Everything Notre Dame head coach Micah Shrewsberry said after Boston College loss
Notre Dame head coach Micah Shrewsberry addressed reporters after the Irish lost to Boston College 63-59. Notably, he expressed displeasure with one specific aspect of Atlantic Coast Conference officiating.
Here’s what Shrewsberry had to say.
Opening statement
“First off, congrats to Boston College. Hard-fought win. Thought they were the more aggressive team in the second half, and that showed. Our turnovers picked up, and that was the game.”
How happy were you with the play you drew up to get Carey Booth an open three-pointer at the end of the game?
“Yeah, we got a good look, but don’t put yourself in that position. We did some things to get that ball and get in that position, but we also had one-and-one free throws in a tie game, at a crucial point and we missed it. We’re missing free throws, turning the ball over and that’s losing us games.”
Notre Dame did a good job on Boston College center Quinten Post early. Was his strong finish just a matter of a good player finding his rhythm late?
“He scored it in different ways. We gave him a couple different — I remember the lob play when we overplayed it and we didn’t need to; we went for a steal and he got a dunk. When you get something like that, it gets you going a little bit. He was shooting some of the threes early and they weren’t going in because he didn’t feel comfortable. He wasn’t in the rhythm. You give him a dunk or you give him something easy, now he starts to feel good. Now he starts to make threes. So yeah, he made some big shots late. The last one was just total miscommunication on our part and he made us pay.”
What did Boston College do to take control of the game from Notre Dame in the second half?
“They were just the more physical team. I thought they amped up their pressure a little bit more. They were more physical.
“I thought our point guard [freshman guard Markus Burton] was getting bumped and ridden and rode. I can’t wait until the day that he’s a senior and he gets some of the calls that some of the seniors in the league get. But right now, he doesn’t. He’s in foul trouble a lot because people bump him and the foul is on him, but people bump him in the open court and he never gets a call. They were more physical, and they probably know that going in. ‘Young fella’s not gonna get a call, so be more physical with him and get him to turn it over.’ And that’s what he did, he turned it over.
“But they just turned up their pressure. It was nothing different that we did offensively, they did defensively except for that. They turned up their pressure. We turned it over. We panicked. We gave them more points in transition. They couldn’t score on us in the half court, but they scored more in transition and now it gets everybody feeling good about themselves. They get layups in transition, they get dunks in transition, they get to the free-throw line because we foul them, now I feel good. Now I feel really good, because I see the ball go through. But if we never turn the ball over, they don’t get those transitions, now they’re still in the struggle that whole time.
“And that was the game for us. We’ve been poor to start second halves. Poor. And that’s cost us. We can’t keep coming back to the well and coming back to the locker room like, man, that’s a game we should’ve won. You can say it about NC State, you can say it about Duke, you can said it about Florida State. We start the second half poor. We dig ourselves a hole. And we’re not as these other teams in the league right now. We have a bunch of freshmen and sophomores that are playing versus juniors and seniors. Our margin for error is smaller, so we can’t do those things to put ourselves in the hole every single time. It’s got to change.”
