Defense will be better next season ...
by FightingIrishRadio (2018-04-17 13:44:03)
Edited on 2018-04-17 13:44:58

In reply to: Same Person, Different Focus: Bri Turner  posted by dillon77


... for all the reasons you mention: Bri in the back to defend the rim, guards can be more aggressive because they don't have to worry as much about picking up early fouls, and ND has the potential to press quite a bit more either with a first or second unit.

The defense had to back off a bit this year out of necessity. However, when they needed to be tough on defense, the Irish were. ND would not have beaten Mississippi State if they didn't hold them to 13 points in the second quarter and just 11 in the third. MSU only shot 36% from the field in those two pivotal quarters. MSU was one of the top scoring teams in the nation averaging 81.1 points per game --- they only managed 58 against ND. MSU only made 37.3% of its field goals in the game.

In the semi-finals, ND survived a 27 point UConn blitz in the second quarter. The Huskies only managed 38 points in the second half (regulation) and the second quarter was the only one that saw UConn top 20 points. ND scored 24 in the first, 23 in the third and 22 in the fourth. UConn was the nation's top scoring team at 89.4 points per game. They scored 79 in regulation against the Irish. UConn was the nation's top shooting team -- at 53.3% from the field. They shot 49.4% against the Irish.

Oregon ranked 7th in the NCAA in scoring at 82.4 points per game -- the Ducks were held over 8 points below their season average. For the season, Oregon made 50% of its field goals -- they shot 43.1% against ND. In the second half, Oregon only made 8 of 31 field goal attempts -- just 25.8% -- with just 9 points in the 3rd quarter.

For the season, ND's opponents averaged 67.8 points on offense -- the highest season average for ND's opponents over the past eight seasons and ND's steals per game, at 8.2, and opponent turnovers, at 15.7, were the lowest over the same span. ND should do better on all three stats next season.

One thing to keep in mind -- ND played the nation's toughest schedule throughout the year. One manifestation of the difficulty was the number of high scoring teams on the schedule. Over half of ND's games (20 of 38) were played against top 50 NCAA scoring offenses including 9 against the top 25 and 4 against the top ten.





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