Marcus Paige Under Pressure? ND beats UNC 71-70

Marcus Paige had four chances to beat Notre Dame last night as the North Carolina Tar Heels fell to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish 71-70 at home. This continues a season for Paige where he is ten points lower on his foul shot percentage and eight points lower on his field goal percentage. Is it time to ask whether the pressure is getting to him.

I say that because we made (and that was mostly me) a big deal about Paige’s more modest personality at the beginning of the season and how Coach Roy Williams had tried to unleash more confidence into Paige last season. That seemed to have worked, but the load of leadership of last year’s team was not really on his shoulders. At least not the way it is this season.

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Several things are hitting Paige at once here. One, teams now focus their defensive efforts on him. This has shifted more playmaking responsibility on either JP Tokoto or the other point guard. Tokoto has led the team in assists this season, but he also commits more turnovers. Teams will generally settle for that. No is really scared of Tokoto’s three point shot, and teams know that Nate Britt and Joel Berry are not true threats yet.

That kind of defense means that Paige is getting fewer looks and therefore has to hit the shots he does get. It is also possible that he may rush his shots in order to get a shot at all. That would be hard enough. Now add the idea that if you do not make it, the team will fail. That will wear on a person.

Despite all these things, I think that letting Paige have the final shot in the Notre Dame game was the right call. It would probably be the right call even if he was in a bigger slump than this. If anyone can work through it, it is Marcus Paige.