Joey Meyer`s De Paul teams have struggled to achieve a 3-3 record in games at Notre Dame. A trip to the Joyce Convocation Center has never been a stroll in the park for Meyer`s Blue Demons.
Now, despite his team`s five-game winning streak and its diversified three-point shooting, Meyer has added reason to fret about Wednesday night`s excursion to South Bend.
For one thing, the Demons blew an 18-point second-half lead Saturday before they beat St. Louis 91-84 in overtime at the Horizon. For another thing, while that 18-point lead was melting, the Blue Demons played like a bunch of strangers who had just been introduced before a helter-skelter blacktop game.
”We quit playing defense,” Meyer said. ”We stood around. We started playing not to lose, playing scared . . .”
If that happened at the Horizon, imagine what lies ahead in the shadow of the Golden Dome.
Fortunately, Meyer told point guard Joe Daughrity to ”loosen up and shoot the ball.” And Daughrity did from three-point range, scoring the basket that snapped an 82-82 tie with 1:39 to play in overtime.
In recent seasons, De Paul struggled with only Brad Niemann as a bona fide three-point threat. Against St. Louis, five different Demons shared an 8- for-13 mark on threes. Daughrity went 3 for 4, David Booth 2 for 3 and Terry Davis, Brandon Cole and Howard Nathan each 1 for 2.
That`s a comforting thought for Meyer, especially if he anticipates facing a zone. But Saturday`s breakdowns while the big lead was disappearing are enough to make an always-scary trip to Notre Dame even more unsettling.
