Wrapping up Notre Dame, againSouth Bend, Ind. -- Defensively MU was about as solid as it gets over the final 3 1/2 minutes or so in Saturday's loss at Notre Dame.
But had the Golden Eagles been able to channel some of that intensity earlier in the game, things might have turned out differently. After all, they were leading by one before allowing the Irish to score on seven of their final eight possessions in the first half, allowing Notre Dame to close out on a 13-2 run and take a 46-36 halftime lead.
Then, in the second half, seemingly every time MU began making a run at Notre Dame, the Irish responded with a basket or free throws, killing whatever momentum the Golden Eagles had mustered.
It was Kyle McAlarney's back-to-back threes immediately following Lazar Hayward's three that turned a six-point deficit into a 12-point deficit early in the second half. It was Tory Jackson's jumper and Ryan Ayers' four-point play immediately following Trend Blackledge's tip-in that turned a seven-point deficit into a 13-point deficit a little more than four minutes later. It was Luke Harangody's three-point play and Tory Jackson's layup immediately following Lazar Hayward's putback that turned a seven-point deficit back into a 12-point deficit as the game headed toward crunch time.
"We gambled a little too much, and against a team like Notre Dame - and really most of the Big East - if you gamble you better make sure you're right because they're going to make you pay," Crean said. "And that happened a couple of times. They played well, we played well. They had their stretches where they weren't so good, we had our stretches where we weren't so good, and they found a way to win it at the end.
"Our guys really, really stuck with it, no matter what the situation was inside of the game. For us, it's stuff to build on."
Added Dominic James: "It was very frustrating. Especially on offense because there were a lot of times where we made mistakes, gambling for loose balls and trying to get steals and things like that, and they made us pay."
-- Speaking of James, he might have missed the potential game-tying shot, but he nonetheless rebounded in a big way from playing a collegiate-low 18 minutes against Louisville last Monday due to a case of the flu.
Back in the starting lineup, he scored a season-high 23 points and dished out six assists against just one turnover in 32 minutes. James knocked down 3 three-pointers in the first half, then went back to his strength - driving the basketball - in the second, scoring five of MU's final six buckets on driving layups in the closing minutes.
All told, he knocked down 10 of 16 shots.
-- While James came back nicely, the beneficiary of his illness against Louisville - Maurice Acker - played a season-low two minutes against Notre Dame.
Another player who was virtually invisible despite playing 30 minutes was Wesley Matthews, who managed just four points on 2-of-3 shooting, one rebound and three assists. MU needs much more than that from the junior, especially with the season heading into the home stretch.
-- Speaking of Blackledge, it was interesting to see him in the game in the closing minutes.
Had he been able to handle the pass off Matthews' steal with MU trailing by just one about 30 seconds left, it's possible the Golden Eagles could have taken the lead. As it were, he still turned in a solid 7-minute stint that included two points, three rebounds, one assist and one blocked shot.
The block came on Harangody, as Crean again sought to give the beefy sophomore different looks defensively.
"You can't guard Luke Harangody with one person the whole game, and you certainly can't guard him without your whole team being locked into doing that," Crean said. "We have a lot of confidence in Trend. In what he gives up in strength and body weight he makes up for in length a little bit. There are no doubts there with what he did. He did a nice job at times for us."
-- It had to have been nice for the Golden Eagles to see both Dan Fitzgerald and David Cubillan re-discover their strokes and confidence a bit against the Irish.
Fitzgerald scored six points in the first half on a traditional three-point play and by sinking a three - his first in three games. He also had three steals in 12 minutes.
Cubillan, meanwhile, scored 11 points and knocked down 3 threes in the second half in helping the Golden Eagles hang tough down the stretch.
"We felt good about them all week," Crean said. "They're playing with a clear head right now, they're playing free. I'm proud of my team, I really am. We've done some good things. We just need to keep focusing on what we need to get done, and those guys are a big part of that."
-- MU tied a season high it set against Notre Dame in the teams' first meeting on Jan. 12 by again knocking down 12 three-pointers. Nine of those came in the final 20 minutes, with Cubillan and Hayward each sinking three.
-- Jerel McNeal's got to find a way to start getting some of his shots from close range to drop. He missed a wide-open layup with no one within 20 feet of him at one point in the second half, and finished a brutal 3 for 15 overall.
He again played ably elsewhere, chipping in with five rebounds and five assists, not to mention a couple of spectacular defensive plays late, but he needs to tighten up his game offensively with points at a premium here lately.
-- Speaking of offensive struggles, Ousmane Barro once again struggled mightily after going just 1 for 9 from the field and scoring two points.
He did pull down a game-high 12 boards, however, and played a big role in making Harangody largely a non-factor in the first half with some solid, straight-up defense that was aided by some digging at the ball by his teammates.
"He did a nice job," said Crean. "Without the 12 rebounds we're not playing for the last shot, no question about it."
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