COLUMBIA, S.C. − They’re not there yet.
Not with a core that toyed with opponents in gyms across the country this time last season. High school gyms. Not a team that hadn’t experienced the atmosphere they were in Tuesday at Colonial Life Arena, which may be one of the most impressive (albeit draftiest) on-campus arenas in the country.
Not against guys, − men, really − who have been around college basketball longer than anyone of consequence on the Notre Dame men’s basketball roster. Not when it comes time to deliver, and the young and inexperienced and uncertain Irish look around the basketball court once, twice, three times and cannot identify that one guy or two or three guys that can deliver.
Not in a game like this, which at one point in the second half was tied at 40, but eventually got away from Notre Dame (3-3) and ended in a 65-53 loss to South Carolina because, honestly, Notre Dame doesn’t know what it doesn’t know.
It doesn’t know when to hit that extra gear. It doesn’t know how to counter. It doesn’t know. Not these players. Maybe not this season. Maybe someday. Maybe someday this season if you listen to head coach Micah Shrewsberry, they’ll know.
Know when to make the right pass at the right time for the right shot. Know when to trust in themselves, and trust in one another so they don’t finish a second half with only two assists, and six for the game. Know that you can’t let seven points (13-of-20) get away from the foul line the way Notre Dame let them get away. Know how to sidestep big efforts from big man B.J. Mack (17 points, four rebounds) and guard Meechie Johnson (career-high 29 points), who were a two-headed terror all night.
“That’s what we’re hunting for,” Shrewsberry said. “Who’s going to be our go-to guy? Who’s our guy who can get us a bucket when tough times happen? Until we find that, things will keep happening like this.”
They won’t know until the know.
Maybe all that eventually happens for these Irish, who walked out into a crisp night − this was South Carolina, not South Bend − with another lesson learned in a season that will bring a bunch of them. Notre Dame took a step forward in winning two straight (Oklahoma State and Maryland Eastern Shore), but the proverbial step back against better competition – against Southeastern Conference competition – was inevitable.
As was Tuesday’s flicker/flame-out at winning time when one team found the right working gear while the other just kind of faded. Good in stretches, but not good enough to get this one.
Less than seven minutes after it was 40-40, the Irish were down seven in the second half because it couldn’t do what the Gamecocks did.
“I don’t want to tell the world this,” said Shrewsberry, who then told the world. “If you get physical with us, then we wilt, right? That’s an older, stronger, more physical team. When they hold us and grab us, you’ve got to run through that. You’ve got to adjust to what you’re doing.”
The Irish are young. The Irish aren’t wise to the ways of the college basketball world. That’s what Notre Dame men’s basketball is right now and maybe for the near future, given that the next two road games are against Top 10 teams – No. 8 Miami (Fla.) on Saturday in the Atlantic Coast Conference opener and a week from Saturday in Milwaukee against No. 3 Marquette.
The punches are coming hard and fast and furious in both of those. Don’t need to watch a second of film to know that. More lessons await to be learned unless the Irish learn a few from this one. Grow from this one. Get better from this one.
“When things get tough, we don’t trust our system right now,” Shrewsberry said. “Offensively or defensively, we don’t trust what we’re doing to be able to stay with it.”
How do the Irish feel about that assessment? About that effort? About everything? Don’t know. For the first time since at least 1997 – that’s four head coaches, two leagues and one home court renaming ago – players were not made available to the media after a road game when there was at least one local outlet on site.
It would’ve been nice to hear from Tae Davis, who delivered 15 points, eight rebounds and a block and looks to be someone this group can build around. It would’ve been nice to hear from Julian Roper, who had 10 points and six rebounds. Those two have shown a toughness for stretches that could rub off on their teammates. They weren’t available. Neither was freshman guard Markus Burton, who played like a freshman. J.R Konieczny might have had something to say after he hit for 11 points and two rebounds but the two local kids, like their teammates, were off limits.
Instead of standing tall and owning it, as has been done for decades, there was silence.
Unacceptable, even for a rebuilding program such as this one. The fan base wants to hear from Roper and Davis, wants to get to know Roper and Davis. They want to hear from the local guys. Their local guys. They want to hear that the future’s going to be OK when the present seems so … uncertain.
For transparency’s sake, the decision to not have players talk was not a Shrewsberry mandate. The decision not to give the players a voice Tuesday was made by a Notre Dame media relations official who was not even on site.
No players was the message after Shrewsberry finished his presser, which ran for eight minutes and 40 seconds and included that four-letter word response when he saw the South Carolina students streaming in after the promise/promo that the first 500 would get free pizza.
“I was out there during warm-ups, and I saw those students pour in and I was like, ‘Oh, (shoot), here they come,” he said. “It got loud in here when they went on those runs. A young team, you’ve got to have poise in those situations and be able to go to something that you trust.”
Something, and someone.
“We’re not quite ready for that,” Shrewsberry said. “We will be. We gave ourselves a chance. We just let it go.”
Notre Dame can be and should be and has to be better than it showed Tuesday, on and off the court.
∎ ACC/SEC Challenge
SOUTH CAROLINA 65, NOTRE DAME 53
At Columbia, S.C.
NOTRE DAME (53): T. Davis 5-8 4-7 15, Njie 0-7 2-2 2, Burton 2-8 3-5 8, Konieczny 3-11 3-4 11, Roper 4-8 1-2 10, Shrewsberry 3-7 0-0 7, Booth 0-3 0-0 0, Imes 0-0 0-0 0, Zona 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 17-52 13-20 53.
SOUTH CAROLINA (65): Clark 0-0 0-0 0, Mack 6-15 4-5 17, Cooper 2-6 4-5 9, Johnson 9-15 7-8 29, Stute 0-5 1-4 1, Z.Davis 0-1 0-0 0, Wright 1-5 4-4 7, Ugusuk 0-1 0-0 0, Bosmans-Verdonk 1-2 0-0 2, Gray 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 19-50 20-26 65.
Halftime: South Carolina 31-28. 3-Point Goals: Notre Dame 6-21 (Konieczny 2-6, T. Davis 1-1, Roper 1-3, Burton 1-4, Shrewsberry 1-4, Booth 0-3), South Carolina 7-25 (Johnson 4-9, Wright 1-2, Cooper 1-3, Mack 1-5, Z.Davis 0-1, Ugusuk 0-1, Stute 0-4). Rebounds: Notre Dame 31 (T.Davis 8), South Carolina 24 (Cooper, Johnson 5). Assists: Notre Dame 8 (Burton 5), South Carolina 11 (Cooper 4). Total Fouls: Notre Dame 20, South Carolina 18. A: 15,215 (18,000).
Follow South Bend Tribune and NDInsider columnist Tom Noie on X (formerly Twitter): @tnoieNDI. Contact: (574) 235-6153.