Miscellaneous memories that I took away from the train wreck of a game I just watched:
* Torin Francis getting the ball directly under the basket with 2 seconds on the shot clock… and passing it out to the perimeter.
* Torin Francis’s butterfingers throughout the game.
* Numerous ridiculous turnovers, including several in the crucial closing minutes (though not the final minute, when the game was effectively over and the Irish started magically playing well again).
* Missed layups.
* The stark contrast between Marquette’s offense, in which all five players seemed to be moving at all times, and our “offense,” which mostly involves 3 or 4 guys standing around while one guy (usually Chris Quinn) dribbles… and then occasionally someone moves, whereupon he is immediately and predictably passed the ball. Everyone then proceeds to stop moving until it’s time for the next pass. Rinse and repeat, until there are 5 seconds left on the shot clock, at which point Chris Quinn is expected to make something happen out of nothing.
* The crucial Marquette putback late in the game that occurred when some guy who looked like he was about 5-foot-5 got a rebound while surrounded by Francis and… I think maybe Kurz? Anyway, the point is, a short Marquette player easily grabbed the rebound while the two tall Irish players near him just stood there, and the result was two Marquette points.
* The play in the first half when an Irish player shot a three-pointer at the shot-clock buzzer, and instead of getting in position to go for a potential rebound, the entire Irish team stood on the permieter and watched the shot rattle out, whereupon Marquette got an uncontested rebound.
* The play where a driving McAlarney made a great pass to an open Francis in the lane, but Francis wasn’t paying attention and wasn’t ready to shoot, and in his confusion, made a bad pass out to the perimeter. Either McAlarney or Francis would have had a good shot if they’d taken it; instead, we got nothin’.
Forgive me for being so down on this team right now, after having my heart ripped out of my throat for the 86th time this season… but honestly, what’s the point of rooting for them to make the Big East tournament? It’s not like they have a snowball’s chance in Hell of winning it. All this talk about the “snakebitten Irish” ignores the fact that this team, for all its potential, is fundamentally flawed, from the coach on down. Torin Francis is a Jekyll and Hyde player; yeah, he scored 16 points and had 15 rebounds tonight, but those were almost entirely in the first half; late in the game, he was responsible for several mistakes and missed opportunities that arguably cost us the game. Chris Quinn has the heart of a champion — and yes, his biggest problem is simply that he’s asked to do way too much because Mike Brey doesn’t have a legitimate offensive strategy — but the kid can’t hit a crucial layup to save his life (he’s missed four game-winning baskets this season). Colin Falls is inconsistency personified: an asset when he’s hot, a liability at other times. (He shot 1-for-10 tonight.) The whole team has an odd habit of going cold at the most inconvenient times imaginable. And while Mike Brey has unquestionably done a superb job at keeping the kids motivated despite all the crushing losses, that’s basically the only part of the job description of “head coach” that he’s good at. Play calling? Late-game strategizing? Player development? Not his strengths.
Oh, well. GOOOO IRISH, BEEEEEAT FRIARS.
And… Fire Mike Brey.
P.S. Becky is also not exactly a Mike Brey fan.
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Categories: Uncategorized
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February 26th, 2006 at 8:44:20 am
How can you blame this on Mike Brey?
I think coaches are scapegoats too much, Brey didnt turn the ball over 15+ Plus times, Brey didnt make errorant passes throughout the game.
February 26th, 2006 at 1:15:47 pm
Nate, I blame Brey because those missed shots and turnovers are the result of a nonexistent offensive strategy. The coach is the brain of the team. One or two missed passes is player error. Throwing away the ball with an impossible pass to Torin Francis five times every game is a coaching error.
One game does not a bad coach make. This crap had gone on far longer than one game.
I’m not saying that the Irish could beat Duke for the Championship because Duke is just more talented that we are. But our losses have not been to dramatically better teams. The majority of our losses have been to teams of equal or lesser talent. We’re not losing because our players can’t shoot. We’re losing because our offense is like a carriage with no driver and five decent horses that have no discipline and do whatever the hell they want, which seems to translate into sloppy offensive play that results in low percentage shots or turnovers.
If Chris Quinn was JJ Reddick (er Redick?), we would be at the top of our conference. But he isn’t and it’s not fair to expect him to be. 99% of teams don’t have a Reddick or a Morrison to fall back on and good coaches find a way to win with what they have. The Irish have far more talent than their win-loss record would suggest.
I’m of the opinion that you might be able to blame the players for losing a game; sometimes everyone seems to have two left feet. However, a bad season with this squad is not the result of bad players but of bad coaching. If a figure skater jumped and fell on her ass 8 out of 10 times, even though she almost got the jump, you’d say she sucks and if she can’t find a way to land her jumps, she needs a new trainer. It’s the same way here. At the end of the day, close wins are still losses and our boys are falling on their asses the same way game after game.
The pattern is why Brendan can blame this loss on Brey. The remarkable consistency of how Irish lose, how they turn over the ball, when they lose their steam–>that’s Mike Brey. He’s consistently demonstrated his inability to create the offensive strategy ND needed to win.
ND’s season looks like this: come out even or close to it, fall behind by at least 8-12 points or as many as 20, exhaust the starting line making a come back and run out of steam in them last 4 minutes of the game prompting sloppy mistakes. Start playing well again with about 90 seconds left and heave low percentage 3-point shots over defenders and hope that they drop.
That is ND basketball. You barely even need to watch the season because they lose the same way every time.
In football, Ty Willingham took a talented squad to mediocre seasons and bowl losses. Charlie Weis took the same boys and had a top 10 team.
The difference?
Weis gave the players an effective offensive strategy that played to the strengths of the people on his team. He didn’t try to make Brady throw like Carson Palmer because Brady is not Carson Palmer. Weis designed offensive and defensive strategies that worked for his kids. Not only that, his strategies changed from game to game. For example, Weis told his offense to hold the ball as long as possible in the USC game because he knew that given opportunity, the SC offense would tear the ND defense apart.
If Brey has a strategy, I haven’t seen it and seeing as how I sit around watching college basketball every night it’s on, I think I would have notice the charming ESPN commentators pointing out his brilliance if it was anything to talk about. The only thing I’ve heard the ESPN blokes comment about Mike Brey is when they asked the question: should Mike Brey be fired?
I’m not asking Brey to be Pat Summit or Wooden or Coach K. I’m just asking him not to coach basketball like Roseanne Barr sings the national anthem.