PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Throw out Saturday’s 71-54 loss at Providence for Notre Dame. It’s an aberration, and maybe it was something they were due for given what they’ve had to do lately. The Fighting Irish have now lost their last two games decided in regulation, but they have come a couple of games apart. And while they didn’t play well, head coach Mike Brey very accurately assessed that this outcome is more about the home team.
“It’s been a long week, but I’d say 95 percent of tonight was Providence’s performance, and they were fabulous,” said Brey.
Notre Dame has had to play a lot of basketball lately, as their last two games and three of the last four haven’t been decided in regulation. They had the five overtime thriller against Louisville a week ago in South Bend, then needed overtime to knock off DePaul in South Bend just three nights later. A week before the Louisville game, they needed overtime to beat DePaul on the road.
In other words, in the past five games, they have basically played six games as the seven overtimes make up close to one more full game. And while Brey and his team surely hoped they wouldn’t have a down game like this, he admitted he feared that could happen.
“I was, to be real honest with you,” said Brey. “We’ve invested a lot emotionally and physically over the last week.”
The box score reflects how ugly a game it was for Notre Dame. They shot just 39.3 percent from the floor, including 1-14 on three-pointers, the latter a statistic in which they lead the Big East. Providence shot 44.6 percent from the floor, but went 8-20 from long range, had a 43-32 edge on the glass and just eight turnovers, four coming in each half. About the one bright spot in the stat sheet for the Fighting Irish was that they had 14 assists and 11 turnovers, and have yet to have more turnovers than assists in a game this season. That, and Jack Cooley had a double-double of 12 points and 10 rebounds despite not playing well.
Besides the Irish seeming due for a game like this, Providence deserves some credit because the Friars have been playing well of late. They seem to be meshing after injuries and personnel issues left them at one point down to five scholarship players, then when they had everyone more adjustments were needed because the lineup and roles were very different. Saturday’s win was Providence’s fourth in a row, and they haven’t lost in February.
Brey said he didn’t like the Fighting Irish’s lack of energy at the defensive end early on, and that set a tone. Providence seemed to gain confidence, and from there Notre Dame never got on a roll. Eric Atkins and Jerian Grant were slow to get going, and when that happens the offense can struggle. They combined for nine assists and three turnovers, but were 5-17 from the field, including 1-7 on three-pointers. As good as the offense is, the defense sets the tone as much as anything.
“Obviously, we needed to score more points, but we needed to get more stops, too,” said sophomore wing Pat Connaughton, who was scoreless on the afternoon on 0-4 shooting, all from long range. “Usually our defense feeds our offense, and today that didn’t happen, so we were struggling on offense.”
The Irish are well on their way to the NCAA Tournament barring a major collapse, so it’s all about seeding at this point. They have wins over Kentucky, Cincinnati and Louisville, and haven’t been stung by a bad loss, so their profile is good and they should be a high seed as well. They are in a jumbled race in the Big East, where they and six other teams entered Saturday within a game of each other in the loss column at the top. But they also don’t want to go into the tournament not playing well.
That’s one reason why Brey seemed to be cutting his losses as far as his demeanor in the second half. While he wanted to win this game, he didn’t invest as much emotional energy for a lot of the second half. Some of that is no doubt reflective of a comfort level he seems to have with this team, but he admitted the quick turnaround for Monday night’s game at Pittsburgh played a role in it.
“As you could see, my demeanor was certainly not to rant and rave,” Brey said. “I’m thinking, we’ve got another one Monday night, and we have to get out of dodge and try to get our energy back and see if we can get some juices back for Big Monday.”
Saturday’s game won’t go down as the game that starts a downward spiral for this team. Perhaps it will spur them to something better in the games that follow, but that remains to be seen. Saturday, however, was more about the opponent than the Fighting Irish, and this team seems too mature to let a poor performance start them downhill for the rest of the season.
