SOUTH BEND − Three thoughts while watching Notre Dame basketball win its home opener to begin the regular season for the 27th consecutive time following an 89-67 victory Monday over LIU Brooklyn.
∎ Say this for these Irish — they’re quick learners.
Last time out at home, Notre Dame didn’t play with the maturity it needed to play with in a seven-point exhibition loss to DePaul. Guys let what was happening — or not happening — on one end of the court affect what they needed to offer on the other. The body language wasn’t the best. The togetherness wasn’t the best. It all showed.
Monday had the threat of DePaul Redux. Officials started calling fouls and seldom ceased. The game had no rhythm. It was whitecaps on Lake Michigan choppy. Nothing about it was fun to watch let alone play with 46 fouls and 62 free throws.
“I was proud of our guys and how we played in stretches,” said head coach Micah Shrewsberry. “We’ve got to play better for longer stretches. We responded a couple times. We did good things.”
The Irish kept playing, kept running their stuff, kept searching until they could find a hot hand here or a scoring spurt there. Notre Dame never trailed, led by as many as 22, scored 89 points (a number it reached only four times last year) and received 52 points off the bench.
That’s a good night in a bad game.
“This team can really score,” said sophomore shooting guard Cole Certa, one of those guys with a career-high 22 points. “We have so many guys that can do so many good things.”
∎ Usually when the regular season arrives, it’s a revelation for guys who may have settled into certain roles in preseason practice and in the exhibitions. You get to the point where the games count and the rotation gets sliced. Guys don’t play as much, or don’t play at all.
We’re not there yet with Notre Dame. What we saw from a rotation standpoint looked a lot of what we saw in the two exhibitions. A lot of combinations. A lot of substitutions. No real set pattern of what player is coming for what player and when. A lot of it was just feel.
It all worked, in part because this team continues to make it difficult on the staff to settle on a rotation of x number of guys. Just play everybody.
“I think we have 11 guys that are capable,” Shrewsberry said. “That’s the hard thing. There hasn’t been much separation in practice. You’ve got so many guys (that) nobody’s really separated themselves to say like, no, I’m doing this and this is my spot.
“As we keep trying, keep mixing, there’s options now. We’re going to keep trying to press the right buttons to find the right people and the right combos.”
Right now, there are a lot of guys for each of the five spots. Two deep for all of them. In some areas, three deep. One game down in the regular season, and the Irish have 11 guys in a rotation. That may be too many but for now, it works.
“We have a lot of depth on this team,” Certa said. “I think that’s what’s going to make us really good this year. Having a team that can play that deep is pretty special.”
In each of the two exhibitions, and again on Monday, freshman guard Ryder Frost was the last of the 11 guys into the rotation. He played minimal minutes with little impact against Butler and DePaul. On Monday, he played 13 minutes and scored 15 points on five-of-six from the floor, four-of-five from 3.
Didn’t see that coming.
“Just playing free and playing with confidence,” Frost said. “Being locked in on my responsibilities and doing my job. I take a lot of pride in what I need to do. Just being ready.”
∎ That’s what power forward Carson Towt can be for Notre Dame this season.
It was difficult to see exactly where the Northern Arizona graduate transfer fit last month in two exhibitions. Towt played 12 scoreless minutes at Butler before leaving with an injury to his right side. He played 11 minutes against DePaul before fouling out. What could he do? We didn’t know.
We found out Monday when Towt entered the starting lineup, won the opening tip at center and went ahead and did what he did last season — rebound. See missed shot, go get missed shot. He did it to the tune of 19 rebounds.
“Just energy personified,” Shrewsberry said. “Rebounding translates at every single level, man. It is heart; it is effort. That’s what he does. That’s what he brings to us.”
The nation’s leader in rebounding last season (12.4 rpg.), Towt was a rebounding maniac in the first half. He had four rebounds in the first 3:13. With 9:37 left in the half, the rebounding numbers read Towt 8, LIU 8. He grabbed 12 in the first half.
Towt even capped a transition look by finding Kebba Njie for a lob dunk. When Towt rebounded a Markus Burton miss with 2:28 remaining, it marked his first field goal in an Irish uniform. If he rebounds like he did Monday, that scoring stuff won’t matter.
“We’ve seen it in practice,” Certa said. “There’s a reason why he was the nation’s leading rebounder. What an addition for us. He’s going to be really good.”
We might start thinking the same about the Irish.
Follow South Bend Tribune and NDInsider columnist Tom Noie on X (formerly Twitter): @tnoieNDI. Contact Noie at [email protected]
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