and make absolutely chaos. He forces turnovers, blocks shots and, in many ways, dictates the aggression of the defense while he’s in the game.
Back in the day, the Detroit Pistons called Vinnie Johnson the Microwave because he could come off the bench and light it up. We don’t know what you call the defensive inverse of that, but whatever it is, that’s what Blakes has been doing.
We just call him Agent Chaos because that’s what he causes. We love him.
Basically we think this game is going to come down to this: if Notre Dame can force Duke into a slow rock fight, they have a chance. But if Duke gets going offensively, we’re not at all sure that the Irish can keep up.
But if they force Duke to play the way they forced Marist, Virginia, and NC State to play, then this game is up for grabs.
We’ll add more links as we find them.