How Markus Burton flashed two-way dominance in Notre Dame win
Freshman guard Markus Burton was Notre Dame’s best player Saturday night, which isn’t news.
Burton’s offensive masterpiece was a layup in the half’s third minute, when he spun around one defender and evaded another one mid-air before tossing the ball off the backboard and into the basket. He scored several times with his signature mid-range, pull-up jumper and scored 16 points, which is right along his season average of 16.2.
Irish fans know Burton can do that. They might not have seen his defensive performance coming, though.
The Mishawaka native’s best play of the night might have come at that end of the court. After sophomore forward Tae Davis turned it over late in the game, Virginia junior guard Sean Pedulla tried to run the length of the floor for a quick bucket. But as he went up for a layup, Burton somehow snatched the ball from his hands and threw it to fellow freshman guard Logan Imes before falling out of bounds.
That was Burton’s sixth steal of the game, and even that number doesn’t tell the full story. The freshman was a menace against the Hokies, and he operated first-year Notre Dame head coach Micah Shrewsberry‘s pick-and-roll defense to perfection.
“The guy that’s guarding the ball is responsible for the first pass out, right, so he has to have really active hands,” Shrewsberry said. “And I thought Markus had really active hands.”
Burton also dished out 8 assists, which tied his season high, and only turned the ball over once. Shrewsberry thought his budding star point guard controlled a controlled a contested game as well as he has this season.
He did that while playing against Virginia Tech’s hedge-heavy defense, and while guarding Pedulla for most of the game. Pedulla ranks 12th in the Atlantic Coast Conference in scoring with 15.6 points per game, and he’s a savvy, experienced guard who — like Burton — can win in multiple ways. He scored 13 points against Notre Dame but went 4-of-12 from the field and finished with 6 turnovers.
“As simple as it sounds, it’s not,” Shrewsberry said. “It’s tiring, when those big dudes are out there hard-hedging you and bumping you and hitting you. But he’s doing it over and over again, and he’s guarding one of the best players on their team on the other one.”
Shrewsberry, a defensive coach by trade, has been on Burton throughout the season to improve himself in that area. He wasn’t a superb defender coming out of high school (the competition he faced at Mishawaka Penn didn’t require him to be), but he’s always had the skills necessary for it.
That instinctive quickness, fearlessness, body control and willingness to take contact from much bigger players that make Burton an elite scorer for his size? Each of those traits can apply to on-ball defense, too. And with the Irish struggling despite his offense remaining consistent, Burton tried to focus on that aspect of his game.
“I have found something else to do besides scoring,” Burton said after the game. “Scoring is not always going to be there, and you have to find something else for me to help my team win. So I feel like the defense was really good for me today.”‘
Behind the scenes, Burton believed his defense was coming along faster than most noticed during the games, at least until Saturday night.
“I think my confidence is starting to come on a lot, due to me playing against all these high-level guards,” Burton said. “And just the work that I’m putting in off camera, like I’m in the gym 24/7, it’s starting to show. And the defensive part, that’s just me being locked in and doing what I’m told to do.”
Burton’s defense — his steals led to easy Notre Dame buckets in the first half while Virginia Tech was hot from 3-point range — and his teammates’ offensive success helped the Irish stay in the game while his own shooting wasn’t there. Burton started 2-for-11 and was slightly frustrated with himself for missing looks he believed he should have made.
However, as star players tend to do, Burton turned it up a notch in crunch time.
“I knew coming into this, they knew I was a really good scorer,” Burton said. “And I feel like some of my shots were rushed, but some of them are also me just missing layups, missing bunnies. Close shots, not me just locked in. But second half, I kind of locked in.”
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