A familiar game script featuring an early lead, a quick collapse, and late-game breakdowns doomed the Irish
The Notre Dame Fighting Irish stayed in the Sunshine State for a Tuesday night tilt against the Florida State Seminoles. Both teams were fresh off of losses to one of the two worst teams in the conference over the weekend, so someone had to come off of their slide. Just like many other conference games this season, it was a very close game in the last four minutes, but the Irish could not find a way to get the lead and seal the deal.
The Irish got on the board when Braeden Shrewsberry caught an inbounds pass well behind the three-point line with just three seconds left on the shot clock and somehow juked his defender without moving his feet for a relatively open look. Markus Burton then drove down the lane for a floater to give the Irish a 5-2 lead, but he gave it away with a silly foul of a three-point shooter, who made Burton pay by making all three.
Burton would make up for his mistake with a nice slow-step toward the hoop for a layup, which kicked off a nice run. Garrett Sundra got open off an inbound pass in the corner for a three, and Tae Davis made a nice transition layup reminiscent of how he had been attacking the basket weeks ago. The Seminoles retorted with a nice reverse layup when Kebba Njie got sealed out of the play by a screen, but they then failed to find Shrewsberry in transition, who buried a wide open three. A missed Sir Mohammed layup was put back for a dunk by Njie to cap off a 12-2 run for Notre Dame.
Unfortunately, Florida State got a bucket the next trip down and then Mohammed put up second consecutive wild shot under the hoop while losing his balance (“clumsily falls down”, per the play-by-play man) and took Njie down with him, leading to an easy fast break bucket for the Seminoles. Shrewsberry turned it over on the next possession which led to another Florida State bucket and Micah Shrewsberry getting Burton back into the game. Even Burton didn’t stop the slide, however, and after 4 scoreless Irish minutes, Florida State tied the score at 17 with a 10-0 run. Timeout, Irish.
Jamir Watkins would grab another bucket for Florida State after an empty Irish possession, and Burton threw the ball away on a miscommunication the next trip down for Notre Dame. Burton would get stripped again moments later for the fourth turnover in what became six scoreless Irish minutes. In between those two turnovers, Njie picked up two fouls that led to Seminole free throws, and then Tae Davis got ripped bringing the ball up, leading to a fast-break layup for Jamir Watkins. Davis would put up a brick the next time down, and Sundra fouled AJ Swinton to avoid getting put on a poster. When the carnage settled after seven of the worst minutes of Irish basketball you’ll ever see, it was a 18-0 run for Florida State, and they led 25-17.
The Irish got back in the scoring column rather strangely. After the extended stretch of the offense stepping on rakes, Mohammed and Sundra set up a high screen/roll 26 feet from the hoop. Mohammed dropped a nice bounce pass to Sundra on the roll, who caught it at the free throw line and sailed in for an untouched layup, as if to say, “Gee guys, that wasn’t so hard, was it?”
Sundra would get a deflection for a steal to give the Irish some momentum, but Shrewsberry threw a terrible pass that Swinton took for a pick-six thunder dunk. Then, Burton would airball a three the next trip down for a shot clock violation, confirming that stupidball was still in full force. Florida State led by 10.
The Markus Burton show wasn’t over, however. He found himself with an open three off of a nice kick-out from Sundra, and then made a pull-up jumper off of a nice Mohammed rebound. The Seminoles then threw the ball in to…Julian Roper, who passed it to Burton for a wide open three in transition. The 8-0 Burton run got the lead town to two in less than a minute, and the Irish went to the locker room trailing 29-28 after a truly weird half of basketball.
Tae Davis seemed determined to get involved in the game at the start of the second half, as he netted a put-back and a couple successful post touches on the first few possessions. The teams traded baskets for a little while until Shrewsberry got swatted on a three point attempt, which led to a transition three for Watkins on the other end. The Irish picked up a 5-second violation for yet another turnover, and Burton got stripped on a defensive rebound, leading to another Watkins three that put the Seminoles up 9, 43-34.
