Court Vision: No. 11 Notre Dame plays Tobacco Road spoiler, takes ACC crown
GREENSBORO, N.C. -- In front of a virtual home crowd, No. 11 Notre Dame (29-5), the ACC tournament's No. 3 overall seed, dispatched No. 19 North Carolina (24-11) by a 90-82 final in a game that didn't feel that close, mostly because of a dominating second-half run by the Irish to take over the game.
Notre Dame now has its first conference tournament title in school history, and this particular iteration of the Irish might be set to make some more history, too.
Three-Point Take
1. Irish are far from perfect, but are very tough-minded -- and ready to take the next step
For all of Notre Dame's basketball history -- and it does have some, by the way, even if it's not as illustrious as football -- the Irish have never really won anything of consequence. They claim two Helms Foundation national championships (in 1927 and 1936), but Digger Phelps (1971-91) built something special when the Irish made the Sweet 16 in seven of eight years from 1974-81.
Since then, though, Notre Dame has made it out of the first weekend of the NCAA tournament just twice (1987 and 2003). The Irish have never won a conference tournament, no matter what league they're in, and they've lost their first round NCAA tournament game in three of the last four tourneys they've played in so far, in spite of being, more often than not, the better seed.
Notre Dame is always the team that has had its regular-season exploits dismissed, because of that lack of postseason success. Even this year, as the Irish have continuously proven themselves to be a resilient bunch, the doubters remained. Bring the Irish up to college hoops aficionados, and they'll say, "Don't fall for it. They'll hurt you."
Except maybe they won't.
This Notre Dame team has dug itself out of all kinds of deficits, and withstood all kinds of rallies, both at home and away. But what it has done on the road has been particularly impressive, going 7-2 in true road games and 9-2 in games that could be reasonably dubbed road games -- including back-to-back wins over Duke and North Carolina in the opponents' home state.
Five of those nine wins came against NCAA tournament teams, and four against Top-25 teams.
Notre Dame's offense is as beautiful as advertised. It moves the ball well, hasimpeccable spacing and create all sorts of mismatch issues with a lack of size, which it makes up for at times on the other end with a combination of strategy and hustle. Pat Connaughton, a 6-foot-5 senior playing the four-spot, is a matchup nightmare for most teams, and he was in this game as he had 20 points. But he also hits the boards hard and plays with savvy and grit.
The Irish defense isn't great, of course. But when they hit shots like they do and can move the ball the way they do, it's hard for almost any opponent in the country to defend it. And they make just enough plays on defense. They doubled down in the post quickly, not letting North Carolina exploit its size advantage down low in the second half as much as they had in the first. They're smart, they're tough, and they've just found a way this season.
With 9:58 to go, North Carolina led 63-54 and the Greensboro Coliseum was at full throat. Notre Dame went on a 17-1 run in the span of just 3:38. The initial spurt was 13 points in 2:06, leaving a stunned North Carolina crowd sitting in silence. At one point, they scored 11 points in 1:08.
"I really didn't know what happened. I (saw) us down seven or nine, and I looked at the scoreboard and next thing you know we were up three," Notre Dame's Jerian Grant said. "It was kind of a blur. But when we get into the zone like that, there is really no stopping us."
"They had great spacing. We were a split second late, split second late every time, and we got there. Then we we were a little more than a split second late and they made the shot," North Carolina head coach Roy Williams said of playing Notre Dame's offense.
And so yes, the Irish are dangerous. History just might not matter in this case, as much as people think it should.
2. North Carolina's younger players hit a bit of a wall
The Tar Heels did something in getting to the title game that they hadn't been able to do all year -- string together consistent, solid performances against very good opponents. Whether it was mental or physical, they just didn't have enough left in the tank for a 40-minute game against the Irish.
Notre Dame deserves the credit for the way they played. But North Carolina reverted to some of its bad habits late in games, too.
"It wasn't anything about being tired from playing four days. That was not a factor in the game. That would just be an excuse," Williams said. "We panicked a little bit more than we have at any time this year, and their defense got stronger with every basket and our movement got worse."
All of that made a difference, of course. But the real difference between the Virginia game and the Notre Dame game was the play of the freshmen and sophomores, particularly freshman Justin Jackson, who had a career-high 22 against the Cavaliers but managed just seven points on 3-of-12 shooting (0-of-7 from three).
Jackson didn't make shots early, and it seemed to affect him the rest of the game. Freshman point guard Joel Berry hit a few big shots, but could not keep Notre Dame's guards in front of him and made some mistakes late. Sophomore Isaiah Hicks had nine points, but three turnovers, and sophomore guard Nate Britt had no points on 0-of-5 shooting.
