I watched the game except for the last 3 minutes (had to leave). ND played them even up. The difference IMO was twofold: 1) There were too many uncontested shots we didn't finish; 2) We didn't have an answer for the Buckeyes' Thornton. I don't understand the unhappiness with Burton, but I consider the source - NDN, a collection of "fans" many of whom are reasonable and smart, like Terry, but the most vocal of whom show a lack of understanding of the game and a willingness to display their ignorance in print. Burton played a good game as the point guard. He just didn't score as much. He got the ball to his teammates who showed balanced scoring. This is a more talented group of players than ND has had in a long while, still not up to the highest level of competition but more competitive than we've had in the recent past. I'll enjoy watching them play this season.
It was a really good game. I thought both teams played really hard. Pretty evenly matched. Occasional cold shooting by both teams as well as some really nice plays and shots. Stretches of great defense both ways. If there was any difference, to me it was the home crowd...and that almost wasn't enough. Oh, and maybe free throw accuracy seemed to be a disparity...I didn't see the final stats.
Bottom line is it was a close loss on the road. After a loss you can always find things to be critical of, the key is for this Irish team to learn and grow from it. If there is a legitimate criticism of Markus Burton is that he often gets himself into positions where he'd be better served to pass the ball but instead he tries very high degree of difficulty shots. That was the criticism of him in the closing minute. He's a Jr and has played as a starter from his freshman year so it's not like he's still learning to play in college. Hopefully we can win enough to get into the top half of the ACC and get a NCAA bid. That's about all that is a reasonable expectation for this team.