Steve Vasturia's defense helps Notre Dame move on
The official went over to the scorer's table at the Wells Fargo Center and said, "20 seconds for blood." No great surprise: It was Steve Vasturia's blood. The 20 seconds weren't quite enough in the last minute. The St. Joseph's Prep graduate had to come out for a play. Vasturia got back out there with 19 seconds left.
The official went over to the scorer's table at the Wells Fargo Center and said, "20 seconds for blood."
No great surprise: It was Steve Vasturia's blood. The 20 seconds weren't quite enough in the last minute. The St. Joseph's Prep graduate had to come out for a play. Vasturia got back out there with 19 seconds left.
Plenty of time to be part of the play of the night, the biggest reason the Fighting Irish are still alive.
Notre Dame was down by a point to Wisconsin. Irish coach Mike Brey told his guys, as they were about to full-court press, that they had one foul to give, to trap, and if a Badgers player broke through the trap, then to foul.
Wisconsin's Nigel Hayes never made it. Vasturia cut off the sideline and teammate Bonzi Colson - ignoring a plea from point guard Demetrius Jackson to get to half-court - cut off the middle. Jackson stole the ball and scored the go-ahead layup with 13 seconds left.
"I think we did a great job of having some crafty hands right there," Brey said later, after Notre Dame had survived again, 61-56, moving into the Elite Eight on Sunday.
Vasturia, the 6-foot-5 junior from Medford, had the craftiest.
"He's a great player - we were just trying to make it difficult for him," Vasturia said of Hayes, Wisconsin's leading scorer, his defensive assignment all night. "We were lucky enough . . . it kind of bounced our way."
More than 26 minutes into Friday night's East Regional Sweet 16 game, Notre Dame had 26 points. Typically, slipping under the point-a-minute mark deep into the second half is never a great sign of life in the NCAA tournament.
Here's the thing, though: This was one of those vintage Somebody vs. Wisconsin NCAA battles when a 4-0 flurry gets you right back in it. Vasturia was far from the offensive star of the night. But he did have one of those little flurries.
The Irish were within eight points of Wisconsin, and when Vasturia drove for his only hoop of the evening, then came over from the blindside for a steal and a pass for a fastbreak hoop, the Irish had life, back within four. Before the 10-minute mark, the game was tied. The Irish pulled ahead.
It was back and forth from there, but it was that kind of night. Nothing pretty. Brey said he saw some rundown of the Sweet 16 listing his team as No. 16. But Brey told his team it was No. 1 for toughness.
In the first half, Vasturia was right in the middle of Notre Dame's offensive struggles. Took four shots, missed four shots. Had a charge, and a ball stripped. . . . It sounds as if he was struggling? He wasn't really. Most of what he did was in a rhythm. He didn't take any crazy shots. The ball just wasn't finding the basket.
There was another late possession when Hayes made pump-fakes. Vasturia bit on none of them.
"He's one of the unsung heroes on our basketball team - maybe one of the most underappreciated guys in all of college basketball," Irish assistant coach Martin Ingelsby said of Vasturia the day before.
"He's a beautiful basketball player," Brey said Thursday. "I tell young kids, watch Steve Vasturia play the game. His feel for the game, his instincts on both sides of the floor . . . "
That instinct came into play on that trap.
Did he get a hand on the ball?
"Yeah, a little bit, me and Bonzi both tipped it a little bit," Vasturia said. "We did a good job of just getting him in a tough place."
Irish freshman Matt Ryan, who is in the tough Vasturia mold, had a good view of that last trap from the bench right in front of him.
"That was the biggest thing for him tonight - the offense wasn't there for him," Ryan said of Vasturia. "His defense was constant and he gave us a great opportunity to win with his defense on Hayes."
Of that last trap, when Ryan saw it, "I was just praying, don't foul. We've got him trapped. Make him make a decision. Then he tries to split it. He made the worst decision, trying to split up a double. . . . It was just unbelievable, crazy."
The last seconds went off and Vasturia just pulled his jersey out of his shorts and blew out a breath. No celebration. Just another night's work done.
@jensenoffcampus
