Walker Carey is an RTC Correspondent. He filed this report after Saturday afternoon’s game between Miami (FL) and Notre Dame in South Bend.

There are very few teams in the country that have the backcourt talent and depth of Notre Dame. That was illustrated again on Saturday afternoon as Irish coach Mike Brey relied on small ball to secure a 75-70 come-from-behind victory over Miami (FL). With his team trailing 40-31 at the 15:32 mark of the second half, Brey inserted a five-guard lineup featuring seniors Jerian Grant and Pat Connaughton along with sophomores V.J. Beachem, Demetrius Jackson, and Steve Vasturia. The perimeter-oriented lineup played the balance of the game and it outscored the Hurricanes 44-30 while it was on the court. Saturday’s victory concluded another successful week for the Irish, as they moved to 17-2 overall and 5-1 in ACC play. The following are three takeaways from Saturday’s action.

Notre Dame is Playing Together (USA Today Images)

1. Jerian Grant broke out of his mini-slump in impressive fashion. In each of Notre Dame’s last three games (wins over North Carolina and Georgia Tech, and a loss to Virginia), Grant was held below his season average of 16.3 points per game. That trend changed in the victory over Miami today, as Grant was without question the best player on the floor for the duration of the afternoon. He finished the game with 23 points on 8-of-10 shooting to go along with eight assists. None of those 23 points were more impressive than the three he got from hitting a ridiculous step-back three-pointer at the 6:19 mark of the second half. That three put Notre Dame up 61-58 and it did not relinquish the lead for the rest of the game. The Irish trailed by as many as 12 in the second half, but it was the steadiness and leadership of Grant that kept the Irish in the game and eventually earned his team the victory. Great players make big plays in winning time, and that was exactly what Grant did for Notre Dame on Saturday.
2. Notre Dame took Angel Rodriguez out of the game. When Miami scored a dominant 90-74 win at #4 Duke on Tuesday, the Hurricanes were buoyed by a 24-point performance from junior guard Angel Rodriguez. In a game against a Duke team stacked with McDonald’s All-Americans, it was the transfer guard who was unquestionably the best player on the court. Knowing that containing Rodriguez was essential to grabbing a victory, Notre Dame, led by the outstanding ball pressure of Jackson, clamped down on him defensively. Rodriguez finished the game with just four points on 1-of-10 shooting in 31 minutes. The Irish went into Saturday’s game refusing to let Rodriguez do them what he did to Duke and that resulted in a marvelously executed game plan that helped them grab the important victory.
3. Notre Dame still needs more from its post players. A major reason why Brey had to lean on the five-guard lineup in the second half was because his post players had not been effective. While second leading scorer Zach Auguste was back for the Irish after missing Wednesday’s road win over Georgia Tech because of an academic matter, he was mostly ineffective, scoring just four points and grabbing four rebounds in only nine minutes. Freshman forward Bonzie Colson, who was a big spark for the team in the win at Georgia Tech, looked a bit uncomfortable in the flow of the game and was limited to just 12 minutes. Notre Dame unquestionably has the guard play to compete with anyone in the ACC, but it is going to need its interior players to step up their games if it wants to be taken seriously as a legitimate contender for the league crown.

WCarey (318 Posts)

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 17th, 2015 at 8:05 pm by Walker Carey and is filed under acc, microsites. Tagged: angel rodriguez, bonzie colson, demetrius jackson, jerian grant, jim larranaga, miami (fl), mike brey, notre dame, pat connaughton, steve vasturia, vj beachem, zach auguste. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.