Notre Dame Post Game Discussion 1/8/10

The way St. John's played tonight was disappointing. The expectations were high and rightfully so. This was easily a game St. John's could have won but with the way they played combined with the way ND executed it didn't happen.

St. John's reverted back to their old ways with many things. For starters their energy out of the gate was sluggish and flat which made Lavin go into the bench early and often to get someone who wanted to play. Sometimes I agree with that move but sometimes I like the guys to stay in their and warm up a bit.

The close outs on defense were half ass and you can't do that against a team that is ready to shoot like Notre Dame. In addition to that when you close out slow it forces you to over commit trying to make up ground and ND is poised to make the extra pass and make their way into open space.

Offensively the team rushed and took way too many outside shots early in the shot clock instead of sticking to their game plan of getting to the basket and to the FT line. Brownlee was probably guilty of this the most.

The team also very poor in taking care of the basketball making sloppy exchanges and poor decisions with advancing the ball on the break.

The tightly called game didn't help things but was hardly the reason St. John's lost. I disagreed with the caution Lavin exercised sitting his starters for so long in the first half which allowed ND to build the lead to large. He had to roll the dice at some point before letting it get out of reach like it did. Brey let Hansborough play with 2 fouls in 1st.

Overall though most had this chalked up as a loss and rightfully so. ND is a quality team and playing them on the road is no easy task. So all confidence shouldn't be thrown out the window. St. John's should split with ND when they see them back at the Garden.

What was everyone's thoughts on the game?

  You summed it quite well DAVE. To me it looked like the play from the Norm era......no sharing of the basketball.....wild subsitutions.....poor D.

What happened to Inside/out....second gear.....working for good inside shots that was working so well. ?   It was unwatchable...unlike the super play of the previous 5 games.

Didn't see the game.  See we shot 90% from the line as a team and Ed Hardy shot 4 for 4 to make it 34 straight and counting. 

Did Digger and co. mention the streak?

watched the jet game, definatly worth it, at breaks i would see strange things like a brownlee chucked 3, booth playing some lazy d, or polle being bad at getting to defensive assignments, but to be fair i only watched around 30 seconds of gameplay, was it as bad as the glimpses i saw or were there some bright spots

Jets won

Wildly bad passes, Burrell with the bad fouls early, Brownlee 3s, Kennedy and Evans missing layups.  Luckily ND shot bad at the start of the 2nd half or we would've lost by 40. 

Hopefully a reality check from the headlines the team has been getting and we can get back to work against Cuse.

 this game was over in the first 10 minutes.  No need to watch after that. See what happens against 'cuse.

the players must have felt they didn't matchup well with the irish.  they were clearly intimidated.  the five game winning streak was sweet.  the fear of losing overcame them and they reverted back to being last year's team.

i believe the effort will be better against syracuse...but who knows?

nice analysis, dave.

In my opinion, I thought the game got away once we put our second team in midway through the first half.  I looked at two ways, one our starters were lethargic and Lavin put in the second team sending the starters a message.  I do not believe Lavin was conceding the game by bringing in those kids but it was clear that that group was not going to be able to keep the game manageable. On the other hand the starters were for the most part in foul trouble mainly because they did not play D on top moving their feet and were using their hands causing cheap fouls.  Also by the guards getting beat the big men were put in tough positions losing the hustle plays inside and they also picked up lots of fouls. 

Our second team are not capable of logging in big time big east minutes.  Sean Evans is atrocious and not to beat a dead horse but he kills us not only with scoring and defense but he kills any kind of momentum.  It seems as though he gets himself in a position to put back easy baskets, misses and the other team comes down and scores.  A four point swing. 

As we all know, the big east season is hard and tiresome and this game won't define our season, but last night I did not think we would be as flat as we were.  Winning the first three games is great for all the media talk but by the end of the season the first three games were merely a spring board to getting the 10 games we need to get to the tourny no matter who we played and beat.

I watched the game but I was at a bar. Was Paris on Hansborugh?

I watched the game but I was at a bar. Was Paris on Hansborugh?

Was anybody on Hansborough?

Quote from: TONYD3 on January 09, 2011, 12:38:54 PM

I watched the game but I was at a bar. Was Paris on Hansborugh?

Was anybody on Hansborough?

I was surprised how much man to man St. John's played opening up the game. When they fell behind they couldn't play much zone because ND would have just held the ball.

Also shocked that they didn't pressure the ball full court. Hansborough isn't exactly a true PG and ND doesn't have many pure ball handlers on the team. (Although Atkins impressed me).

you could see from early on it was not their day.  numerous fouls with ND in the bonus with 10+ to go in 1st half and the lads missing easy lay ups/put backs.

the best thing I can say is that given the flow of the game I was able to switch to the Jets game early on rather than just catching the 2ND half if I had stayed with our game until the end.

hopefully it is one of those "good losses" that reenergizes the team and is not one that breaks the momentum totally. 

If anyone would have said 3-1 after first 4 big east games, I would have taken that.

Tons of missed layups in the opening minutes.  At least 4-5 in the first 10.  Notre Dame was getting looks at will and hit them for the most part in the first half.  Second half we started out well and could have made ND sweat a little and get it in single digits but it wasnt meant to be.  We were way too sloppy.

Evans has no confidence whatsoever and looks like he did back as a frosh.  After he missed his 3rd straight layup in the last two games, Lavin had no choice but to take him out and make us go small.  If you are an opposing coach the first mission should be to go at Justin when he gets in the game.  If he gets in foul trouble like he did last night, tHen we lose a low post scoring presence compared to who replaces him or we go really small with Brownlee and Polee (which against certain teams could be an advantage but will kill our rebounding). 

On a positive note.  Polee played well.  Alot of his numbers came in garbage time but he did show some nice flashes on both his hoops in the first half.  His ability to hang in the air will be a tremendous asset when he improves his ability to get a good look from 5-10 feet.