Copyright by Global Electronic Telecommunications, publishers of IrishEyes.Com ™
January 19, 2000
Murphy's Homecoming a Disaster
By ALAN TIEULI
For The IrishEyes.com News Service
PISCATAWAY, N.J. (IE) - In a stunning reversal of fortunes that graphically illustrates why mothers should never encourage their children to grow up and be head coaches, Matt Doherty's first extended road trip in the Big East Conference was an unmitigated disaster.
Surely, as wonderful as the Irish looked in knocking off defending national champion Connecticut on January 5, they looked immeasurably worse in losing at Syracuse on Sunday and Wednesday night here to unheralded Rutgers. Perfectly timed for this trip, the east is suffering through its worst cold spell in six years and the team is now in a critical condition hoop sick bed.
The final was Rutgers 76, Notre Dame 51 and statistically it is the Irish's lowest offensive output ever in a Big East Conference game and the fourth most lopsided conference defeat. In reality, it was much more chilling.
The Irish rolled over early, not scoring until it was 11-0 seven full minutes in, and it never got any better. Rutgers - if you can believe it - shot even better from the deep outside than torrid Syracuse on Sunday and Notre Dame cowered.
It was, in a word, pitiful. In another, humbling.
You could also say - considering the checkered Big East past of this program - that it was all too familiar. But neither Doherty nor his players were making excuses.
"I apologize for our team not showing up," the coach candidly said. "We wanted to come out and set the tone but we didn't, they did. Coach (Kevin) Bannon really had his team fired up, they were emotionally and for whatever reason we did not match that. We were hoping that they would have trouble matching out intensity, so that's a big disappointment."
Rutgers, 10-6 overall, 2-2 in the Big East, was coming off its own horror show - a 62-60 home loss to a West Virginia team that will be lucky to win five conference games all season. The Scarlet Knights put that setback in the rearview mirror fast.
Notre Dame is 11-7 overall, 2-2 in the Big East, and has slipped all the way to sixth in the conference standings.
The hosts were led by an unconscious freshman. Todd Billet hit a Big East season-best eight-of-12 three-pointers for 31 points, firmly establishing himself as a star of the future (and perhaps the presence) in the conference. Defensively, 6-6, 265-pound widebody Rashod Kent had his way with Notre Dame wunderkind Troy Murphy, effectively pushing the 6-10 soph far enough away from the basket to hold him to 18 points (seven points below his average) on five-for-16 shooting.
But the misfires were the least of Murphy's worries on this night. Playing for the first time on the Big East campus closest (40 miles) to his Sparta, New Jersey home, Murphy was the subject of derisive (sometimes vile) chants from the sell-out crowd of 8,211 at the Louis Brown Athletic Center.
The invectives ranged from "Murphy bleeps" to rhythmic calls of "overrated" and they caught Notre Dame's best by surprise.
"I thought they might boo a little bit when I was introduced, but nothing like that," Murphy said. "Hey, they have a great crowd and that really helps them out."
Murphy's dad, Jim, was in the stands and while the son was able to shrug off the vitriol of the crowd, he felt bad for his pop.
"It's tough for my dad to hear," Murphy admitted. "I can take it, and he can't do anything about it. He's just sitting there. You got your son out there playing and everybody is yelling at him. If my son were on the court, I would feel really bad about it."
On the scoreboard, this is how bad it was. With 12:14 remaining in the second-half Billet had 25 points all my himself while the Notre Dame team collectively had just 24. Billet was still matching the Irish point-for-point with 10:16 to go having 28 in the books while his team had a staggering 52-28 advantage.
For all intents and purposes, the contest was decided in the first seven minutes as Notre Dame had eight consecutive empty trips (seven missed shots, one turnover) and Rutgers built an 11-0 lead. It extended to 32-9 before being a slightly more reasonable 32-16 at the half.
At the 12-minute media timeout, with ND down 14-4, Doherty absolutely lit into his team in the sideline huddle, gesturing demonstratively while screaming at several individual players. Three starters (Murphy, Harold Swanagan and point guard Jimmy Dillon) were left on the bench after the tirade as Doherty tried something, anything, to fire his team up.
It didn't work.
"I thought we were getting distracted by their physical play and we starting losing our composure as opposed to keeping our cool and just matching their intensity," Doherty told IrishEyes in a quiet moment later, moments before the team departed to catch its charter flight out of Newark for South Bend. "I think we're a little immature in those moments. We need to come out and be poised, and we've been poised at Indiana, at Hartford. Maybe the kids wanted it so much and that creates anxiety. They start to think 'Oh my God, it's not working out as planned' and then they start to panic. I think we panicked a little bit."
