Scattering of thoughts about Kentucky’s win over Notre Dame in the Midwest Regional final.
Decisive run
Kentucky hit their last nine shots from the floor and scored on 10 of their last 11 possessions. Notre Dame missed their last three shots. Up to that point, the Irish had hit 49 percent from the floor against the nation’s top-rated defense.
Living with the sword
Notre Dame came into the contest hitting 39 percent (top 25 in nation) with more than eight makes per game behind the arc. The Irish went 4-of-14 (28.6 percent) from long range in the loss. Not only did UK limit ND’s makes, but the Irish had averaged better than 20 attempts per game from the three-point range. Both teams scored 40 points in the paint. Both had 10 second-chance points. ND had a 16-6 advantage in points off turnovers leading to a 12-2 edge in fast break points. The Irish even made one more field goal (26-25) than UK, but the Wildcats minimized ND’s strength from behind the arc. The difference in points? ND went 10-of-13 from the line while UK hit 14-of-20. Worth noting the four treys were NOT Notre Dame’s lowest output of the season. The Irish connected only twice in their opening round win over Robert Morris and during their win over Duke in the ACC tournament. Notre Dame also only made three three’s in a loss to Syracuse.
Hats off to UK’s defense
It’s about making choices. Kentucky came into the game leading the nation with a field goal percentage defense of 35.1. Notre Dame hit 26-of-56 (46.4 percent) from the floor, Saturday night. UK took away Notre Dame’s strength from long range. This created space in the paint where ND took advantage, but UK was willing to trade two-point shots for three-point shots. The Cats came in second in the country with 6.9 blocks. UK had nine rejections Saturday night. None more important than Willie Cauley-Stein getting a hand on Jerian Grant‘s step back three with 38 ticks left on the clock.
Cruelest of ironies
The contest included 20 lead changes and 12 ties. The teams were tied for a little less than six minutes. Kentucky led for 11:42. Notre Dame? The Irish had the lead for 21:51 just not when it mattered most.
Give it to the big fella
Kentucky made 25 field goals – 10 of those came from Karl-Anthony Towns in the paint. The 6-11 forward went 10-of-13 and 5-of-5 from the free throw line for a game-high 25.
They said it
Kentucky’s John Calipari: “Shots went up, they fought. We out-rebounded them by one, but that was lucky, we only get 10 offensive rebounds. So they’re a better defensive team than you give them credit for and they’re also a tougher team, physically a tougher team. Their guards bothered us, especially early in the game, they got up in us.”
Notre Dame’s Mike Brey: “We just didn’t want to give up too many clean looks. We felt we could absorb two point shots from their bigs. Towns was fabulous. Our two big guys, God bless them, they were on their own most of the night. The one time I go zone, Booker hits a 3, and the one time we tell to help a little bit, Ulis hits a 3. So now you’re like, the rest of the game, fellas, you’re on your own, we’ve got to hug these guys because I think we can absorb 2s. I love how we battled on the board against their size. But we have played big teams and we’ve held our own on the backboard and we did that again tonight to give ourselves a chance to win.”
What next?
Kentucky meets Wisconsin in a rematch of last year’s Final Four.
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