Key transfer portal miss stings Notre Dame one more time in loss to Virginia Tech
In an alternate universe – but a plausible one 10 months ago – the display of post-ups, duck-ins, rolls to the rim and 3-pointers that Grant Basile used to hang a 30-piece on Notre Dame Saturday at Purcell Pavilion happen with him wearing blue and gold. And, whew, what a display it was.
Baslie, a top transfer portal target for the Irish last spring, was a plug-and-play starter at the “five” position if he chose them as a grad student from Wright State. The Irish hosted him for a visit. They sold him on the opportunity.
He saw opportunity at Virginia Tech too. A better one, he decided. Saturday, he made Notre Dame’s miss on him sting once more.
The Irish had no answer for Basile in a 93-87 loss to Virginia Tech, which marked their season high in points allowed. Basile himself hung a season-high tying 33 points on Notre Dame, the most it has allowed to an opposing player this season. It felt like one more sucker punch in a season that keeps delivering them.
“You see why I tried to get Basile,” head coach Mike Brey said, incredulous. “Did a great job on that front.”
In many ways, those reasons have been clear since November.
Notre Dame (10-15, 2-12 ACC) has found no sustainable or consistent solution at the five – on either end. Post-ups from forwards are an infrequent source of points. It’s not just the loss of an interior option compared to last season. It’s the effect on the rest of the offense when there’s no need to double-team the post or one less way to flatten the defense.
Defensively? Saturday highlighted the issues there. Interior defense, resistance against post-ups and rim protection have been season-long bugaboos. Virginia Tech, with Basile and forward Justyn Mutts (19 points, 8 rebounds, 9 assists), feasted on it all afternoon.
“Mutts is such a facilitator,” Brey said. “He’s a point forward who’s really hard to deal with. He gets to the foul line and he’s high-low [passing] it. We were switching some stuff because we don’t want him to make a 3, and then he posts you.”
Notre Dame staying within arms’ length of Virginia Tech (15-10, 5-9) for nearly 40 minutes is a credit to its own offense. The Irish received a career-high 33 points from forward Nate Laszewski, shot at least 54 percent in both halves, made 13 3-pointers and only gave the ball away six times.
At the same time, though, it never felt like the Irish would have enough to take a lead and stay ahead. Not when Virginia Tech found whatever shot it wanted on the other end. For stretches of the second half, the Hokies’ offense looked like a pregame warmup layup line. Notre Dame led for just 15 seconds of the final 24 minutes.
Guard JJ Starling’s layup tied the score at 59 with 11:43 to go. The Irish had hope, even if that was mainly rooted in Virginia Tech regressing to the mean by missing a few open shots.
That’s when Basile, Mutts and guard Sean Pedulla erupted, drawing the curtains on the Irish’s chances. They scored on 12 straight possessions and made 10 straight field goals. Nearly nine minutes passed between Virginia Tech missed baskets. It didn’t matter than Notre Dame had a stretch of 5 made field goals in 7 attempts or three 3-pointers from Cormac Ryan (17 points) in that span.
“We could score, but we could never get [stops],” Brey said. “You hope they miss a few.”
That stretch of 12 straight possessions with scores started with Pedulla drawing fouls on consecutive drives. Then Basile took off. He scored on two 3-point plays in a row, coaxing a foul from a Notre Dame defender at the rim both times. After a Mutts layup, he poured in 10 straight points. He made 7 consecutive field goal attempts at one point.
Virginia Tech led 85-75 when guard Hunter Cattoor mercifully missed a 3-pointer with 3:03 left. Same story. Same ending. Notre Dame once again found itself on the wrong side of a game with a key moment where either side could take control.
“Our mood has been pretty consistent, because we’ve taken a lot of punches,” Brey said. “All I said was, ‘Practice at 3 tomorrow.’”
