Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1512120
BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM DECEMBER 2023 39 MEN'S BASKETBALL get them extra rest for Oklahoma State. "When you don't have a lot of depth, you can't take guys out," Shrewsberry said. "There weren't a lot of dudes I could throw in there. Johni Broome is still in the game at three minutes, so it's not like I can take [senior forward Matt] Zona and [freshman forward] Carey [Booth] out and put [junior walk-on forward] Thomas Crowe in there. He's gonna get destroyed." Shrewsberry knew no one would care about that if his team came out flat against the Cowboys, and he made that clear in the locker room after the Au- burn game. His message: "There are no excuses for us not winning this game tomorrow." "I didn't know what the results were gonna be that next day, but I wanted us to fight," Shrewsberry said. "To give ourselves a chance." After a brief slow start — in none of its first four games did Notre Dame take the first significant lead — the Irish showed a glimpse of Shrewsberry's of- fensive vision. They moved the ball, got themselves in positions for open looks, ran successful actions with various on- and off-ball screens, collapsed the de- fense with drives and kicked out to open shooters. Notre Dame went 8 of 25 from three- point range, including 6 of 16 in the first half. That might not seem like much, but after a 2-of-26 night against Au- burn, it felt like they were the Golden State Warriors. That small confidence boost mat- ters, especially for a team that wants to shoot a lot of threes and win with the kind of ball movement-oriented of- fense that worked against Oklahoma State. The Cowboys were the first team Notre Dame faced that didn't design their defense to make the Irish hold the ball, but it proved to the players that Shrewsberry's system can work. "We just have to see it, keep grow- ing confidence and believing that if we play that way, good things will happen," Shrewsberry said. Notre Dame built a 46-34 lead with 13:35 remaining, and ESPN gave the Irish an 88.3 percent chance to win the game at that time. But Shrewsberry, be- lieving his team might be running out of gas, tried to hold the ball and shorten the game. The Irish scored only 9 more points in regulation. After it was over, Shrewsberry admit- ted that was a mistake. "I put the brakes on a little too fast," Shrewsberry said. "The people that are up, they take their foot off the gas and the other team goes into desperation mode. That's what happened, and we relaxed a little bit." The Irish limped into overtime and quickly went down by four points. Any observer could be excused for think- ing the writing was on the wall. But then sophomore forward Tae Davis, who played 36 minutes, made a layup. Konieczny, who played 35, drew a foul and made 1 of 2 free throws. Freshman guard Markus Burton, who played 31, scored 5 unanswered points to give Notre Dame the lead for good and played tough defense at the other end on high-scoring junior Cowboys guard (and South Bend native) Javon Small. The Irish had blown a lead and looked like they were cooked, but they found a way to get the job done when it mat- tered most. "I challenged our guys before the game, just to say, 'This game is about our re- solve. Who are we gonna be? How are we gonna respond on Day 2 [of the Legends Classic]?'" Shrewsberry said. "This was a total team effort and a total team win." "They need to learn how to win" is a commonly used phrase when discussing a rebuilding team in sports. It means that even a talented team, when it spends so much time losing in the early stages of a rebuild, can lose games in the "contend- ing" stage because it doesn't know how to do the little things to get the job done in crunch time. It hasn't developed the grittiness and resolve necessary to win the games that aren't pretty. Games like Notre Dame's victory over Oklahoma State go a long way toward learning how to win. In a year or two, when the Irish hope they'll have the tal- ent and depth to compete in the Atlantic Coast Conference, they'll be thankful for games like that. ✦ Sophomore forward Tae Davis posted sea- son highs of 13 points and 6 rebounds in the Fighting Irish's 83-59 loss to Auburn Nov. 16. PHOTO COURTESY NOTRE DAME ATHLETICS 2023-24 NOTRE DAME MEN'S BASKETBALL SCHEDULE Date Opponent (TV) Time/Result Nov. 6 Niagara W, 70-63 Nov. 11 Western Carolina L, 71-61 Nov. 16 vs. Auburn# L, 83-59 Nov. 17 vs. Oklahoma State# W, 66-64 (OT) Nov. 22 Md. Eastern Shore (ACCNX) 7 p.m. Nov. 28 at South Carolina% (SECN) 7 p.m. Dec. 2 at Miami* (CW) 12 p.m. Dec. 5 Western Michigan (ACCNX) 7 p.m. Dec. 9 at Marquette (FOX) 9 p.m. Dec. 16 Georgetown (CW) 2:15 p.m. Dec. 19 The Citadel (ACCN) 6 p.m. Dec. 22 Marist (ACCN) 8 p.m. Dec. 30 Virginia* (ACCN) 12 p.m. Jan. 3 NC State* (ACCN) 9 p.m. Jan. 6 Duke* (ACCN) 6 p.m. Jan. 9 at Georgia Tech* (ESPN/2/U) 9 p.m. Jan. 13 Florida State* (CW) 2:15 p.m. Jan. 15 at Boston College* (ESPNU) 7 p.m. Jan. 24 Miami* (ESPN/2/U) 7 p.m. Jan. 27 Boston College* (ESPN/2/U) 12 p.m. Jan. 31 at Virginia* (ESPN/2/U) 7 p.m. Feb. 3 at Pitt* (ACCN) 6 p.m. Feb. 7 at Duke* (ACCN) 9 p.m. Feb. 10 Virginia Tech* (CW) 5:30 p.m. Feb. 14 Georgia Tech* (ACCN) 7 p.m. Feb. 21 at Louisville* (ESPN/2/U) 7 p.m. Feb. 24 at Syracuse* (ESPN/2) 12 p.m. Feb. 27 Wake Forest (ACCN) 9 p.m. Mar. 2 Clemson* (CW) 7:45 p.m. Mar. 5 at North Carolina* (ACCN) 7 p.m. Mar. 9 at Virginia Tech* (ESPNEWS) 2 p.m. Mar. 12-16 ACC Tournament$ TBA # Legend's Classic at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.; * ACC game; % ACC/SEC Challenge; $ at Washington, D.C.