Marcus Paige is as healthy as he's been, and he finished with 24 points after a bit of a slow start. Junior Brice Johnson had 20 points on 10-of-12 shooting. No one else finished in double digits and ultimately that was the difference.
There are still positives this team can build on, though, and those two big wins over Louisville and Virginia were something they can point to as references to their toughness as they enter the postseason.
"People probably counted us out at the beginning of the tournament. They didn't think we'd make it this far," Johnson said. "We really showed a lot of toughness and a lot of heart being able to go four days in a row and being able to get to the championship. We were the fifth seed, and people were probably looking past us when Louisville was up 10, and they said Louisville is probably going to beat them. But we showed a lot of toughness to come back and win that game."
"Yesterday, people probably looked past us just because it's Virginia. They're the No. 3 team in the country, and we showed a lot of toughness. You can't say we didn't show toughness because, I mean, we beat two top-10 teams in two days, and we should've beaten another one, but they made a lot more plays than we did today."
"I think we've grown int he four days that we've been here," Williams said. "I think we've shown some toughness during those four days.
"Sometimes...you've got to give the other team some credit. I mean, yes, we turned it over six times in 4:45, but Notre Dame had to make some plays, too. I think that is the one thing that gets lost. It's not just about what we did that was bad or what we failed to do."
3. A new-look ACC is upon us
North Carolina and Duke are both thought of as the premier teams in the league, and with good reason. For the most part, they've owned it.
But neither North Carolina nor Duke has won the ACC tournament since 2011. The two teams combined have just one regular-season title since 2012 (North Carolina), and four different teams have won the tourney (Florida State in 2012, Miami in 2013, Virginia in 2014 and now Notre Dame in 2015).
From 2005-11, either Duke or North Carolina won it, and both still hold most of the titles From 1997-2011, just one team that is not named North Carolina or Duke won the ACC. But the new kids on the block are starting to take over.
"It does feel different, but it's a new conference. I'm the oldest guy in here. ... When there were eight teams, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Duke, Wake, Clemson, Virginia, all that kind of stuff, that's not the landscape we have right now," Williams said.
"I think it's exciting. What we have is the most unbelievable regular season I've ever been involved with; not even close any other time. The marathon, I referred to it, and then I said it's a marathon running 26 miles uphill, because it was really a bear. But it is different to say Notre Dame won the ACC champsionihtp. I think it's just a change in culture."
Connaughton said before the game that he understood the big chance to beat both.
"I think growing up Duke and North Carolina are two premier programs, not only ACC but in the country," Steve Vasturia said. "So anytime you beat them it's big. But we came in with a lot of confidence in this tournament beating both of those teams during the regular season. With the leaders we have and the way we've been playing all year, we came in here with a certain confidence and we've played with an edge just like the coaches have been talking about.
"So, yeah, we knew it was big to beat these guys, but I think we came in here with the confidence and ready to attack that opportunity."
It may not be a full changing of the guard, yet. After all, neither Florida State nor Miami has been able to maintain that success (Virginia has been closest) after playing spoiler to the powers that be.
But Notre Dame will certainly enjoy it for now.
"To win a championship in this league, it does mean a lot. Personally, I'm really proud. I had a Lefty Driesell flashback, though, and maybe some of you old timers will remember this: Going through Duke and Carolina and what we've done on Tobacco Road this year, I remember Lefty when he won it, he said, "I'm going to bolt the trophy to the hood of my car and drive all over Tobacco Road.'
"So if you see a Buick Enclave in June with this trophy going from Asheville to Wilmington, that's me. That's me going through there."
Stats That Matter
6 to 14. That was Notre Dame's ACC win improvement in the regular season from the 2013-14 season to the 2014-15 season, the biggest improvement in ACC history. And the Irish lost in the first round of the ACC tournament last year to Wake Forest, only to go 3-0 in this year's event against two of the top teams in the league.
24. That was the number of three-pointers North Carolina attempted against the smaller Irish -- a season-high.
Straight Talk
"I mean, the landscape of college athletics. We've got Colorado in the Pac 10, we've got Notre Dame in the ACC. That's Atlantic Coast. Damn Atlantic Coast is a lot more prevalent out there nowadays than it used to be, but that's just what it is."
-- Williams (jokingly) on weird conference geography
"When you lose 17 games (in 2013-14), I didn't put a non league schedule together thinking, well, I want to get a 2 seed instead of a 3 seed. I'm hoping and praying and lighting candles at the Grotto to be an 11 seed in freaking Dayton, so I could care less. We needed to get confident, and we did get confident with it."
-- Brey on Notre Dame's out-of-conference schedule
