Pace: 60. Relatively slow.
Efficiency:
Notre Dame--135
Clemson--112
Second-straight very good all-around performance. The final margin was 14, but ND led by 20 with 2:13 to play. I'm not sure how they get from the Syracuse game to these last two performances, I guess it's just part of the variance of college sports. Regardless, if ND keeps playing like they did these last two games into the postseason, they're going to be a very tough out.
Offense--Entering this game, Clemson was ranked 30th nationally in defensive efficiency. They're no Louisville or UVA, but that's still pretty dang good defensively. Entering this contest, their season-worst efforts on defense were a 122 allowed @ UVA, a 121 vs. UNC, and 116 @ Duke. ND blasted that plateau with a 135 tonight.
Although (as other posters pointed out,) he was a risk on the glass and on defense, Auguste had a great game offensively. He was about as aggressive as you can get, for him. 19 points on 9-for-13 shooting, in addition to three assists, two steals and a block. Grant had another monster night, 19 points on 6-for-11 shooting, and passed through several double teams to the tune of eight assists (and only one turnover.) Vasturia and Jackson also finished in double figures.
Defense--Another big man gets loose against ND, and this one's not nearly as good as Harrell or Christmas. Center Landry Nnoko finished with 19 points on 7-for-12 shooting, and collected seven (7!!!) offensive rebounds. Jaron Blossomgame had a ridiculous night with 22 points on 9-for-12 shooting, collected 10 total rebounds himself.
However, as has seemed to be the case lately, ND did a fairly decent job on everyone else. Not sure if that defense is by design or what, but it seems to be a trend lately, and it's working fine.
Identity Stats:
1) Effective Field Goal Percentage[/I]: 60.9 percent. A couple points above season average, against a team that was No. 30 nationally in defense? You definitely take this. I will type this every time too, must remember the context--ND's season average is No. 1 in the country. Very similar to the UL win, ND annihilated Clemson from 2's, shooting 23-for-34 (68 percent), but were actually dragged down a little by 3's (7-for-21, 33 percent.) It's amazing how the Irish maintain such good production from 2's, lots of great ball movement resulting in lots of easy looks at the rim from all five positions, usually avoiding tougher mid-range shots.
2) Turnover Rate[/I]: 4 TO's in 60 possessions, a 7 percent turnover rate--About one every 14 to 15 possessions. This is absurdly good. For context, ND's season average is 14 percent (one every seven possessions, double what they had today,) and that season average ranks No. 2 best nationally. Massive checkmark here.
3) Free throw differential[/I]: Back to the mean here after going nuts the last two games. 18 FTA's to 55 FGA's is a 33 percent free throw rate, but ND hit 14 of those to shoot 78 percent at the line. This is a little bit below ND's season average of a 35 percent FT rate, which ranks No. 225 nationally.
Clemson did get 15 FTA's to 64 FGA's, a 23 percent free throw rate, so ND actually bested them.
Bonus) Rebound rate: Had to throw in a bonus today to introduce a new stat because Clemson got an absurd amount of offensive rebounds. Rebounds per game is inaccurate because this can obviously be affected by both pace, and shooting percentage. Miss more shots, your team will get more rebounds--play fast and take more shots, your team will get more rebounds.
The stat is easy, we only want to look at how many offensive rebounds were gathered out of possible opportunities. So: (OR / OR + DR of opponent).
Clemson got 20 offensive rebounds in a possible 41 chances (ND gathered 21 defensive rebounds). That's an offensive rebounding rate allowed of 49 percent, just way too high.
This isn't regularly an issue for ND, so I'm not going to hammer them on it today after a nice win. Just noting that if ND doesn't play as well offensively on another night, and gives up THAT many offensive rebounds, that's gonna be a problem. They've had two games this year where they allowed similar offensive rebounding rates--50 percent vs. Mich. State (a 79-78 win), and 51 percent @ UNC (a 71-70 win). Yes, wins, but those are squeakers that can easily go either way.
Summary: Great offensive performance against one of the better defensive teams in the country. Allowed a bit too many points for my liking against a poor offensive team, but when you're clicking on "O" like they are, it doesn't matter. Three checkmarks in the identity stats = almost always a good result.
Second-straight double-digit conference win. Let's see if it can carry into the postseason.
