Film Review: Analyzing Syracuse’s shaky 2nd half against Notre Dame

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In its last two games, Syracuse has followed a familiar script. In tight wins over NC State and Notre Dame, the Orange shot at a high level and jumped out to double digit leads in the first half. But, both the Wolfpack and the Fighting Irish outscored SU in the final 20 minutes of play despite the Orange being able to hold on to victories in both contests.

The shaky second half against ND prompted head coach Adrian Autry to pause before he started his postgame press conference, saying that his team had to figure how to keep that first half play continuing throughout the whole game.

“In the first half, we didn’t give them any rhythm,” Autry said. “In the second half, they got going.”

Here’s how Notre Dame (10-17, 5-11 Atlantic Coast Conference) mounted a comeback against Syracuse (18-10, 9-8 ACC):

Same play kills SU twice

Postgame, Judah Mintz said the Fighting Irish were able to claw their way back because they found certain plays that worked against Syracuse’s defense. Autry went further and said the defense fell for the same play twice, which was unacceptable.

The play in question involved ND guard Braeden Shrewsberry knocking wide open 3-pointers against SU’s man defense with under nine and a half minutes to go in the contest. On the first 3-point make, the Fighting Irish rotated the ball around the arc before big man forward Kebba Njie received a pass at the left wing. Njie was being guarded by Maliq Brown, and Shrewsberry was the only Notre Dame player down at the hoop with J.J. Starling guarding him.

Once Njie bounce passed to Tae Davis, he moved down into the post while Shrewsberry cut up to the left wing. As Shrewsberry sped up, Starling fell behind and faced a hard, off-ball screen from Njie. With Shrewsberry now open, Davis threw back to the guard, who nailed his fourth triple of the afternoon.

Not even a minute later, Notre Dame was at it again.

Starling seemed to pick up on the play and forced Shrewsberry into a minor adjustment. But the result was still the same.

Njie was at the left wing again and waited for Davis to rotate down into the left corner. Meanwhile, in the paint, Shrewsberry slightly pushed off of Starling before heading toward the wing. Then, Njie set up the pick again.

Instead of running into the forward, though, Starling went around Njie, forcing Shrewsberry into more of a corner shot. But Shrewsberry had a quick release, burying a 3 with Starling’s hands in his face. Starling had picked up the play, but was still a little too slow.

Quicker transition

The Orange dominated the tempo in the first half and it wasn’t hard to see why. The Fighting Irish have one of the slower paces in Division-I and opted to pass around the arc on many half court possessions. But later in the game, they found success in transition.

“They kind of sped it up actually in the second half,” Mintz said of Notre Dame’s offense.

When Brown missed a contested layup, guard Julian Roper II nabbed a board and threw out to leading scorer Markus Burton, who decided to go quick down the floor. Burton cut through Mintz, who wasn’t trying to foul, and zoomed. Once he reached the ACC logo, he kicked out to Davis, who had virtually gone unnoticed on the fast break.

Quadir Copeland had his eyes set on Burton. When Copeland turned his body to Davis, Burton just used his forward momentum to create a partial screen that moved Copeland out of the way. Davis then finished the fast break with a dunk, leaving Copeland bewildered.

Notre Dame took advantage of a faster pace and kept valuable time on the clock in its comeback attempt.

Burton’s talent

To Syracuse’s credit, it held off Notre Dame on the last shot to secure back-to-back wins for the first time in over a month. But Burton still toyed with SU’s defense, no matter the time or circumstance.

Even when SU looked to be in no-foul mode, Burton sliced through the defense and once again made it a one-possession contest. Once he crossed half court, Burton sprinted past Mintz and moved down into the paint. As Mintz caught up, Burton paused and then spun and pivoted to move Mintz off of him. The momentum pushed Mintz to the baseline while Burton had an open layup shot.

Throughout the whole game, Burton always made the right move and pinpointed where he could spin and pivot to create open shots without playing Syracuse’s game.