The Irish got outclassed and steamrolled from the jump (which they ironically won)
The SMU Mustangs galloped into town for a Wednesday night tilt against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, who were looking to respond to getting outplayed by the Louisville Cardinals on Sunday. The story of the week has been Micah Shrewsberry’s angry (and seemingly unprompted) rant at his postgame press conference. It seemed if there was any upside to that fit of passion, it would be to fire up a group of players that has taken its lumps over the last few months. That, Matt Allocco’s return to the lineup, and SMU missing its star, Boopie Miller, had the potential to give the Irish some semblance of an emotional lift tonight.
And then, well, the Irish pancaked harder than they have all season long.
The Mustangs blitzed the Irish with three quick buckets to start the game, only one of which was difficult. Micah Shrewsberry had to call timeout immediately, and right after, Tae Davis (Tae Davis!) responded with an open three. The Irish had trouble sustaining any sort of offensive momentum due to poor play from Markus Burton, who turned the ball over twice and put the team in bad shot clock situations. Shrewsberry had seen enough, and sent five guys to the scorer’s table when the score hit 11-3, and SMU put another bucket in before the substitutes could get in.
The bench mob immediately delivered a quality defensive possession, forcing SMU to drain the shot clock and getting a turnover when Chuck Harris stepped on the baseline. SMU would get a post bucket against Garrett Sundra, but J.R. Konieczny got fouled on a three to get the Irish back in the scoring column.
Unfortunately, that was all she wrote in the second set of four minutes, and while the bench slowed the SMU attack, it didn’t halt it. Shrewsberry reverted to the starters after the under-12 timeout, and they continued to struggle to get quality looks. The length and physicality of the SMU defense stymied everything the Irish tried to get going. The Notre Dame offense consisted of tough three point attempts and plenty of turnovers; until Sir Mohammed got a back-of-the-rim floater to stick, the Irish had 5 points and 6 turnovers with 9:30 to play in the half. It was a disgusting slog.
At the under-8 timeout, it was 32-12 (Braeden Shrewsberry had made a couple field goals, if anyone cares), and there was no sign of Notre Dame getting their act together. Davis and Burton were struggling in particular; both guys were playing with hands of stone and got baited into blocked or contested shots. 7’2’’ center Samet Yugitoglu was a nightmare for the Irish bigs, the Mustangs got out and ran after every missed shot and live ball turnover, and couldn’t miss from deep. Everything was working for SMU.
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Perhaps desperate, Shewsberry went zone with a few minutes left in the half and decided to send Sundra to the wolves by having him play the 5 against Yugitoglu, in an effort to space the floor on offense. This by and large did not matter (yet!), and the only nice moment the rest of the way was an errant SMU pass going straight to Logan Imes, who made a wild running bank shot in transition. The Mustangs led 50-25 at half, shooting 72.4% from the field and outscoring the Irish 30-6 in the paint. Shrewsberry had 12 points somehow, and was the only one who played a respectable 20 minutes.
Micah Shrewsberry sat Kebba Njie and Markus Burton on the bench to begin the second half, perhaps tired of watching the latter force everything and turn the ball over. An open Shrewsberry three gave the Irish a sign of life, but Matt Cross answered with one of his own, and Yugitoglu was able to use his size for another bucket to raise questions of how the smaller lineup would handle the 7’2’’ menace. There weren’t answers on defense, but J.R. Konieczny hit a three and Sir Mohammed made a running layup to at least give the Irish some scoring in between watching every defensive possession fail. Rebounding with this lineup might have been a concern if SMU ever missed.
Davis would get a couple buckets in the next stretch and Sir Mohammed would get to the line for free throws. It was actually a little uncomfortable watching how much easier the offense seemed to flow in this first stretch with Burton on the bench. A man of science, Shrewsberry put Burton back in after the first five minutes of the half to experiment whether it would change the flow.
I’m not sure you could say Burton was responsible for the offense drying up immediately upon his re-entry to the game; to his credit, he was more pass-forward this time around and wasn’t turning it over. But be that as it may, the Irish didn’t score for the next three and a half minutes, with their best attempt coming when Julian Roper failed to win the lottery (make a free throw). Logan Imes of all people stopped the dry spell with a couple free throws, but the Irish were still down 72-40.
Matt Cashore-Imagn Images
Perhaps keeping an eye on their NET rating as a bubble team, SMU didn’t slow down at all on offense and kept pouring it on. The size and rebounding issues with the smaller lineups were on full display, as the Mustangs finally missed a couple shots but were able to manage put-backs (sometimes getting fouled while doing so). The sight of Kario Oquendo going up to get fouled on alley-oop attempts became quite familiar and painful. If you want to find a positive, the Irish actually pressed the Mustangs into a 10-second violation.
Despite the lack of defense, the second half wasn’t all that bad. The lineup with Sundra at the five benefitted from improved spacing, and Sundra himself knocked down a couple threes (even getting fouled on the second). Sir Mohammed had a nice move for an and-one (making the free throw!), and Cole Certa got fouled on a rebound for a couple free throws. Logan Imes got a nice reverse layup late in the game, and stripped SMU on the last real possession to prevent the Mustangs to be the first opponent to score 100 points in regulation in South Bend in 25 years. The Irish actually won the second half by a point.
Bullet Points
- Nikita Konstantynovskyi drew a flagrant foul on Yugitoglu in the first half, but it looked like a flop. He got smacked in the face, took a half second, and then realized he should act like it really hurt. Oh well, it worked, which is not something you can say about much the Irish attempted in the first half.
- Yugitoglu got in Davis’s face after a make in the second half; the confrontation didn’t lead to anything, but it at least made Andy Enfield sub the former out of the game.
- Garrett Sundra knocked down two threes in the second half, getting fouled on the second. He finished with 11 points in 14 minutes on 3-of-4 shooting. Micah Shrewsberry is going to have to think about starting him sooner rather than later, because he really improves the offense’s ability to operate.
- Njie and Konstantynovskyi didn’t play in the second half despite SMU employing a 7’2’’ player, which led to substantially improved play from the team. That nicely summarizes their issues.
- Markus Burton is now at 41 turnovers and only 31 assists for ACC play. That is not acceptable for a lead guard, regardless of his scoring prowess.
- Logan Imes’ six points tripled his rest-of-conference-season output.
- One of the commentators picked Notre Dame to win before the game.