This post was edited on 3/7 7:55 PM by Jordan Wells
Efficiency:
Notre Dame--135
Clemson--112
Second-straight very good all-around performance. The final margin was 14, but ND led by 20 with 2:13 to play. I'm not sure how they get from the Syracuse game to these last two performances, I guess it's just part of the variance of college sports. Regardless, if ND keeps playing like they did these last two games into the postseason, they're going to be a very tough out.
Offense--Entering this game, Clemson was ranked 30th nationally in defensive efficiency. They're no Louisville or UVA, but that's still pretty dang good defensively. Entering this contest, their season-worst efforts on defense were a 122 allowed @ UVA, a 121 vs. UNC, and 116 @ Duke. ND blasted that plateau with a 135 tonight.
Although (as other posters pointed out,) he was a risk on the glass and on defense, Auguste had a great game offensively. He was about as aggressive as you can get, for him. 19 points on 9-for-13 shooting, in addition to three assists, two steals and a block. Grant had another monster night, 19 points on 6-for-11 shooting, and passed through several double teams to the tune of eight assists (and only one turnover.) Vasturia and Jackson also finished in double figures.
Defense--Another big man gets loose against ND, and this one's not nearly as good as Harrell or Christmas. Center Landry Nnoko finished with 19 points on 7-for-12 shooting, and collected seven (7!!!) offensive rebounds. Jaron Blossomgame had a ridiculous night with 22 points on 9-for-12 shooting, collected 10 total rebounds himself.
However, as has seemed to be the case lately, ND did a fairly decent job on everyone else. Not sure if that defense is by design or what, but it seems to be a trend lately, and it's working fine.
Identity Stats:
1) Effective Field Goal Percentage[/I]: 60.9 percent. A couple points above season average, against a team that was No. 30 nationally in defense? You definitely take this. I will type this every time too, must remember the context--ND's season average is No. 1 in the country. Very similar to the UL win, ND annihilated Clemson from 2's, shooting 23-for-34 (68 percent), but were actually dragged down a little by 3's (7-for-21, 33 percent.) It's amazing how the Irish maintain such good production from 2's, lots of great ball movement resulting in lots of easy looks at the rim from all five positions, usually avoiding tougher mid-range shots.
2) Turnover Rate[/I]: 4 TO's in 60 possessions, a 7 percent turnover rate--About one every 14 to 15 possessions. This is absurdly good. For context, ND's season average is 14 percent (one every seven possessions, double what they had today,) and that season average ranks No. 2 best nationally. Massive checkmark here.
3) Free throw differential[/I]: Back to the mean here after going nuts the last two games. 18 FTA's to 55 FGA's is a 33 percent free throw rate, but ND hit 14 of those to shoot 78 percent at the line. This is a little bit below ND's season average of a 35 percent FT rate, which ranks No. 225 nationally.
Clemson did get 15 FTA's to 64 FGA's, a 23 percent free throw rate, so ND actually bested them.
Bonus) Rebound rate: Had to throw in a bonus today to introduce a new stat because Clemson got an absurd amount of offensive rebounds. Rebounds per game is inaccurate because this can obviously be affected by both pace, and shooting percentage. Miss more shots, your team will get more rebounds--play fast and take more shots, your team will get more rebounds.
The stat is easy, we only want to look at how many offensive rebounds were gathered out of possible opportunities. So: (OR / OR + DR of opponent).
Clemson got 20 offensive rebounds in a possible 41 chances (ND gathered 21 defensive rebounds). That's an offensive rebounding rate allowed of 49 percent, just way too high.
This isn't regularly an issue for ND, so I'm not going to hammer them on it today after a nice win. Just noting that if ND doesn't play as well offensively on another night, and gives up THAT many offensive rebounds, that's gonna be a problem. They've had two games this year where they allowed similar offensive rebounding rates--50 percent vs. Mich. State (a 79-78 win), and 51 percent @ UNC (a 71-70 win). Yes, wins, but those are squeakers that can easily go either way.
Summary: Great offensive performance against one of the better defensive teams in the country. Allowed a bit too many points for my liking against a poor offensive team, but when you're clicking on "O" like they are, it doesn't matter. Three checkmarks in the identity stats = almost always a good result.
Second-straight double-digit conference win. Let's see if it can carry into the postseason.
This post was edited on 3/7 7:55 PM by Jordan Wells
