December 8, 2010

NCDS: Martin Ingelsby, Asst. Coach - Notre Dame

 

Last week our team traveled to Orlando for the Old Spice Classic at the Milk House on Disney’s Wide World of Sports campus. We arrived at our hotel, Disney’s Beach and Yacht Club, late Tuesday night after a long day of traveling. We were greeted by our team host, Jennifer, and more importantly, 70 degree weather (Much different than what we had left in the Midwest). The tournament was an eight team event sponsored by the MAAC/ESPN that guaranteed you three games over four days during the Thanksgiving holiday. The field consisted of Georgia, Boston College, Texas A&M, Wisconsin, California, Temple and Manhattan.  

At the time we left Midway Airport for the warm confines of Orlando, our record was 4-0 and we were feeling pretty good about our group. We had a good feel for our rotation, our veterans were gelling well together and we had really scored the basketball. Our first test in Orlando, Georgia, was a sexy SEC East pick and featured one of the nation’s best players, Trey Thompkins.

Here at ND, we keep things fairly simple when it comes to scouting. Coach Brey is a big believer in, “It’s not what they do, but what we do.” With Georgia’s scout happening to fall on my plate, I was responsible for game planning for the Bulldogs. I had watched all of Georgia’s three games on the year and even peeked at a few from last year to get a feel for tendencies and personnel. The more I watched, the more I knew we would be in a dogfight on Thanksgiving night. Georgia was experienced, athletic and very well coached. They featured the duo of Trey Thompkins and Travis Leslie, both expected to hear their names called in the 1^st round of next summer’s draft. Two transfers were playing well for them and their senior big, Jeremy Price, was playing the best basketball of his career.

We always present our team with 3 offensive and defensive keys for each game that we feel we need to execute to help us win. For the Georgia game, our keys were as follows:

Offensive: Run & Attack with Great Decisions, Make them Guard Us and Inside Touches.

Defensive: Transition Defense, Concentrate throughout their Sets and ALL 5 must rebound.  

The Georgia game didn’t get off to the best of starts for us as we played a sluggish 1^st half and ended up being down 12pts, 37-25. We struggled to get into an offensive rhythm and allowed Georgia’s pressure defense to frustrate our tempo in the half court. The 2^nd half was a different story as we clawed back into the game with a stingy 2-3 zone and a more efficient offensive style. We had emphasized low post touches and good movement off the post and Tyrone Nash, our Senior Captain, took over down the stretch to help us force OT.

The first overtime saw both teams take leads, but quickly relinquish them en route to a second OT tied at 69. Ben Hansbrough and Carleton Scott ignited us in the 2^nd OT and solid play from freshman Eric Atkins and transfer Scott Martin helped propel us to a thrilling 89-86 win over Georgia.

Looking back at the keys for the game, I believe we executed on five out of our six keys. We outrebounded them 42-39, were efficient for 30 minutes in our man offense, limited them to 8 transition points and after getting a feel for their style, bucked up and kept a body between our man and the basket. Our guys accepted the challenge that we laid out for them and did a great job staying focused for 50 minutes. The game had it’s ups and downs, but we stayed resilient and knocked off a very tough Georgia club that will bolster our NCAA resume come March.

Off to prepare for Kentucky!

Go IRISH!