- Joined
- May 8, 2002
- Posts
- 1,263,507
- Reaction score
- 59
You must be registered for see images
Feb 28, 2026; South Bend, Indiana, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish forward Jalen Haralson (10) shoots during the first half at Purcell Pavilion at the Joyce Center. Mandatory Credit: Michael Caterina-Imagn Images | Michael Caterina-Imagn Images
Hello everyone. I’m back. Thanks for bearing with everything through my hiatus.
Unfortunately, it turned out to be a pretty darn good time to check out of things. I was relatively passively following the team while my time was limited, but caught enough of things to understand how bleak the program now looks. The Irish found themselves on Senior Day playing for little besides pride. But to their credit, today they earned that pride.
The N.C. State Wolfpack would punch first with a couple relatively easy transition buckets from Quadir Copeland. Old friend Ven-Allen Lubin, now on his fourth school in four years, would get an uncontested put-back and an alley-oop, and in-between those, a Darien Williams three dug the Irish hold deeper. The Irish were very quickly down 11-2.
It fell to Cole Certa to grab some momentum back for the Irish. Sir Mohammed found him in the corner for three with a pretty nifty pass in traffic, and then Certa drilled a deep one from close to the logo the next trip down. A nice move by Braden Shrewsberry to shake his defender forced Certa’s man to come help, which gave Cole another open look. His quick nine points were answered only by another hammer-time putback dunk by Lubin, so the Irish trailed by just two, at 13-11.
Mohammed gave the Irish a little bit of a lift in the next stretch, although he made sure to mix in some of his trademark mistakes here and there. He netted six points on a tough driving layup, a floater, and a put-back. Ryder Frost and Logan Imes poured in threes to get the Irish within one, which helped compensate for a little bit of a cool-down from Certa.
Meanwhile, Lubin was enjoying his #RevengeGame in the first half. Over the past three years, he’s made himself into a pretty polished big, leading the conference in field goal percentage, and he gave the Irish all they could handle to the tune of 12 first-half points. Tre Holloman dropped in a couple threes for N.C. State, and in-between, Jalen Haralson committed an extremely stubborn offensive foul, hooking his defender after failing to make headway in the post. A tough fadeaway two by Shrewsberry got the Irish back within six (his first points since the Pitt game) but N.C. State was heating up.
Logan Imes answered with three straight great possessions. First, he made a great dish to Carson Towt for a wide-open dunk, then he hit a three and drove in for an uncontested layup. The Notre Dame offense was finding holes and putting up points, but with the Wolfpack draining threes and finding space for shots at the rim, it was tough for the Irish to close the gap. Sir Mohammed collected four points off of drives on the final two Irish possessions of the half to keep the deficit at 44-38 heading into the locker room.
what a feed from Imes to give Towt the dunk #GoIrish| CW pic.twitter.com/ij1ReYIcEm
— Notre Dame Men's Basketball (@NDmbb) February 28, 2026
The hope was that the Irish would understand that special attention would need to be paid to Lubin around the hoop, which is why it was disheartening to see him get a put-back on each of the first two Wolfpack possessions due to absolutely no one bothering to box him out. In Towt’s defense, he was playing help defense to contest shots, but there was little-to-no awareness from the guards to pick up the slack on the glass.
Haralson got going for a few buckets to keep the Irish in it, but the defensive issues were persistent. Cole Certa offered little resistance on a drive for a laughably easy blow-by from Copeland. On another play, Certa completely lost track of his man, which forced Logan Imes to defend the cut to the hoop, which opened up another three from N.C. State. Imes got stuck trying to guard the bigger Copeland one-on-one, and there seemed to be no plan to help him. To some degree, the Irish aren’t physically equipped to defend this team without Markus Burton and Kebba Njie, but they could put up more of a fight if it weren’t for all the mental mistakes.
Despite the struggles to get stops, the Irish continued to score. Shrewsberry poured in a deep three over Lubin, and Certa started to get going off the dribble, getting an and-one on a nice fadeaway jumper at the free throw line. Shrewsberry got loose for another three off of some chaos on an offensive rebound, and then inexplicably found himself wide open under the hoop after slipping a screen while two guys stood guard on Mohammed at the arc (???). Suddenly, the Irish were within one at 60-59.
Shrewsberry clearly had some pep in his step with the scoring back in his game, as he skied for a great defensive rebound over Lubin and led the charge down the floor. He got the ball to Certa, who drove past his man and had an easy lay-in for the lead, but lost the handle on the way up. That was a costly momentum shift, as it led to a transition layup from Terrance Arceneaux. The Irish trailed 62-59 at the under-12 timeout.
N.C. State got a three by Matt Able on a well-drawn out-of-bounds play, but Able soon had to leave the game after committing his fourth foul on a Certa drive. That was the beginning of the game turning into a bit of a free throw slog, and the Wolfpack weren’t missing quite as many as they were early on. Haralson bucked the trend of foul-shot-centric offense by making an INSANE spin move on Lubin for a layup, and after beating Lubin for a loose ball on the ground, he drove the length of the floor and got fouled at the rim. The free throws got the Irish back within two at 71-69.
️JALEN HARALSON️ PUT HIM IN A BLENDER#GoIrish
— Notre Dame Men's Basketball (@NDmbb) February 28, 2026
The Wolfpack would soon gather themselves and hit back. Certa picked up his fourth foul on another drive by Copeland, who was consistently physically overpowering him. On the offensive end, Mohammed put all of his weaknesses on display by being 1) unwilling to pull the trigger on a three when catching it in the corner with space, 2) missing the front end of a one-and-one, and 3) getting the ball ripped from him on a frustration drive through traffic. The commentators were heaping praise on Mohammed all day, and he did do plenty of good things, but he made just as many head-scratching physical and mental errors. It’s stuff like this that explains why he grades out as one of the worst players in the ACC by BPR. The nightmare Mohammed stretch left the Irish down nine (79-70), and Micah Shrewsberry finally swapped the foul-addled Certa back in for him for the closing five-and-a-half minutes.
