Sunday, Dec. 13, 2015 1:00 p.m.
Purcell Pavilion, South Bend, Ind.
The 5-3 Ramblers face the 6-2 Fighting Irish on a Sunday afternoon in South Bend, marking the 32nd meeting between the schools and the 100th anniversary of the first men’s basketball game between the two schools in the 1915-16 season. Loyola’s only two victories against the Irish came in Chicago in 1956 and in South Bend in 1994. The most recent time the two schools met, the Irish romped 107-68 behind 23 points from Troy Murphy on Nov. 22, 2000.
Ranked #19 in the preseason AP poll, the Irish have fallen out of the rankings after losses to Monmouth and Alabama at the Advocare Invitational MTE in November. Since their stumble in Orlando, they beat Illinois on the road by five points and they’re coming off an 86-61 home win on Tuesday over Stony Brook. The Irish have struggled without Jerian Grant and Pat Connaughton, who got them an ACC championship and three points shy of defeating Kentucky in the Elite Eight last season.
Coach Mike Brey, in his 16th season with the Irish, is starting three forwards and two guards. Top scorer Demetrius Jackson is a junior from nearby Mishawaka, Ind. who has inherited control of the backcourt. The strong, 6’1” combo guard shoots 55% from the field, averages 18.8 ppg, dishes off 5.1 apg, and plays more than 35 minutes per game. He’s a scorer who can hit from long range (43% on threes), sets the tempo, involves other players, and plays very good defense (3.6 rebounds per game, tied for the team lead in steals).
Six-ten senior forward Zach Auguste is an All American talent and a potential NBA first rounder. He’s averaging a double-double with 15.3 points and 11.1 rebounds per game, and shoots with impressive accuracy in traffic (53.8% from the field). He can run the floor with speed and grace, play defense, and handle the ball (2.4 assists per game, 7 steals). Auguste is aggressive going to the hoop and leads the team in trips to the line, but only makes 57% of his freebies.
Junior guard Steve Vasturia is a 6’5” junior shooting guard who averages 13.4 ppg and plays heavy minutes. Two forwards, 6’8” junior V.J Beacham and 6’5” sophomore Bonzie Colson, fill out the starting lineup and average 12.3 and 8.4 points per game respectively. The tall and rangy Beacham takes more than half his shots from behind the arc, and leads the team in made threes (24) and three point percentage (44.4%). Colson does not shoot the three, but gets to the line fairly often where he shoots 77%.
Only two bench players, 6’8” freshman forward Matt Ryan (4.9 ppg), and 6’1” sophomore guard Matt Ferrell (3.1 ppg) have seen significant time off the bench. The Irish are not very deep, and Coach Brey does not have much confidence in his bench. In Notre Dame’s 70-68 loss to Monmouth, only Ferrell (for 21 minutes) and Ryan (for 7 minutes) saw any time off the bench, and they were both scoreless. Against Alabama, three players came off the bench for a total of 19 minutes of action, and scored only four points. Four starters (all of them besides Colson) average 30 minutes or more per game, yet the Irish have had only one player (Colson, in his first ever game as a starter) foul out thus far.
Yet again, controlling the tempo is going to be important for Loyola to stay in the game and have a chance to win. The Irish like to have a game where they score in the mid-80s, and in all four of their wins at home they’ve done just that. In fact, their pacing and scoring in home games is almost like a metronome: 87, 86, 83, 86 have been their point totals at home this year, winning those games by 29, 8, 26, and 25. (The measly eight point win was over a Milwaukee team that hit 14 of their 21 three point shots.) Even in their two exhibition games against non-D1 teams St. Francis (Ill.) and Caldwell they scored 87 and 81 points, respectively.
Away from home (road and neutral games), however, the Irish are 2-2 and average "only" 73.3 points on offense; they’re 1-1 when scoring in the 60s, and 0-1 when scoring in the 70s. Alabama beat the Irish with tough, physical defense (two Tide starters fouled out), controlling the tempo, and making Auguste and Jackson earn their points through double teams or from the line. The top two Irish scorers were a combined 10 of 27 from the field and 10 of 16 from the free throw line in a 1-point Irish loss, and had to play a grueling 79 of 80 combined minutes. Monmouth just plain outshot the Irish in a slower-tempo game, and focused their defense on Auguste.
The odds, and history, will certainly be against Loyola on Sunday. Although the Irish aren’t ranked anymore after their two MTE losses, they’re still an ACC team, likely to be favored by 7-10 points, playing at home, in a building where they’re 607-158 (.793) since it opened in 1968. They’re playing against a team they’ve beaten 29 out of 31 times over a 99-year span. And yet, as a few of us can actually remember,
it IS indeed possible…. Loyola game notes:
http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/loy ... 211aaa.pdfNotre Dame game notes:
http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/loy ... aaa_nd.pdfTV/Streaming video: ESPN3
Vegas line: Notre Dame by 15.5
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