What Exactly Happened At The End of The Notre Dame Game?
When you get down to it...freshmen mistakes.
Duke’s win over Notre Dame Saturday is still being talked about, largely because of Cooper Flagg’s insane stat line: he scored 42 points, shooting 11-14/4-6 and 16-17 from the line. He also had six rebounds and seven assists and if you’d asked him to walk your dog during a timeout, he would have probably done that too.
As great as that was though, the Duke staff is almost certainly looking at how the Blue Devils let the Irish back into the game late, turning a rout into, briefly, a nail biter.
What happened? Let’s look!
Cooper Flagg hits a shot with 4:15 to go which would have given him 40 but the refs (correctly) whistle Khaman Maluach for a three-second violation. Flagg is clearly irritated.
On the next play, Tae Davis takes the ball right at Maluach, scoring on a turnaround jumper. Maluach doesn't want to draw a foul but he doesn't defend aggressively either.
Score: 63-79.
On the next play, Kon Knueppel gets an open three in the right corner with :21 seconds left on the shot clock. It barely hits the rim and Notre Dame gets the ball back.
On the following possession, Allocco gets the ball and drives into the defense on the right side as Braeden Shrewsberry steps back as he draw both Tyrese Proctor and Caleb Foster to him. Shrewsberry hits the jumper from the right side of the foul line and draws a foul on Tyrese Proctor, who puts a hand up but kind of half-heartedly. That was his fourth foul and Shrewsberry converts with 3:02 left on the clock.
Score: 66-79.
Duke takes Proctor out and puts Mason Gillis in before the in-bounds. Notre Dame, sensing opportunity, presses on the in-bounds.
Sion James drives with :08 left on the shot clock. He has a possible pass for Maluach, who is being guarded by 6-4 Julian Roper but goes for the basket anyway. Remember what we’ve said about Maluach struggling to get shots up near the rim? Maybe James figured he was better off taking it himself. Flagg tries for a tip-in but can’t get it. Maluach scrambles to get the loose ball but steps out of bounds.
2:34 left.
Kebba Nijie screens Kon Knueppel long enough for Markus Burton to be wide open for a three, which he swishes.
69-79 with 2:23 left.
On Duke’s following possession, Flagg gets Knueppel the ball for an open three on the left side with :13 left on the shot clock.
Allocco runs at him and Knueppel misses. An older player might not have taken that shot.
Inexperience kicks up here as the Irish box out Maluach without too much resistance as the shot goes up. It bounces off long and Burton picks up the rebound.
Burton drives against Maluach with 1:46 left and he reaches for the block and Maluach goes up for the rebounds but gets his hand in the rim.
Score: 71-79 as Notre Dame has ripped off 10 straight points. Duke puts Proctor back in with 1:46 to play.
Sion James attempts a three with :07 left on the shot clock which misses. Shrewsberry saves the ball inbounds, tries to throw it off of Flagg’s leg which doesn’t work. Maluach dives for it but Notre Dame ties it up and had the arrow with 1:15 left to play.
Notre Dame gets the ball to Allocco in the corner and he nails the three with 1:00 to play.
Score: 74:79.
On the next play, Flagg gets the ball to Knueppel in the lane with :22 left and he goes up. Maluach is wide open under the basket and Knueppel is trying a lob but Njie does his job and stuffs the pass. The refs rule it a held ball and Duke gets it back with 49.6 left and :20 on the shot clock.
James in-bounds to Knueppel, who is stripped by Roper. Roper takes off as Knueppel dives for the ball and passes back to Allocco who tries a long three that would cut the lead to two...but he misses with 41.3 left.
James picks up the rebound and Allocco fouls him. James misses his first and hits the second.
Score: 74-80 with 39.5 left.
Burton drives on the following play and James, who's experienced, avoids the mistake of fouling him. Notre Dame calls timeout.
Score: 76-80 with 32.4 to play.
The Irish foul Flagg as he nears half court and he hits both to put Duke up 82-76.
Burton takes the ball coast to coast again and drives, this time on Maluach, who bothers the shot. Maluach gets the rebound on the left side of the basket and is fouled. He hits both and that seals the deal - finally.
Burton drive one more time to cut it to 84-78. Flagg is fouled on the inbounds and hits his last two to finish with 42.
So basically, there were about 10 mistakes that should be easily correctible. Ten to us - we’re sure the staff spotted many more subtle errors.
- The lane violation by Maluach.
- Knueppel shooting a three too soon in the shot clock.
- Getting suckered on defense to allow Shrewsberry an open shot - and a three-point play.
- James’ drive with :08 on the shot clock wasn’t necessarily a mistake but it wasn’t ideal either.
- Burton getting loose. Knueppel got screened but ideally, someone else should have picked him up.
- Knueppel misses, Maluach doesn't fight through for the rebound.
- Maluach gets his hand in the cylinder.
- James took the three, which wasn’t necessarily a bad shot, but he could have burned more of the shot clock.
- Knueppel tries the lob instead of a bounce pass to Maluach.
- Knueppel doesn’t protect the ball sufficiently on the in-bounds.
There is a common theme here: almost all of these mistakes were committed by freshmen, which is great news, actually.
These will be reviewed and freshmen learn.
This is no knock on Notre Dame, because we are big fans of Coach Shrewsberry. He’s had some tough breaks this season, but as you could see Saturday, his team, though outmatched, had a lot of smarts and they never quit.
However, it was lucky for Duke that these late mistakes didn’t come against a tougher team. If this had happened at, say Clemson, it might have been quite different.