The Irish weren’t yet ready to hang it up, however. Haralson was playing his classic bully-ball game at the rim, particularly when he found himself with the smaller Holloman matched up on him. He led the Irish back to a five-point deficit with a couple buckets. Then, Carson Towt got his hands on a put-back dunk attempt by Lubin. which led to a transition possession for the Irish. Imes found Shrewsberry on the wing for a contested three with 2:07 to play. Suddenly, Notre Dame was down just two. They left Paul McNeil Jr. open for a three on N.C. State’s next attack, but he miraculously badly bricked it. Haralson somehow was able to take the ball the length of the floor off the rebound and got a relatively easy shot at the rim, but it heartbreakingly rimmed out. 81-79 Wolfpack, 1:40 to play, N.C. State ball.
The Wolfpack did a little perimeter passing and managed to get Darrion Williams a decent look at a three, but it hit the back iron. The Irish cleared the rebound and Haralson went on the attack again against the smaller McNeil for another good look that bounced out. Towt got the Irish another chance by slamming the rebound off of Copeland’s face and out of bounds.
That gave Notre Dame a fresh 20 and the ball under the bucket, but they never even had to inbound it, as Able picked up his fifth foul trying to hold Towt from cutting free to the basket. It’s pretty much never a bad idea to put Towt at the free throw line, though, and that held true in this instance, as neither of his trademark glass-banging attempts went down. I kind of wish he’d stop trying to shoot free throws like that; it clearly hasn’t improved his success rate as he now sits under 33% for the season.
The Irish dug in and played a pretty good defensive possession on the other end. N.C. State couldn’t manage anything more than a difficult Williams three that badly missed. The resultant rebound was batted around and eventually out of bounds on N.C. State, giving the Irish the ball back with 36 seconds to play. Micah Shrewsberry got Towt out of the game immediately on the stoppage, sending Frost out there for the critical offensive possession.
Haralson hit Shrewsberry for what could have been a potential three, but it looked like Shrewsberry didn’t catch it clean enough to put it up. The ball was worked back to Haralson, who drove on Lubin and put another spin move on him to try to get to the rim. It was effective enough, as Lubin fouled him with 19 seconds to play. With all the pressure on, Haralson pretty calmly knocked down two pure free throws to tie the game.
Will Wade called timeout to draw something up for the final 12 seconds. The Irish were in a 2-3 zone, but played help on a drive from Copeland as he tried to abuse Certa again. Holloman decided not to take an open three on the kick out, opting to drive. The Irish defense collapsed, which left Williams wide open. Holloman kicked it out to Williams for a three at the horn, but he completely airballed it. Overtime!
The Irish opened overtime by missing several good looks on their first possession, but managed to get a stop on the other end. Logan Imes raced out of there with the rebound and found Certa in the corner in transition, who made his first three since the first half. McNeil would answer immediately with one of his own the next trip down, but Certa responded with one of his trademark logo-distance threes. It seemed like McNeil wanted to keep going toe-to-toe, but he failed to connect on his deep attempt, and then Certa was determined to take charge. He drove at Holloman and got fouled, which opened up a four-point lead with 2:20 to play after going 1-for-2 at the line.
Williams stopped the bleeding for N.C. State with a relatively easy lay-up, After the teams traded free throws, the Irish had the ball up two. Micah Shrewsberry called for Certa to screen for Haralson, and it worked like a charm. Holloway tried to fight through the screen as Haralson plowed downhill, but that left no one on Certa, who knocked down a wide open triple to get him to the 10-point mark in overtime and the 30-point mark in the game.
Cole Certa couldn’t miss in overtime!#GoIrish
— Notre Dame Men's Basketball (@NDmbb) February 28, 2026
The Wolfpack would get two more points from Lubin at the free throw line, but that was the last gasp from N.C. State, as they absolutely could not buy a three-pointer other than the one McNeil dropped earlier in the period. The Irish did a great job breaking the press, and after Imes missed a three late in the shot clock, Haralson leapt in for the rebound, which allowed Certa to ice the game from the free throw line. Notre Dame pulled off a huge upset on Senior Day, giving themselves a pretty good shot at getting into the ACC Tournament. It stinks that with a different season-long narrative, this could have been an incredible resume-building game, but we’ll take our wins when we can get them.
Bullet Points
- Certa, Shrewsberry, and Haralson were the only Irish to score after halftime. Not a problem.
- Brady Koehler found himself in Shrewsberry’s doghouse pretty quickly. He turned the ball over twice in the first five minutes, and those five minutes were the only ones he played in a game that went to overtime.
- In the first half, it had really seemed like Braeden Shrewsberry was carrying his offensive slump with him to the defensive end. He got burned a couple of times pretty unacceptably, and it was a pretty stark contrast to the high energy and effort he exhibited early in the year and in the second half of this game.
- Late in the second half, Haralson had one of the most ridiculous saves of a basketball on its way out of bounds that I’ve ever seen. Unfortunately, Certa missed a big transition three off the save.
HOW ABOUT THIS EFFORT FROM HARALSON #GoIrish
— Notre Dame Men's Basketball (@NDmbb) February 28, 2026
- The Irish did uncharacteristically good work from the free throw line today. Haralson went 9-for-10, and Certa went 8-for-9 (OK, that one’s characteristic).
- Haralson came off the bench and played a very strong game, finishing with 25 pretty efficient points. Given some of the bunnies he missed, he could have had a 30-burger alongside Certa.
Continue reading...
