Written by Jhett Garrett | Writer | Twitter/X: @JhettGarrett
Photo by The Irish Tribune
Notre Dame dropped their third straight game this past Wednesday against the Miami Hurricanes in Purcell Pavilion, 73-61. Markus Burton led the way for the Irish in scoring, totaling 15 points on 5-15 shooting, knocking down three of his nine threes attempted. However, the freshman guard turned the ball over a season-high 8 times, which accounted for over half of the Irish turnovers.
Despite this, Miami head coach Jim Larrañaga had high praise for Burton.
“Markus Burton is not just one of the best players in the ACC, but he's maybe one of the three or four best freshmen in the country.” Larrañaga also pointed out that Burton has one of the highest usage rates in the country and expects him to continue to develop.
The Irish went into the half down 8, however, they catapulted themselves to a 52-49 lead with 9:28 left to play off a three by J.R. Konieczny, who finished the game with 13 points. The Hurricanes closed the game on a 24-9 run following this, including a 17-2 run immediately following the Konieczny three.
Coach Shrewsberry made a move coming out of the first half, that saw him benching Carey Booth, Matt Zona, as well as Kebba Njie, allowing Braden Shrewsberry, Julian Roper II, and Logan Imes to get productive minutes, and were the main reason for the Notre Dame comeback.
“…that group established from the start of the second half how hard you needed to play in order for us to win,” Shrewsberry said, “So, I was gonna roll with those dudes the rest of the half.” He has been very heavy on wanting to rebuild the program and has made it his number one goal since signing on at Notre Dame. He doubled up by saying, “The program is bigger than me, it’s bigger than anyone on our team, it’s bigger than anyone in this room, it's bigger than anyone at Notre Dame."
Coach Shrewsberry hammered hard on holding players accountable, and how important that is going to be for the program moving forward. "I'm trying to help our guys be a step ahead of the other people that aren't being held accountable." He stood very firm that holding players to this high of a standard will not only help the program, but help the players in the locker room. Shrewsberry also highlighted the Julian Roper block on Norchad Omier as "nothing but heart."
Omier, one of the top players in the ACC thus far, was once again unstoppable in this one, scoring 33 points on 14 shots, missing just two. "That 20 points in the first half is disrespectful," Shrewsberry said, "...he hit two threes because our ball screen coverage. We weren't where we were supposed to be." He also noted his displeasure with how comfortable the defense allowed Omier to get. It’s just Omier’s first 30+ point game this season and his ninth 20+ point game.
“We just let him operate and do whatever he wanted to,” Shrewsberry said in response to the big showing from Omier, who is ranked second in the ACC in field goal percentage behind Virginia Tech’s Lynn Kidd.
You can pinpoint Notre Dame’s struggles in many places 19 games into the season, but three-point shooting has been the Irish’s Achilles heel all year. They rank at the bottom of the ACC in three-point field goal percentage, shooting just 30% from beyond the ark. This remained true against the Hurricanes, shooting a daunting 10-34 from three, with only Markus Burton and J.R. Konieczny hitting five each.
"...we're hunting for great shots," Said Shrewsberry regarding Notre Dame's shot selection. "We're taking the best shot for Notre Dame. All our guys got the freedom."
The Irish have now lost five of their last six games and will host Boston College on Saturday. Boston College, who is 11-8 (2-6 in ACC play) comes into the game losing their last two since beating Notre Dame by 4 in Chestnut Hill.
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