Burton (who else?) responded for the Irish with a good look at a three, and then the next FOUR possessions of the game ended in offensive fouls. As poorly as the Irish had been taking care of the ball, Florida State’s turnover count was higher, and that was keeping Notre Dame in the game. Davis drove all the way down the for a layup, and he’d get a huge offensive rebound on the next possession, after which he made a great pass to Njie, who scored on a nice post move. The Irish would get a stop and immediately kick the ball to Burton near half-court, who got to the hoop before the Seminoles could recover. Just like that the game was tied at 43 with 12 minutes to play.
The Irish leaked a dunk to Swinton on the next possession, who streaked in from the weak-side corner untouched due to a double-team, but Burton came down and converted an and-1 to give the Irish their first lead of the half. Florida State seemed determined to take Burton away after that, as they pressured Notre Dame to use Mohammed and Imes to dribble the ball up, both of whom proved skittish and ineffective at getting the Irish into their sets. The possessions got increasingly disorganized but consistently empty, and that allowed a not-particularly-effective Florida State offense to eke the lead up to 52-47 while the Irish missed seven consecutive frantic layup attempts.
After five straight scoreless minutes, the Irish turned to the same guy that they did in the first half to stop the drought — Garrett Sundra. Burton found Sundra in the corner for an open three, which he knocked down while getting knocked down. He’d fail to complete the four-point play, but that brought Notre Dame within two. However, a Davis free throw would be the only thing to offset a few strong offensive possessions from Florida State, and the Seminoles would scratch the lead back to 56-51.
The Irish would respond with one of the weirdest possessions you’ll see. Burton drove and made a nice pass to Roper, who maneuvered himself open under the hoop and…didn’t shoot it. He made a weird shovel pass to a less-open Sundra, who kicked it out to Davis, who made a three as the shot clock expired (Tae Davis! A three!). Sundra would tap the ball away for a steal and grab a great offensive rebound on the next possession, but Shrewsberry stepped out of bounds to give it back. With a timeout on the floor and three minutes left, the Irish were on defense and down two points. Familiar territory, innit?
When play resumed, Kebba Njie grabbed a strong rebound on the next Seminoles possession and got fouled for some double-bonus action, where he’d make one of two. The Seminoles made their first field goal in five minutes on a jumper in the lane, and then Njie got the ball stripped off his knee after catching a nice pass from Burton. Malique Ewin would cook Njie in the post on the next trip down to push the Florida State lead to five with 1:51 to go.
Burton needed to take matters into his own hands yet again, and slashed between large defenders in the lane for a layup, albeit after most of the shot clock was drained. That latter bit was rendered a moot point when Davis lost track of Ewin in the lane in the middle of the zone, and Ewin caught a pass under the hoop for an and-one. Davis would miss yet another lay-up on the other end with 40 seconds left, which sealed Notre Dame’s fate.
The Irish dropped to 0-8 all-time at Florida State and are left searching for a way to pull out of a serious tailspin.
Bullet Points:
- There were a lot of rotation shifts in this one. Matt Allocco was out with a wrist injury, and Sir Mohammed got the start in his place. Logan Imes was the first Irish player in off the bench. Garrett Sundra was the second. Cole Certa made an appearance 10 minutes into the game, and J.R. Konieczny didn’t play.
- Sundra’s decision-making and activity in this game was generally pretty good, which is a development worth watching. He finished with 8 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 steals in just 12 minutes.
- Burton drew three offensive fouls against bigger players trying to bully him.
- Mohammed brought the ball up a fair amount in this game. His ball-handling has been unwieldy and he had a major tendency to get out of control on drives, but he did make a couple nice passes. He was also 0-for-7 from the field, which hurt.
- Excluding Sundra’s nice game, the rest of the bench combined for 37 minutes of scoreless basketball.
- The final count: 18 turnovers for Florida State, 16 for Notre Dame. Sloppy.