At this time last season, making the NCAA Tournament was the goal of Notre Dame basketball fans. The Irish had a rare losing 2013-14 season. Jerian Grant was back and playing very well, but the team was just starting to play to his extraordinary skills. There was a nice overtime victory at home vs Michigan State, but the Spartans outshot the Irish and beat them on the boards by 17. Perusing the box score, ND had no business winning that game.

ND’s one genuinely impressive win during the November-December part of the schedule was a 20-point blowout of highly regarded Florida State, but it took overtime to beat the mediocre Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets at home the first week of January. The starting lineup was set, but the rotation was not. VJ Beachem was a jump shooter who couldn’t get through a screen defensively, and Bonzie Colson still was trying to learn his assignments so he could get on the floor.

We all know how the team gelled late in the season, but late January and early February were not artistic successes – a loss at Pittsburgh, a sloppy home win vs Boston College, a blowout loss at Duke, and a two point escape at Clemson. The team didn’t truly start to perform like a well tuned machine until it went to Louisville the first week of March and defeated the Cardinals 81-67. After that, they didn’t look back.

So why are Notre Dame basketball fans so uneasy this time around? Why are they sweating a tournament bid? Why is there a feeling that the clock is ticking so early in January? Surely there isn’t a Notre Dame fan who expected the Irish to pick up where they left off having lost Jerian Grant and Pat Connaughton.

The unease boils down to a single digit – 4, as in four losses. There is no shame in losing to Virginia at Charlottesville even if the game wasn’t close, but the other three losses were the results of recurring mistakes – missed free throws, scoring droughts, and defensive lapses. The close game toughness that got last season’s squad through so many tight games has not been a trait of the 2015-16 version.

Why?

I see two reasons.

1. It has taken longer than expected for the starters to get comfortable playing together.
2. While Demetrius Jackson might become an excellent closer, he and his teammates haven’t figured out how best to work together at the end of a close game.

Continuity

With a starting lineup of five rotation players from the previous season, learning to play together didn’t seem like is was going to be a problem. It has been a big problem.

Some of ND’s best basketball has been played with a four around one lineup. Colson and Zach Auguste tend to score most effectively doing the same thing – setting screens for Jackson and rolling down the lane; and they don’t have complementary offensive skills. For most of the season, one setting the screen and rolling meant the other was out of the offense essentially making the Irish attack a four on five matchup.

Tag teaming the two has been an option Mike Brey has used regularly, especially for Colson.

“He gets very effective when we play him like we played him last year,” Brey said. “Now you’re the lone big, and we have four guys who can really stretch the floor.”

Brey knows the small lineup won’t be viable in many conference games. “We’re going to be playing against some really big bodies after the new year,” he said.

Defensive continuity has been a problem, too, more than one would expect from a veteran team. After the Loyola game in mid December Brey said, “I thought we were really poor defensively. We lost guys. We switched stuff we shouldn’t have switched.”

At halftime of that game, Brey decided to start in man defense and not switch anything. “We still couldn’t guard them, so we went to zone,” he said.

In fact, the Irish have played more zone this season than ever before, sometimes successfully and sometimes terribly. Brey has experimented with combining a press with zone to shave some time off of the shot clock.

“We like to extend it with that tempo press. It’s a 1-2-2 look. If we can get a steal, we’ll get one. We don’t really trap. We just want you to make some basketball decisions. Sometimes you’ll get turnovers because they’ll brain lock and won’t make a basketball decision. As soon as they get to half court, we’re back to 2-3.

“With the new shot clock,’ Brey continued, “there was a lot of talk among coaches in the summer about having to take some time off the clock against tempo press. Now you get it across and and you have to play against a zone. That takes more time, and that is an interesting rhythm to be in to use the shot clock to your advantage.”

Big lineup? Small lineup? Man defense? Zone defense? Press?

It isn’t settled yet, and it has taken a toll on other aspects of team development. I asked Brey what has slipped while trying to find the right combinations and the right schemes for this group.

“We have to be better defensively,” he said. “The stat I gave them was, ‘we’re fourth offensively. We’re 167th defensively. You guys just had great semesters academically, so I think you know what I’m talking about.’ We’re going to have to have some improvement there to do some things in March.

“I don’t think we’ve done a great job challenging shots,” Brey continued. “We’ve really stressed challenging shots, blocking out more, talking more on defense. I think we’ve been silent at times, and I’ve really been after them about that.”

Closing Games

Brey also recognizes the end game issues, and he has begun to address them with what he calls frustration segments in practice. They double Jackson on every ball screen, bump him, and hack him.

“You have to find other ways to be effective because, as we get to league play, they’re going to come after (him),” Brey said. “I have to get him more mentally ready for that.”

There is more to the problem than Jackson defeating double teams. His teammates have developed the habit of watching to see what he will do. “The others have to help,” said Brey, “be receivers, space, and drive. We’ve got to figure it out.”

Puzzle Maker

With four losses already and a tough ACC schedule looming, the Irish need to start removing items from the list of problems. Brey seems to have a sense of urgency, perhaps a little more disappointment in developmental delays and a little less patience for the process than in previous seasons.

I’ve noticed that the Notre Dame women are having a similar season even though they have just one loss. They have experienced defensive lapses, rebounding trouble, offensive dry spells, lineup uncertainty, and more close games against lesser teams than in any of the last five years.

After her Fighting Irish squad defeated Oregon State by a point at the end of December, I asked Muffet McGraw about building continuity given the uncertainty surrounding the return of forwards Taya Reimer and Brianna Turner. Turner had just returned, and Reimer will not be back.

“We’ve really worked a the four guard look quite a bit, and today we didn’t get to use it at all,” McGraw said. “I think that’s when we looked a little out of sync.

“Trying to work Koko (Kristina Nelson) and Diamond (Thompson) in has been tricky. We’re trying to give them good minutes at practice. Overall we haven’t had time to gel as a starting unit, and then you throw two freshmen in with Bri’s return and it has been tough.

“I remember saying at media day that it’s going to take us until February before this team gels because we have so many moving parts.

“It’s been fun. I’m a puzzle maker. I love the challenge. I enjoy trying to put those pieces together.”

Puzzle maker is an apt term for both basketball coaches this season. The difference is that McGraw seems to have expected the puzzle pieces to be scattered across the table while Brey thought more of the pieces had been fit together than actually were. McGraw also knows her team will have just a few potential losses as it goes through the conference schedule, so she has time to develop the team. Brey knows that conference losses are inevitable in the deep ACC. It’s a matter of how many losses, and his team’s margin for error became slight with three non-conference losses. Improvement has to happen now.

Tick tock…

The good news is that like McGraw, Brey has a firm grasp of his team’s weaknesses and is actively trying to address them.

Back on Track

The Irish play Boston College Thursday evening. Then they return home for games against Pittsburgh and Georgia Tech. All three games are winnable. A 3-1 start in the conference is doable.

Defend a little better. Close a little better. The clock still will be ticking, but it will be ticking slower.

Tick… Tock… Tick… Tock…