In the business world, anticipating and planning for disasters is common practice. The business is logically separated into its components, and each part is assessed for likelihood of failure and impact of the loss. Businesses build redundancy for high impact components when possible, and they develop contingency plans for quickly replacing them if lost for a significant amount of time.

Failure to plan for significant losses and failure to practice the plan will derail a business if a disaster actually happens.

Do basketball coaches think the same way? I asked Mike Brey on Saturday after Demetrius Jackson, his best and most important player in terms of the team’s ability to succeed, was injured early in the game vs Boston College.

“You think about it,” Brey said as he explained how they have drilled for the potential loss of Jackson.

“In the course of a 90 minute practice, we’ll sub him (Jackson) out; so Steve is handling the ball with the team. It was really interesting that we rested him last Monday, and the whole time in the scrimmage Steve handled the ball.”

Like it would in a business disaster, it still took a little time to get the contingency plan up and running. The Fighting irish ran to a 15-4 lead in the first seven minutes of the game; but they sputtered after Jackson was helped off of the court, saw their lead shrink to three points, and only took a five point lead over the much less talented Eagles to halftime.

A big part of any recovery process is getting the team re-focused.

“Everybody just has to be ready because you never know what’s going to happen in a game,” Irish forward Bonzie Colson said after the game. “That’s what it comes down to. Obviously we don’t think about a player getting hurt, but at the same time, you gotta be ready.”

At the risk of putting words into Colson’s mouth, I understood his comment to acknowledge an urge to fill the void along with the intellectual sense that staying sharp and doing one’s own job well is the better choice. As a business world disaster planner knows, a quick return to 100% capacity isn’t likely; so there is less room than ever for missteps. Staying within yourself is a cliché, but that doesn’t make it wrong.

Implementing the disaster plan followed a typical path. Even though the team had practiced it, it took the entire first half to implement. The second half was execution time. Halftime was Brey’s opportunity to remind his team of how prepared it was. Putting the ball in the hands of veteran and captain Steve Vasturia was a nice advantage.

“Steve’s demeanor is great,” said Brey. “He’s so poised. We play that way in practice when we sub Demetrius, so it’s not completely foreign.”

Notre Dame played a solid second half and won by 27 points. More importantly, they finished the game with only eight turnovers playing without their primary ball handler.

As any disaster recovery planner knows, getting the business up and running isn’t the end of the process. The next step is to get as close to full capacity as possible until the disaster passes. Brey has been in step two through four days of practice. There is a stress test of his team’s capacity Thursday in Syracuse.

Practice, Practice, Practice… Or Not

Poor free throw shooting was a substantial factor in Notre Dame’s early season losses to Monmouth, Alabama, and Indiana. On Saturday, the Irish made 25 of 27 free throws, 16 of 16 in the second half. They have made 89 of 107 free throw attempts over the last four games, an 83% make rate.

“You know why,” Brey asked rhetorically after Saturday’s game. “We don’t work on it in practice. We don’t do it anymore. We haven’t worked on it as a team. I tell them to go shoot them on their own.

“Sometimes you can over-coach and overemphasize it. Then guys get tight. We haven’t done any team free throw shooting, pressure free throws, for two weeks, and we ain’t gonna start.”

Inside Out

Notre Dame is known as an outside shooting team, but that would be a poor characterization of the 2015-16 Irish. For the entire season, they have attempted the program’s lowest percentage of three point shots (34.4% of total shots) since 2012-13 when feeding Jack Cooley made the offense go; and since conference play began, only 30.3% of their shots have come from beyond the arc. That is the lowest percentage in conference games looking back through the 2010-11 season, and it stands in stark contrast to last season’s 38.7%.

Without counting the number of times each of the following was fouled in the act of shooting and went to the line for two or three shots, it’s clear that getting to the basket has become a priority for the wings on the team.

• Demetrius Jackson always has taken the ball to the basket, so his 2015-16 percentage of three point shots (35%) has fallen only slightly from last season (38%).
• VJ Beachem’s 2015-16 three point attempt percentage is 61% this season compared to 70% in 2014-15, but the last four games have been radically different. In those games, he has attempted 12 three point shots and 15 two point shots, only a 44% three point attempt rate.
• Steve Vasturia’s three point attempt rate has fallen to 39% this season vs 54% in 2014-15; and like Beachem, his percentage has been lower still over the last four games. He has taken 15 threes and 30 inside the arc, a 33% three point attempt rate.

The Irish are finding their legs by attacking the basket this season.

Ruling on the Rules

Now that I’ve had some time to evaluate this season’s rules changes:

• I thought I would like elimination of the five second closely guarded rule, but I was wrong. I love it.
• On the other hand, I do not like the new guarding rules on drives to the basket. Something needed to be done about uncalled mugging, but the NCAA has taken it too far. In an attempt to make the game flow better, it has turned the game into an endless series of whistles that prevent any kind of flow at all.
• I have had a chance to watch a few women’s games, and I must say that the change to quarters instead of halves is growing on me. The primary reason is that it takes five fouls in a quarter to get to the bonus, and there is no more one and one. Once in the bonus, the women are shooting two on common fouls. I hate one and one.