Ugly offense dooms Notre Dame men’s basketball in loss to Louisville
An ugly offensive effort doomed Notre Dame men’s basketball on Sunday night in South Bend. The Irish fell to Louisville 75-60 for their fourth defeat in the past five games.
Notre Dame dropped to 11-14 overall and 5-9 in the ACC as its 2024-25 season grows increasingly bleak.
The Irish jumped out to a strong start, but as it often does, their offense quickly went downhill.
Notre Dame failed to score for stretches of 5:34 and 4:36. The Irish put up only 10 points after the 13:27 mark (at which they took an 18-12 lead), including only 2 by a player not named Burton.
The ACC’s leading scorer is not blameless in this matter; Burton settled for several tough jump shots early in the shot clock when he could have found something better. But he also needs help, and he did not get any after an early barrage of threes from sophomore guard Braeden Shrewsberry.
During Notre Dame’s first cold stretch, Louisville went on a 13-0 run to take the lead for good. To make matters worse, Burton picked up two fouls — neither on the end of the court that the Irish defend — and Davis picked up three.
Both had to sit for significant stretches, taking away two of Notre Dame’s three sources of offense for much of the late first half. The unnecessary fouls, as well as a couple more focus-related, unforced turnovers, are the little things that have made the Irish’s record what it is in head coach Micah Shrewsberry’s second season.
Top 10
- 1New
CFP seeding
SEC, Big Ten make hopes clear
- 2
Ryan Day
Rips CFP bye system
- 3
SEC schedule
League re-thinking nine games
- 4Hot
Jay Bilas Top 25
Big movers in latest rankings
- 5
Luke Fickell
Wisconsin HC gets surprising extension
Get the On3 Top 10 to your inbox every morning
By clicking "Subscribe to Newsletter", I agree to On3's Privacy Notice, Terms, and use of my personal information described therein.
As it does on most nights, Notre Dame’s offense devolved into hoping Burton or Davis would pick up a tough bucket in isolation throughout the second half. The Irish failed to make field goal made by anyone from 14:59 left in the first half to 5:49 remaining in the game.
Notre Dame went completely cold from distance, too. Led by Braeden Shrewsberry, the Irish started 4 of 6 on three-point shots. It finished 6 of 22. Even when Burton tried to set his teammates up, like a spinning, in-air pass to an open freshman guard Sir Mohammed with just more than three minutes left, their shots rattled off the rim and out.
The Irish kept the Cardinals within striking distance until midway through the second half, when Louisville rattled off nine unanswered to stretch its lead to 18. Notre Dame’s defense broke down as the Irish allowed back-to-back threes to Cardinals guard J’Vonne Hadley, and that was all she wrote.
Notre Dame’s effort to salvage something from the 2024-25 campaign continues at 7 p.m. ET on Wednesday night, when the Irish take on SMU at 7 p.m. ET in South Bend.
