How Notre Dame contained Duke star Kyle Filipowski

Notre Dame’s game plan against Duke was simple: Don’t let No. 30 beat you.

The Irish, led by first-year head coach Micah Shrewsberry, knew that the Blue Devils shoot the 3-ball well. But they’re a low-volume 3-point shooting team, which means they like to win in the paint. And no one on their roster does that better than sophomore center Kyle Filipowski, who entered Saturday averaging more than 17 points per game.

“They kill you in the paint, and that’s what we wanted to take away,” Shrewsberry said after the game. “We wanted to protect the paint, and I thought we did a really good job of that.”

While Notre Dame lost to Duke, 67-59, the effort to contain Filipowski was a resounding success. Filipowski played 35 minutes, which led the Blue Devils, but he only scored 7 points and was held to 2-of-12 shooting from the field.

The Irish did this in a few ways. First, they made sure to double Filipowski if he got the ball in a post-up situation. Duke head coach Jon Scheyer noted postgame that when they did that, it sometimes led to open looks. But Notre Dame created some havoc by bringing double teams, too.

“Other times, we didn’t handle it as well or just missed shots,” Scheyer said.

Shrewsberry admitted that doubling Filipowski was a big part of what allowed Duke sophomore forward Mark Mitchell to explode for 23 points, most of which were scored in the second half. Part of that was the result of letting Mitchell shoot 3s, of which he had only made 1 all season before drilling 2 on Saturday night. But the other part was a few missed rotations.

“We gotta be crisper than that to take those layups away, take those dunks away that he got,” Shrewsberry said. “The transition [buckets], those are the ones that really kill you.”

Notre Dame knew that would happen on some level, given the emphasis in the game plan on stopping Filipowski. While Mitchell’s points were the difference in the game, allowing 67 points wasn’t the reason the Irish lost. Overall, defensively, Shrewsberry was pleased with his group’s performance.

Second, and this was the key tactic Scheyer pointed to, Notre Dame iced Duke’s screen actions. That means when the Blue Devils tried to hit their big man off a screen set by Filipowski himself, the on-ball defender would force the ball handler toward the baseline while the man guarding the screener drops toward the basket.

This coverage, explained much better in this video, helped take away Duke’s passing lanes and made it difficult to get Filipowski an open look.

“A lot of times, we get open with him setting screens,” Scheyer said. “It was our first time really seeing a team ice. They do it well. They do it where it’s hard to hit Flip at times.”

And finally, Notre Dame couldn’t have contained Filipowski without a superb defensive performance from sophomore forward Kebba Njie.

Njie drew criticism for the last play of Wednesday’s loss to North Carolina State, guarding Wolfpack forward D.J. Burns Jr. Burns got Njie in the air off a shot fake and stepped right by him for an uncontested layup to win the game for NC State, and Shrewsberry challenged him with his most difficult assignment yet: Filipowski, the ACC Preseason Player of the Year and a preseason All-American.

The Penn State transfer was up for the challenge.

“I was gonna guard him,” Njie said. “I knew he could shoot. He’s a hell of a player, so I just try to be solid as much as I can. … Just be solid, make him shoot over you.”

“He did a great job,” Shrewsberry said. “Effort. I think effort. I think he grew from the other night.”

The Irish lost the game, which is why the job they did on Filipowski won’t get much buzz beyond this week. But it should. If Njie can be a stout defender against Filipowski, he can be a stout defender against anyone. The same logic applies to the Irish defending screen actions against a team that scores at all three levels as well as Duke.

Notre Dame is establishing a defensive identity, and it goes beyond a game plan for one player.

The post How Notre Dame contained Duke star Kyle Filipowski appeared first on On3.