Scouting Notre Dame
Syracuse is 10-1 at home and faces a team with a losing record. Orange fans should feel confident, right? Not necessarily. Notre Dame is a good team despite being 9-10, and there is a reason head coach Jim Boeheim has said this will be Syracuse's toughest home game of the season to date.
SHOOTING, SHOOTING AND MORE SHOOTING
You have to be able to shoot to beat the zone, right? Well Notre Dame has it all over the court. The Irish is third in the ACC in three point shooting percentage at 38.1% as a team. Six of the top seven players in Notre Dame's rotation shoot above 34% with four shooting above 38%. Every player, with the exception of starting center Juwan Durham, can shoot. Notre Dame is second in the ACC in three pointers made per game. To counter this, Syracuse leads the ACC in three point percentage defense. If Syracuse is going to win this game, they have to contest outside shots and try to force Notre Dame off its spots.
SIZE MATTERS, OR DOES IT?
Syracuse has a historical reputation of being a team with size and/or length at every position. Notre Dame has every bit of that this season. The starting backcourt is 6-3 and 6-5. The front court goes 6-6, 6-10 and 6-11. Yet, despite that, Notre Dame is not a particularly good rebounding team nor do they force a lot of turnovers. The Irish is last in the conference in steals, last in turnover margin, 13th in rebounding margin, 10th in defensive rebounding percentage and last in offensive rebounding percentage. Despite that size advantage over most teams, that has not led to success in areas you would expect.
NATE THE GREAT
One of the least known really good players in the ACC is junior forward Nate Laszewski. He can flat out play and is extremely skilled offensively. Laszewski leads Notre Dame with 15.2 points and 7.2 rebounds per game. He also leads the ACC in field goal percentage at 63.5% despite taking more than three triples per game. Laszewski leads Notre Dame in three point shooting at 51.6% on the season. He is a three level scorer and someone that has the potential to really hurt Syracuse. The good news for Syracuse is that he is not an overly physical defender, nor is he a rim protector.
OFFENSIVE DEFENSE
Notre Dame is not a very good defensive team. They are 14th in the ACC in points allowed per game, 10th in field goal percentage defense, last in steals per game and seventh in blocks per game. Juwan Durham is a quality big that takes up space and can block some shots. Prentiss Hubb can be physical with ball handlers at times as well. Outside of that, teams have largely gotten good shots against the Irish and been successful attacking the rim. With the size of Notre Dame's guards, this could be a game more suited to Kadary Richmond. Do not be surprised if he and Alan Griffin drive quite a bit, and if Syracuse looks to Quincy Guerrier in the post.
LEAD GUARD
Prentiss Hubb is one of the better point guards in the ACC. He leads the conference in assists at six per game and is second on Notre Dame at 14 points per game. Hubb can penetrate and dish, score at the rim, and hit the outside shot. Syracuse has to keep him out of the lane in order to control Notre Dame's offense.
GOING STREAKING
Notre Dame may be 9-10 on the season, but they have been playing high quality basketball of late. The Irish has won four of their last five and six of their last eight. The two losses were to a ranked Virginia Tech team and at Georgia Tech. Five of those six wins in their last eight games were by double digits. Do not look at the record and assume this is a bad basketball team. Notre Dame is not that. They have good players and a lot of offensive weapons.
