Notre Dame has a real shot at winning the ACC regular season title. The team has shown great toughness, winning on the road against Miami and Virginia Tech. I wanted to run through a bunch of random things I noticed from these two games.

1. The Irish only shot 5-20 from 3 against Miami, partially because Miami put an emphasis on contesting these shots. The Irish were able to generate baskets other ways, however. Below, Miami sends two guys at Matt Farrell on the pick-and-roll (a strategy the Irish have performed well against) and the defender responsible for the rolling Martinas Geben leaves to contest an open shooter. This leaves Geben wide open.

Here, Austin Torres gets left open.

2. Geben loves the “tomahawk dunk.” He’s done it successfully several times this season, but the extra flair came back to bite him here, as he got blocked from behind. Later in the game, Geben finished an open dunk without the tomahawk (for the record I hope Geben keeps doing tomahawks because they look cool).

3. Below is a set the Irish have been running relatively frequently for Farrell and Steve Vasturia. Farrell runs off two screens, curls, and finishes nicely really high off the backboard.



Here, Vasturia finishes with the left hand.



4. As I discussed in a previous post, the Irish don’t foul very much, partially due to playing a fairly conservative defense. But for a few possessions against Miami, the defense ratcheted up the pressure and caught the Hurricanes off guard. Breaking this out for a bit each game could be effective.

Austin Torres got the steal on this play, and it’s worth mentioning that he has been really solid for the Irish in limited minutes.

5. The Irish tend to give up a fair number of offensive rebounds, so teams will probably continue to crash the offensive boards against them. The Irish have shown the ability to take advantage of this at times, leaking out for transition baskets.

6. Breaking out the 2-3 zone in the middle of games has been effective, particularly in the first few possessions as the opposition adjusts. Here, Miami struggles to figure out how to attack the zone, and the possession ends with a contested jumper.



The Irish soon went back to man-to-man defense, but broke the zone back out for Miami’s last possession of the half. Interestingly, the Irish actually begin the possession in man but switch to zone half way through. This seemed to throw off Miami, and the Irish should consider using this strategy at the end of certain halves and games moving forward.

7. Miami was sending two guys at the ball handler on every pick-and-roll, and here, Bonzie Colson takes advantage of this by slipping the screen. Instead of setting the pick, he rolls right towards the basket. This allows Vasturia to quickly find him open in the paint.

He did it here against Virginia Tech.

8. The Irish had a few really nice baseline out of bounds plays. This first one involves Vasturia running off two screens and ending up right in front of the inbounding Farrell.

The below play is a sort of counter to the first one. Here, VJ Beachem sets a screen for Vasturia, who the defense gives a lot of attention (he just scored on the similar play two minutes earlier). With two defenders worried about Vasturia, Beachem is left open and he goes to the perimeter, where he gets a wide open three.

9. As I mentioned, Miami sent two defenders at the pick-and-roll ball handler basically every time. On this occasion, however, Geben set a screen that sent the Hurricanes defender flailing. With the defender so far behind the play, he decided to switch and guard Geben. And with the 6-10 Geben being guarded by a smaller defender, the Irish tried to exploit this mismatch. They found him in the post, drew a double team, and found Farrell for the open look. Geben can at times be turnover prone in his limited opportunities with the ball, but he’s also shown flashes of solid passing ability.

Geben also continues to provide pretty good rim protection when challenged in the paint.

10. When the Irish push the ball up the court and force the defense to scramble/find their defensive assignments, there is a certain “formation” that often leads to open threes. This “formation” includes having a shooter run to the left or right wing, and having another shooter positioned in the corresponding corner. Below, Farrell passes to Vasturia on the left wing, and the defense rushes to contest his shot. But since the defense is scrambling to find their assignments, only one defender is being left to account for two shooters on that side of the floor. As a result, Vasturia makes an easy pass to Beachem in the corner for an open three.

11. Irish shooters have done a good job of attacking closeouts, driving by defenders who are rushing towards them to try and contest their three-point shots. Beachem and Vasturia have in particular been doing this effectively.

12. Not only does the fear Irish shooters put into opposing defenders allow them to drive by closeouts, it also allows them to cut into the paint when they don’t have the ball, generating easy buckets. Their defenders are playing very tight on them, trying to prevent open shots, and this makes it easier to execute these cuts. Vasturia is probably the best at this.

13. In a previous article, I talked about a play I liked that the Irish ran. It didn’t work exactly, but I said I’d bring it up if I saw it again. Against Virginia Tech, the Irish ran the same play with a slight variation. It didn’t create any magic, but I still like it.

14. FYI: Don’t press the Irish. They don’t turn the ball over and have enough solid ball handlers to make defenses pay.

15. Bonzie is really good in the post, and some teams will try and prevent passes to him when he is fighting for position by “fronting” him. Below, a Virginia Tech defender tries to front Bonzie, and the Irish do a good job of moving the ball around the perimeter, creating a better angle to make the pass.