Observations: Notre Dame falters late in season-ending NCAA Tournament loss to Texas Tech

On3 imageby:Patrick Engel03/20/22

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Notre Dame was in position.

A couple more baskets and a stop or two, and a trip to the Sweet 16 would await them.

The Irish stalled out just before the finish.

No. 3 seed Texas Tech defeated No. 11 Notre Dame 59-53 Sunday night in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, ending the Irish’s season with a 24-11 record. Notre Dame led 52-49 with 2:09 to go, but committed turnovers on two of its next three possessions and put Texas Tech at the foul line twice after offensive rebounds in that stretch.

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Dane Goodwin led Notre Dame with 14 points. Guard Blake Wesley added 11. Notre Dame shot 32.7 percent from the field and 32.1 percent on three-pointers. Texas Tech, meanwhile, shot 35.6 percent.

Here are three observations from the game.

BOX SCORE

1. A sour end

Three possessions will linger with everyone on the Notre Dame roster and coaching staff for a while. An offense that takes care of the ball and can move it around turned into an isolation-heavy operation that coughed it up twice in the final two minutes.

The pivotal possession started with 1:51 left and Notre Dame ahead by a point. Texas Tech unfurled a zone defense it hadn’t shown before, but flipped back to man mid-shot clock. The result was an isolation for Wesley, who drove from the wing, spun and was stripped of the ball by a help defender. It looked as if he was caught off guard by the change.

The next time down the court — this time trailing 53-52 — ended with a blocked Wesley layup after the ball never crossed the foul line. Texas Tech’s pressure and pass denials snuffed out the initial action, leaving Wesley to create something out of nothing. He initially gained a step on Texas Tech forward Marcos Santos-Silva, but the latter recovered to make the block.

Notre Dame regained possession down 55-52 with 54 seconds left. Wesley drove, drew a crowd of four defenders and tossed a hurried pass backward and out of bounds. It was the Irish’s 11th and final turnover of the game.

A break in character, all told. One players and coaches will wish they could redo as they watch film and see how it fell apart.

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2. Defensive effort

Even with its bumpy offensive night, Notre Dame found itself with a chance to win because it clamped down on the other end. The Irish threw several defenses at Texas Tech, starting in the 2-3 zone that has served as an effective change-up all season. They shifted between that, man-to-man and even some three-quarter court pressure.

Most of all, Notre Dame matched the intensity of Texas Tech’s top-rated defense. It dictated the flow on that end and forced Texas Tech into a more jumper-oriented attack than desired. There was effort, energy and pride on defense — three things missing a year ago during an 11-15 season and renewed this year. Notre Dame doesn’t reach the second round of the NCAA Tournament without committing to them back in summer workouts.

The Red Raiders were 4 of 15 on three-pointers and just 7 of 14 on layups. No single player shot better than 50 percent. Two starters and a key reserve had one field goal each. Texas Tech made one field goal in the final seven minutes: a breakaway dunk with 15 seconds left when the game was all but over.

There was one leak, though: the glass. The Irish began the game ranked 47th in defensive rebounding rate, surrendering second chances just 24.5 percent of the time. But Texas Tech pulled down 31.5 percent of its missed shots and 12 overall, leading to 13 second-chance points. The last four of those gave the Red Raiders the lead for good.

3. A tough offensive assignment

Texas Tech switches everything, pressures the ball and hurls help defenders at ball handlers who reach the paint or try to drive baseline. The Red Raiders want to keep the ball out of the middle and limit layup attempts as much as possible.

The trade-off of aggressive help defense is open three-pointers. Texas Tech came into the game ranked 344th out of 358 teams in three-point volume — opponents have taken 45.5 percent of their shots from beyond the arc. Beating the Red Raiders often comes down to an offense’s ability to make decisive reads when help comes and its shooters making quick catch-and-shoot threes.

In theory, that plays well into Notre Dame’s offense, which always has at least four shooters on the floor and experienced guards who can make good drive-and-kick decisions.

Sure enough, Notre Dame attempted more than half its shots from three-point range. The Irish went 9 of 28 from deep, a middling percentage but an adequate raw total in a low-scoring, low-possession game. They attacked mismatches on switches to collapse the defense and kick out to a shooter with enough frequency.

Why wasn’t it enough? The Irish were 5 of 15 on layups and dunks, and 4 of 9 from the foul line in the second half. Getting to the rim and finishing around the crowd Texas Tech puts there is a chore, but shooting 33 percent there digs too deep a hole. Texas Tech also doubled-teamed forward Paul Atkinson Jr.’s post touches and denied passes into him, holding him to five points on 1-of-4 shooting.

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