By PAUL GOTHAM
BUFFALO, N.Y. — When the ball goes up Saturday at the Key Bank Center to mark the start of the 2017 NCAA Tournament’s second round, fans will see two teams that are polar opposites of one another.
Notre Dame’s Fighting Irish and their ball control offense will take on West Virginia’s Mountaineers pressure defense.
“They do a great job of forcing people to get out of their comfort zone,” Notre Dame senior guard Steve Vasturia said. “I think their defense creates and turns it to their offense, and that’s something that they’re really known for.”
Coming into the Big Dance West Virginia led the nation in turnover margin (8.2), turnovers forced per game (20.4) and steals (10.4).
Notre Dame’s 1.69:1 turnover margin ranks second in the nation.
“If we come out and do what we’re supposed to do, just do what all our coaches ask us to do and everything, I feel like everything will take care of itself,” West Virginia’s Elijah Macon said. “We just go out and play our game.”
West Virginia’s pressure defense creates an average of 25.4 points per game off turnovers. The Mountaineers have scored as many as 47 points in a 100-41 victory over New Hampshire earlier in the season and have not scored in single digits this season on points off miscues. They forced 29 turnovers in January when they beat then No. 1 Baylor, 89-68. WVU netted 29 of mishandles against the Bears.
“The challenge is just going to be making sure, making the right decisions and not rushing,” Vasturia added. “I think that’s something we’ve been very good at all season long, so just taking our time, making the right decision, and I think we’ll be able to get some good shots.”
In their first round win over Bucknell, West Virginia forced 15 mishandles and converted those into 16 points.
“We’ve kind of compared them to Florida State a little bit,” ND junior point guard Matt Farrell stated. “Being in the passing lanes, contesting full-court pressure. I think there’s is a little more difference, a little more havoc, I would say, or reckless, you got guys everywhere. So, we just need to stay poised with the ball. We need guys to be receivers. Everybody that’s on the floor needs to be a receiver. We need to be strong with the ball.”
Notre Dame turned the ball over just six times in their first round win over Princeton. The Irish have not committed double-digit miscues in their past nine games.
“We’re going to try to do the same thing to them that they do to us,” West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins said. “We’re going to try to create numbers in the half court, and we’re going to try to take transition when it’s there.”
Per KenPom, Notre Dame’s possession length is 18.7, while West Virginia ‘s is 17.7.
“If you look at our pace, we have been kind of a situational running team,” Notre Dame head coach Mike Brey said. “I think what we do is we’ve gotten to do a good job when we don’t have numbers in transition, we kind of back that thing out and make you guard us for a while, and we’re going to have to be disciplined with that. Now that’s easier said than done because they’re really good in the half court. They face guard you, they just run and trap you there. So, finding the rhythm in this game, I think, is going to be a feeling-out process us tomorrow in the first half.”
Who Will Execute in Special Situations?
In Thursday’s win over Princeton, Notre Dame produced points on four first-half possessions coming out of timeouts.
“We’re an older group, and we’re an older group that has won together and we’ve won together in this tournament,” Brey stated “Even though it was not pretty offensively for us, I thought we were very locked in. But we did get some good stuff, especially post-ups for Bonzie (Colson) out of time-outs. We thought that was really good.”
Likewise, West Virginia converted on four straight baseline inbound plays.
“I’m like everybody else in our business,” Huggins said. “When, you know, somebody runs something against us, that it’s hard for us to guard and they score, I steal it. Everything we run is something that I got from somebody else. You know, you might tweak it a little bit, but we’ve been running the same thing for ten years at West Virginia, and we just keep scoring.”
Names to Know
Colson (17.5 ppg, 10.1 rpg) is the only player in the Atlantic Coast Conference to average a double-double this season. V.J. Beachem has scored 14.7 for the Irish. Farrell has 14.2 points and 5.4. Vasturia nets 13.2 per game.
Jevon Carter leads West Virginia with 13 points and 3.9 assists. Asa Ahmad scores 11.3. Nathan Adrian adds 9.9 points and 6.1 rebounds.
Notre Dame is making its third straight NCAA Tournament appearance . The Fighting Irish have reached the Elite Eight the last two years. West Virginia is also making its third straight trip to the Big Dance. The Mountaineers advanced to the west 16 two years ago.
A 12:10 pm tipoff is scheduled Saturday. The winner advances to meet the winner of Gonzaga and Northwestern.
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