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Message: [QUOTE="General20, post: 4987378, member: 724"] Haven't seen anybody say it yet but the way I see it, Notre Dame deserves more credit for the comeback than Syracuse deserves blame. I've been more critical of Syracuse's D than most, but the biggest difference between the first half and second half was Notre Dame going 2-6 from three in the first half (including that banked in monstrosity before halftime) and 10-15 from three in the second half. I actually think Syracuse's 3 point D might have been tighter in the second half. Most of those shots came with a hand in the face. The ones that didn't were almost always the result of great decision making by the Notre Dame point guard. He was the quickest guy on the court, nobody could stay in front of him, and when we doubled he made the right pass. Hard to defend that, when it's combined with 70% shooting by the people he's passing to. Notre Dame's original strategy was to beat us down low, they didn't shoot much from 3. We defended that great, which is not something we've done since McLeod got hurt. Some really quick math shows we gave up 71.5 ppg in the 14 games we played with McLeod, and gave up 78.5 in the 14 games since he's been gone. That's a really big difference and I don't think McLeod being hurt is responsible for all of it, but I do think people underestimate the 3 blocks per game he was getting. That's 6 points every game we are currently giving up. To me that shows progress despite Notre Dame going crazy from 3. D still has a long way to go, but I'll take it, especially when we put together a masterful offensive performance. No ACC team scored more than 72 against Notre Dame all year long and we hung 88 on them. I think I like us best when Copeland and Brown do the passing and Mintz and Starling do the scoring, which is what happened in this one. Hope to see it become an identity. 10 assists for Brown/Copeland and 30 points for Mintz/Starling might be a benchmark worth looking out for. [/QUOTE]

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