Should The Notre Dame Loss To Syracuse Be A Concern?

Tuesdays 65-60 loss to Syracuse was a painful one for No. 9 Notre Dame. First off, you can’t lose games to unranked teams at home, especially this late in the season. But the question is, should we be concerned about this loss? Or was it simply a bad game?

We’re going with bad game on this one.

The Irish are more than familiar with Jim Boeheim and his 2-3 zone. Mike Brey has seen plenty of it in his time competing in the Big East. General thought would have been that Notre Dame would have no issues with their superb group of shooters. That was negated by a season-low 14 percent from three-point range. You just aren’t going to beat a zone with shooting like that. But in the end, they only lost by five.

But there were a few things to take from this game. None should be big concerns, but they did expose a few things for the Irish to work on. One thing that coach Brey pointed out was wanting to see Jerian Grant drive more against the zone.

"“I think he was a little overly unselfish,” he said. “He kicked to shooters, which were pretty good shots. So you can’t fault him altogether.”"

It’s not often you would be “upset” by a player passing to his teammates, but against the zone the Irish needed Grant to be more aggressive. To draw fouls, and to get to the line. This may not have been an issue had the Irish gotten shots to fall. No one could have foreseen such a terrible shooting performance.

The emergence of Bonzie Colson in recent weeks shouldn’t take away from the play of Zach Auguste. Both have had fantastic seasons. But Colson proved to be a better fit against the zone with his aggressiveness, The only knock I’ve had against Auguste this season is his strength. In traffic, if he puts the ball down or isn’t quick, he turns it over or loses it. His strength is speed and quickness in the post. The zone doesn’t allow for it, so Colson should be the man if they see more of it.