Slap the Sign
Fansided

Notre Dame Basketball: Irish would benefit from NIT berth

By Mychal Hunter

SOUTH BEND, IN - JANUARY 05: John Mooney #33 of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish looks to the basket while defended by Bourama Sidibe #34 of the Syracuse Orange in the second half of the game at Purcell Pavilion on January 5, 2019 in South Bend, Indiana. Syracuse won 72-62. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)
SOUTH BEND, IN - JANUARY 05: John Mooney #33 of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish looks to the basket while defended by Bourama Sidibe #34 of the Syracuse Orange in the second half of the game at Purcell Pavilion on January 5, 2019 in South Bend, Indiana. Syracuse won 72-62. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit

Notre Dame still has a postseason to play for if they can figure it out down the stretch

After Monday’s win over Georgia Tech, the Notre Dame basketball team sits at 13-11 on the season. While the performance wasn’t exactly inspiring from a statistical perspective, a win is a win and the Irish have now won two of their last three games.

It has been a trying season for the Irish — who similarly to last season — have been decimated by injuries. In addition to losing Robby Carmody and Rex Pflueger for the season, Juwan Durham, Nikola Djogo and Temple Gibbs have all missed some time along the way. Then of course there was the sudden transfer of Elijah Burns to Siena seemingly out of nowhere.

When you combine the injuries with the inexperienced (yet talented) players that had to step up and take on a larger role, this year’s struggles aren’t all that shocking. Playing in the ACC is hard. The game is faster, the officiating is…different, and you’re not always the best player on the court. It takes time to get up to speed for most, that is what makes players like Duke’s Zion Williamson and RJ Barrett so special.

There is good news, however. John Mooney has emerged as one of the premier big men in the entire country, consistently outplaying the best big men in the ACC. As a junior, he has logged double doubles in ten of his last eleven games and sixteen total on the season. He has easily been the most surprising player in the conference during the 2018-19 season.

Sophomore wing DJ Harvey has had an up and down season statistically, but the most important thing is that he has maintained his health and has logged the fourth most minutes this season.  He has struggled with his shot (24.5 percent from 3-point range in ACC play), but continues to be one of the best “tough shot” makers in the league.

As far as the kiddos go, it has been a mixed bag, but I am optimistic for the next season. Prentiss Hubb went through a terrible shooting slump, but seemingly never lost confidence as he kept playing his game. Dane Goodwin, who hasn’t been great the last couple weeks, showed flashes of the future before hitting the freshman wall. Nate Laszewski has not shot the ball as well as expected, but has shown flashes that the expectations were warranted.

Despite limited returns on the season as far as wins go, the talent is clearly there. The NIT is something that could undoubtedly benefit this club, because at this point, the more time on the floor, the better.

In the game against Georgia Tech, you saw that the desire to play still drives this team. John Mooney was fired up after a couple “questionable” calls did not go his way and Temple Gibbs was obviously having a good time as he returned to last years form for the afternoon.

The club has to have at least a .500 record in order to qualify for the NIT, and a little luck in order to be selected as an at large. The tournament has become sort of a mid-major postseason tournament as regular season champions are automatically in the field. This means that every one bid league whose regular season champion doesn’t win the conference tournament finds themselves in the NIT. So, some consistency from the mid-majors would certainly help the Fighting Irish’ cause.

As far as the schedule goes, it’s tough sledding. With eight games remaining, Kenpom only favors Notre Dame in one — next Tuesday against Wake Forest. However, there is certainly a possibility to put more notches in the left hand column. With Justin Robinson likely to remain out, Virginia Tech has been pretty awful on offense and may be ripe for the picking on Feb. 23.

The Irish close out the season at home vs. Clemson and at Pittsburgh. If they could somehow manage a 4-4 split to close the season — along with a win in the ACC tournament — an NIT berth may still be in the cards. Next year’s team, who has second weekend potential, should suck up as many opportunities as possible to play quality competition and get better.

Next. Gibbs leads Irish past Georgia Tech. dark

Bottom line, Notre Dame still has something to play for, even if that thing is next year’s success.