Forget Medusa. If you want to see somebody turn to stone, watch a defender try to deal with Chris Thomas’ crossover dribble.
And Matt Carroll’s jump shot is so sweet, it’s the leading cause of tooth decay in opponents.
But if Notre Dame is going to do anything in the NCAA tournament–yes, it’s OK to start talking about it now–the Irish are going to need every bit of Torin Francis’ ability and potential and 6 feet 10 inches.
You hate to put that much pressure on a freshman, but there it is. How does it feel, kid?
“We can’t just live on the perimeter,” Francis said, shrugging.
He’s right. He knows it, Notre Dame knows it and any opposing coach worth his marker and clipboard knows it. Everyone received a nice reminder of that Sunday when Francis hit the game-winning layup against No. 4 Pittsburgh.
His basket gave Notre Dame a 66-64 victory, bailed out Thomas from being frozen in midair with no options left and helped erase the memory of a 17-point embarrassment to the Panthers in early January. Other than that, it was just an ordinary left-handed layup with 0.6 seconds left on the clock.
The fact of the matter is that freshmen are rarely allowed to be freshmen anymore, not when so many of them expect to head for the NBA sooner rather than later. More and more, “sooner” means right after high school.
So everyone on this team knows that however far the Irish go this season will depend on a skinny, athletic center. OK, a skinny, athletic center who was the McDonald’s National High School Player of the Year last season. But a skinny 19-year-old nonetheless.
“He’s a guy who can change the game,” Thomas said. “When he’s rolling like that, he’s going to take his game and build his confidence to a new level. And I don’t think there’s a person who can stop him.”
“He’s blessed,” Carroll said. “He has the body and the God-given ability. He has what it takes. He has all the tools. It’s a matter of him putting it together. He’s getting it.”
Francis didn’t get it in the first half Sunday when he reprised his recurring role of the Disappearing Freshman. He had no points and three rebounds while the Panthers were on their way to winning the battle of the boards 24-10. It looked a lot like the way he’d played in Notre Dame’s 72-55 loss to Pitt on Jan. 6.
Ontario Lett, the Panthers’ 6-6, 265-pound Charles Barkley impersonator, hit 8-of-9 shots and scored 20 points in that first game. Sunday, he went 1-of-7 from the floor and scored four points. He tried to use his considerable rear end to move Francis out of the way, but it didn’t work.
After that slow start, Francis finished with seven points and five rebounds. There were still times when he held on to the ball too long in the post, still times he looked like a freshman, but not as often. By tournament time, Notre Dame hopes the freshman will have been exorcised right out of him.
“He’s a guy who can have a horrible first half and then a great second half,” coach Mike Brey said. “Young guys don’t do that a lot of times. If they don’t get off to a good start, they don’t think it’s their night.”
This kid is different, special. The No. 10 Irish are 19-4 and about to move up a notch or two in the polls. They have done it with great outside shooting and pretty stuff from Thomas. That won’t cut it in the tournament. They need Francis, who is not so wide-eyed anymore.
“He’s kind of been my little brother,” Carroll said. “I took him under my wing. We were lifting partners [in the weight room] all summer long. I’ve been so excited seeing him progress. He’s going to get better and better. He’s going to have a wonderful career.”
That’s the rub, of course. Can the meaningful part of the career start now? How fast can Notre Dame speed up the final product?
Carroll is a wonderful scorer, but Pitt showed Sunday that by paying attention defensively to him to the point of distraction, he can mostly be shut down. He went the last 17 minutes Sunday without scoring.
This is where Francis needs to enter and, to a lesser extent, 6-11 junior Tom Timmermans.
“Hitting the game-winning shot–everybody dreams of that,” Francis said.
He dreams of it, and his team dreams of him doing it in an NCAA regional. It’s not so far-fetched anymore.
