Observations: Armando Bacot too much to handle for Notre Dame in loss to North Carolina
Two of the ACC’s most disappointing teams collided Saturday at the Dean Smith Center when Notre Dame visited North Carolina. One took another step toward more stable footing. The other continues a free fall.
The Irish lost to the Tar Heels 81-64 Saturday afternoon, dropping to 8-8 overall and 0-5 in conference play. Their NCAA tournament goals are all but zapped before the spring semester even begins. They shot 41.7 percent overall, 38.9 percent on 3-pointers and did not top 65 points for the fourth time in five ACC games.
North Carolina, which hardly resembles a preseason No. 1 team, has won six of its last seven games and is pointed back in the right direction after a bumpy first two months. The Tar Heels (11-5, 3-2) shot 47.7 percent from the field.
Forward Nate Laszewski led Notre Dame with 17 points. Guards JJ Starling and Dane Goodwin added 10 each.
Here are some observations from the game.
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North Carolina defeats double-teams
Mike Brey didn’t hide Notre Dame’s game plan against first-team All-ACC forward Armando Bacot when previewing the game Thursday: double-team him. The Irish brought two defenders on his post touches from the first possession. He and North Carolina were ready for it, though. Bacot finished with 21 points, 13 rebounds and 4 assists.
On the first possession of the game, he fired a skip pass to the opposite corner – where help defense often came from – to guard Caleb Love, who made 3-pointer off it. Later in the first half, he found forward Puff Johnson for a pass along the baseline out of a double. Johnson made a turnaround jumper and drew a foul. The latter play where Johnson cut to the basket was one example of how North Carolina set Bacot up for success handling double teams. It didn’t require him to make skip passes to jump shooters all game.
Notre Dame forced Bacot to miss some shots against double-teams, but he rebounded two of his own misses in the first half and turned them into putbacks. Those are the plays that thwart a good initial plan and sturdy first-shot defense.
Brey gave freshman forward Dom Campbell some playing in the second half against Bacot, a tough assignment for a first-year who has logged 13 minutes all year. Campbell’s effort is hard to miss, especially when rebounding. His first career basket came on a putback in the second half.
But he fouled Bacot three times in a span of about three minutes. It’s a tough assignment, but the discipline on defense hints at one reason why those minutes have been scattershot so far. He fouled out in seven minutes of action, a playing-time window created by forward Ven-Allen Lubin’s absence with an ankle sprain.
Bacot delivered the final dagger when he dribbled out of a double and found guard RJ Davis for a 3-pointer that put North Carolina up 15 with 3 minutes left.
Switching stunts Notre Dame offense
North Carolina had some early defensive breakdowns that allowed the Irish hang around early. Laszewski scored on two slips to the basket where help defense was late to him. Marcus Hammond made a 3-pointer when two defenders followed a forward into the paint and nobody guarded him.
Then the Tar Heels settled into switching screens and stifled Notre Dame. The Irish couldn’t get the ball to Laszewski in the paint against guards often enough. Three times, they turned it over trying to pass to him inside. Bacot often found himself switched onto a guard and held his own. He blocked Starling twice on drives. Laszewski found himself matched up on guard Seth Trimble on one second-half possession, but missed a jump-hook.
All told, Notre Dame attempted just 18 3-pointers, its third fewest in a game this year. The inability to burn switches and draw help defense did them no favors in trying to create open jumpers.
Little 3-point margin for error
Without a post-up threat, leaky post defense and trouble guarding drives, Notre Dame needs the 3-pointers to fall to win games. Brey said so himself in a Thursday press conference.
“So much rides on us making 3-point shots,” Brey said. “We’re making 10 a game, and it’s not enough. We’re probably going to have to make 13 or 14 to win games. We’re not going to be able to throw it in there [in the post].”
That’s a lot of weight to put on shooting, even for a team with a roster of good shooters. There will be off shooting nights. But more importantly, without a post presence to play through or a high-end distributer at point guard, the volume of quality 3-point attempts isn’t consistent enough for Notre Dame to reliably make 13 or 14 a game.
The Irish won’t see switch-everything defenses in every game. But those will be a problem if they can’t burn mismatches where centers are defending on the perimeter or a guard is playing post defense on Laszewski.
“We’re going to have to make more than we’re making,” Brey said, “to win a league game.”
