MEN'S BASKETBALL: Ole Miss experience leads to win over Notre Dame
By Kathleen O'Brien
Associate Sports Editor
KANSAS CITY, Missouri
The Ole Miss men's basketball program is one step ahead of Notre Dame's, and the Rebels remained one pace ahead of the Irish on Sunday.
Ole Miss, making its fourth NCAA Tourn-ament appearance in the past five seasons, had experience in its corner.
Wide-body senior center Rahim Lockhart entered this year's Tournament with two past tourneys under his belt, and he used his seasoning to give the Irish fits with 24 points and seven rebounds. Fellow Rebel seniors Jason Flanigan and Jason Holmes also were two-year veterans of March Madness, and each played a part in wearing down the Irish.
The Irish looked like rookies to the NCAA Tournament experience. They shot a surprising 29 percent from the field after a red-hot 63 percent touch in the opening round. They managed only six assists and missed several layups, including one in the final minute by Ryan Humphrey.
Maybe the Irish played awkwardly because they didn't recognize the territory.
March Madness is a phrase used much more often with women's basketball at Notre Dame in recent years. The men's squad hadn't made the tourney since 1990, and Humphrey, a transfer from Oklahoma, was the only player to have known the Madness. The Irish hadn't even dreamed of advancing to the Sweet 16, which is what they were playing for against the Rebels, in years.
The Rebels played out their one-gait edge on the Irish by recalling coach Rod Barnes harp about playing defense throughout their careers.
"If you don't guard," Barnes said, "you're coming out."
Stifling opponents is a trademark for Barnes' teams in the SEC.
"The whole year, we pride ourselves on defense," Lockhart said. "We feel like that's the way you win championships. That was the difference in the game — we came up with the stops we needed to."
The Irish knew defense was a priority entering the game.
"We're the type of team that we know we can score and play with anyone in the country," said senior captain Martin Ingelsby, "but we need defense to make everything work and it makes it more fun."
But the Irish have only had Mike Brey beating defense into their brains since July, and the mentality wasn't quite as deeply ingrained in their instincts as it was for the Rebels.
So in the last minute, with the Rebels up by two, the Irish met their match. The high-scoring Notre Dame offense found itself on a rare off day from the field going up against a team that knew how to get the final stop.
Ole Miss blocked Notre Dame's last opportunity as 6-foot-3 guard David Sanders swatted Notre Dame from the Sweet 16 bracket. Irish sophomore Matt Carroll, Notre Dame's best post feeder, went up as if to take a 3-point shot he had hit from the same spot against Xavier. But he'd been cold shooting against Ole Miss, so when he saw Humphrey down low, he went for the pass inside, which Sanders slapped away and into Lockhart's hands.
"We're a defensive team first," Sanders said. "Defense is what got us here."
Notre Dame didn't play poorly on defense, limiting its opponent to just 59 points, 13 below Ole Miss's average. But the Rebels played spectacularly. They held two-time All-American Troy Murphy to 17 points on 4-of-16 shooting, and stifled Carroll and David Graves into a combined 2-for-17 from the field.
And just as suddenly as Sanders appeared for the steal, the one sure thing for Notre Dame, its ability to score, vanished.
"Defensively, we gave ourselves every chance to win the basketball game," Brey said.
Ole Miss also had more fresh faces to look to than did the Irish. Nine players logged at least eight minutes of playing time for the Rebels, while only six did the same for the Irish, five of whom played 29 minutes or more.
Come 2002, the Rebels may be no peers for the Irish.
Should Murphy, a junior, decide to return for his senior season at Notre Dame, the Irish would be loaded with veterans. They would have all their key players back save Ingelsby at the point, who will be replaced by McDonald's All-American Chris Thomas, trading sheer talent for seasoning and on-court savvy.
And they'll have another year beneath Brey, marking the first time in four years an Irish team has known stability and played for the same coach two straight seasons.
It took just one season to take the Irish from NIT runner-ups to one shot away from the Sweet 16. Imagine the Irish after one more year emphasizing defense with a year of tourney experience to draw from.
One more year, and the outcome might have "luck of the Irish" written all over it.
The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
All Sports Stories for Tuesday, March 20, 2001