The pressure on Murphy might have been lessened if his mates performed adequately. But shooting forward David Graves was one-for-11. Dillon was oh-for-four. Swanagan had just two points and two rebounds in 24 minutes. Carroll finished with a deceptive 13 points with eight coming in the final 1:19. Before that closing flurry, the Irish trailed 72-42 and were on track for their lowest point total since a 52-42 loss at South Carolina on February 4, 1984.
"We didn't come with the intensity we need," said Murphy. "You play a Big East game, it's a war, it's tough. They were fired up, they came off a tough loss and they wanted it more than we did."
After seeing Preston Shumpert light up his team Sunday with seven three-pointers and then Billet nail four in the first 11 minutes, Doherty abandoned the 2-3 zone for a trapping man-to-man. But the Irish were leadfooted and softhearted and the Scarlet Knights couldn't miss.
"You know, (Rutgers) got comfortable, and maybe the zone gets them comfortable," Doherty admitted to IrishEyes. "Maybe I need to look at changing the defense a little bit more."
Doherty, however, who is used to playing and coaching at hornet nests in the ACC and Big 12, dismissed the crowd as a factor.
"To me, I talked to the team, I didn't see any of their fans come out and block a shot," Doherty said. "No-one tripped (Murphy) as he ran down court. I think that's a fun environment. I never considered a hostile environment, I think it's fun. That's what makes college basketball exciting.
"Troy wanted this game badly, we wanted it for him as a team," the coach continued. "The kid's coming home, playing in front of his home state, it meant a lot to me. As a result, they were some signs of anxiousness. Frustration. Felt bad for him. Wanted it badly for him. It's how you deal with it that counts."
Murphy's frustration boiled over in the second half when he received a technical foul for pushing Kent after the whistle with 4:41 remaining. He said he was sending a message.
"It was just something that had to be done after awhile," the classy Murphy, answering a battery of questions from the local New Jersey media, said. "It gets to a certain point, you got to react. I'm not going to take it all day. Something had to be done. I didn't feel it was a technical foul, considering the stuff that happened the whole game, but that's (the official's) choice and he made a good call."
It was indeed the trip from hell. Notre Dame was outscored in the two contests 146-108 and allowed its opposition to shoot a staggering 27-for-49 (55-percent) from three-point range. That is 81 points in 49 possessions. Unacceptable.
Murphy was a combined 11-for-33 on the trip, the team 35-for-103. It was outscored from the field 133-79. The Irish were outrebounded 78-61. It was reminiscent of a hideous two-game swing through Connecticut and Villanova last year in which ND was outscored 186-128, the two most lopsided losses in the program's Big East history.
Even the travel accommodations were awful. Three members of the traveling party got airsickness on a rocky prop flight from Syracuse Hancock Airport to Newark on Sunday night.
The squad can't get home fast enough. First, for the start of classes, and then for the beginning of a four-game home stand. Pittsburgh (8-6, 0-3) is at the Joyce on Saturday for a noon tip.
"You're talking conference now," said Doherty. "You can't just look at your calendar and say that's a win. There are no surefire wins on this calendar, at least for Notre Dame."
One surefire thing: The Irish will run, and run hard at practice Wednesday. That is Doherty's way. And we would be very surprised if this squad does not put forth a superior effort Saturday against the Panthers.
"This isn't the worst thing that's happened to me," Murphy concluded. "Bad things are going to happen to me in my life. It's a game, and I'm done with it and that's that."
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NOTES: Murphy was the subject of a very positive article in Tuesday's Newark Star-Ledger in which he was quoted as saying it's his "intent to stay and receive my degree" at Notre Dame. His dad added in the piece, "I'm sure he would be tempted (to leave school early for the NBA), but he has a level head. He is the personification of Notre Dame. I don't see that happening."
Murphy, one of the most happy-go-lucky and endearing kids you would ever want to meet, also described Notre Dame thusly: "It's Delbarton (his all-male high school in Morristown, New Jersey) with girls."
The contest was the first sell-out of the season at Rutgers. The Scarlet Knights' home facility is one of the most intimidating in the Big East, with the fans right on top of the court. Kevin Bannon is one of the finest young coaches in the country and has set as a top priority keeping the best high school talent in New Jersey home. You'll recall IrishEyes reporting last winter that the Irish were hotly recruiting Billet, and the sharp-shooting guard reciprocating the good feeling. But Bannon was going to do whatever it took to keep Billet home and when the John MacLeod signed Matt Carroll, that was it.
Billet's brother Geoff, you'll also recall, beat the Irish with a buzzer beating shot at the Joyce last season. Murphy missed that contest with a sprained ankle, and this was the first time he has faced Rutgers and the only time the teams are slated to meet in the regular season. With the Big East expanding to 14 teams next year, necessitating home-and-away contests with only three squads, there is a chance this could be Murphy's only visit here. And that would be a shame. He deserves a shot to light it up in front of his locals.
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