Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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90 MARCH 2025 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED BY JACK SOBLE A fter Notre Dame men's basketball blew a 17-point lead and lost to Syr- acuse Jan. 18, the Irish had some "hard conversations." Head coach Micah Shrewsberry said the Irish talked about who they needed to be as a team, what they needed from each player and how they needed to play the game on both ends of the court. With an 8-10 overall record (and 2-5 in the ACC), something needed to change. And briefly, it did, as Notre Dame de- stroyed Virginia (74-59) on the road Jan. 25 and pulled a win out of nowhere against Georgia Tech (71-68) Jan. 28. "I thought we responded well," Shrewsberry said. They might need to have those con- versations again. Notre Dame lost to Miami 63-57 Feb. 1. The Hurricanes are the worst team in the ACC and one of the worst high-major teams in the country, if not the worst. Miami entered the game at 4-17 (0-10 ACC). They had a 23-game losing streak against high-major opponents, a 20- game losing streak against the ACC and a 10-game losing streak in general. They're a program without a direction after the abrupt midseason retirement of long- time head coach Jim Larrañaga. And yet, Notre Dame could not beat them. The Irish couldn't beat Florida State or Virginia Tech, either, failing to sur- pass 63 points in any of those games. Entering the Miami game at 10-10, Notre Dame's season faced a turning point. It turned in the wrong direction. The "what" was bad against the Hur- ricanes. The " how" was worse. The Irish held a 45-33 lead with just less than 15 minutes left in the second half, and then they just … kind of stopped playing offense. Notre Dame's attack turned into passing the ball around the perimeter and eventually hoping sophomore guard Markus Burton could bail them out. Af- ter tying the score at 57 on a Burton feed inside to junior forward Tae Davis, the Irish didn't put the ball in the basket for the final 3:40 of game time. They did that against the No. 335 (out of 355 Division I schools) scoring defense in the nation. Miami is sand- wiched between Green Bay and North Dakota, and the Irish could not score on them. Each Notre Dame player seemed to expect someone else to win the game for them. None of them went and took it. The sense of urgency was nonexistent. And with 11 seconds left, everything came to a head. Graduate student guard Matt Allocco was fouled in the act of shooting a three, while the Irish trailed by four. This was their chance to make it a game again. If Allocco — who shot 90.9 percent from the free throw line last season — made all three, Notre Dame would foul Miami quickly and get the ball back down only one possession. He did not make all three. He missed all three. It was not the first time Allocco, whom Notre Dame brought in through the transfer portal in large part for his veteran presence in situations like this, made the critical error in a gut-wrench- ing loss. He committed an ugly turnover that led to a quick basket at the other Disastrous Week For Micah Shrewsberry And The Irish The Fighting Irish dropped three straight games to begin the month of February and were just 10-13 overall and 4-8 in the ACC. PHOTO COURTESY NOTRE DAME ATHLETICS MEN'S B A S K E T B A L L