NOTRE DAME, Ind. - Resurgent, resilient…resounding. However you want to describe the Notre Dame men’s basketball team, they found a way to win a fourth straight game by pulling away from No. 15 Marquette 76-59 on Saturday at Purcell Pavilion at the Joyce Center.
This team that many left for dead after a Dec. 17 loss to Indiana added another crucial win to its NCAA Tournament resume while improving to 15-8 overall and an amazing 7-3 in Big East Conference play.
“I tell you one thing, we got one heck of a strong resume,” Brey said proudly after the game. “Our resume is very strong with what we’ve done.”
“You know, and it’s exciting to think about…that that’s possible for this team after where we were, but I think our guys are very focused on showing-up on selection Sunday. God bless ‘em they should be, because they have put us in this position with their kind of focus and businesslike approach to go get it.”
That resume now includes five wins over ranked opponents this season, with three of those victories coming during the current four-game winning streak. Four of the wins (Louisville, UConn, Syracuse, and Marquette) have come in less than a month. The fifth of the wins vs. a ranked team came in ND’s Big East opener against Pittsburgh on Dec. 27.
Counting on Connaughton
With Saturday’s victory, Notre Dame improved to 7-0 in games in which Pat Connaughton has started this season. The freshman was inserted into the starting lineup in the win over then No. 1 Syracuse and has started in each of the games during the current four-game win streak.
The freshman had his best overall game to date on Saturday, registering his first career double-double with game-highs of 23 points and 11 rebounds. He matched his career-high with three assists and also blocked a career-best two shots, both in the first half.
“He was grown-up when he got here,” Brey said when asked if Connaughton has grown-up over the course of the season. “Watching him that July when we offered him and got in on him late, there was a fearlessness and a belief that he should just be really ready. “
Connaughton came strong out of the gate this season with 24 points in just his third career game against Sam Houston State back on Nov. 16, but he struggled to find that same consistency after that and entered Saturday’s game averaging 6.2 points a game. Despite that, the freshman never lost his mojo.
“I never lost confidence,” Connaughton said after the win. “It was just a matter of sticking with it.”
The two-sport athlete, who will pitch for Mik Aoki’s Fighting Irish baseball team this spring, used a baseball analogy that he and Brey have discussed previously.
“When you’re on the mound you’re by yourself,” Connaughton said. “If you can’t throw a strike that’s a demoralizing feeling. And so, here it was just a matter of because I have that experience in my back pocket I knew it’s just keep working, keep working, keep working. That’s what I did, so now we’re back on track.”
Connaughton is the first ND true freshman to register a double-double since Luke Harangody did it on March 8, 2007 in a Big East Tournament game against Syracuse.
He was held scoreless with five rebounds vs. Seton Hall on Jan. 25, but Connaughton had solid numbers since joining the starting lineup. He had an eight point and five rebound performance against UConn and preceded that with seven points and seven boards in last week’s upset of No. 1 Syracuse before elevating his game another notch against Marquette.
Jack Cooley, Eric Atkins, Scott Martin, and Jerian Grant have started alongside Connaughton over the last four games.
Doing It With Defense
The 59 points the Irish allowed to the Golden Eagles was just slightly above the 58.2 a game average they had in Big East play prior to Saturday. Notre Dame is now allowing a Big East best 58.3 points through its first 10 conference games this season.
The number is even better, at 51.7 points a game during the current four-game streak. Brey singled-out a pair of his players for their efforts against Marquette.
“I thought the defensive job that Scott Martin did on (Jae) Crowder and Jerian Grant did on (Darius Johnson)- Odom was fabulous,” he said. “They never really were able to explode.”
Crowder averages 16.0 points, but managed just four on 2 of 7 shooting in the loss. Johnson-Odom leads Marquette at 18.0 a game, but was limited to a team-high 12 after shooting 5 for 11 from the field on Saturday.
As far as Grant is concerned, “Help” is the key to the Irish “D”.
“To know that you can defend your own guy and know that somebody behind you is going to help you out,” Grant said of his team’s selfless defensive play. “Jack’s (Cooley) even starting to block shots now and take charges too, so to know that when you get beat you have help behind you so you can just go help your guy that’s helping you. That’s basically what it is.”
The Irish held Marquette to just 39 percent on 25 of 64 shooting from the field. The Golden Eagles also entered the game as the top three-point shooting in the Big East at just under 35 percent, but shot an abysmal 2 for 13 (16 percent) from behind the arc on Saturday.
Filling-up The Rim
Despite its three straight wins entering Saturday’s game, the Irish had not been shooting well of late. Notre Dame hit at just 36 and 35 percent clips from the field, respectively, in its most recent wins over UConn and Seton Hall.
It looked early on like that trend might continue, with the Fighting Irish hitting just five of their first 17 shots – a lowly 29 percent clip. After an Alex Dragicevich basket at the 12:48 mark of the first half, ND went 0 for 4 from the field, going scoreless until a Scott Martin lay-up with 8:18 to play before the intermission.
Martin’s basket started a run of four straight Irish field goals in a 90 second span which included back-to-back buckets (the second one a 3-pointer) by Pat Connaughton. It also sparked an 8 for 13 finish to the first half and a 23 for 42 finish from the field in the game.
“Today we really shot it well,” Brey said of his team’s 28 for 56 shooting. “I hope we’re getting into that territory shooting the basketball. We’re a better shooting team than our numbers have said, and maybe this can jumpstart us shooting it more confidently from behind the arc.”
Behind the arc is where Notre Dame really excelled, going 11 for 23 from long range, including 8 of 13 in the second half.
It’s just the fourth time this season the Irish have hit double-digit treys in a game. It is also the first time ND has made 10 or more three pointers in a Big East game this season.
Connaughton was 5 of 8 from long distance, while Atkins was 3 for 4.
The Marquette Series
Saturday’s game marked the 116th all-time meeting between Notre Dame and Marquette. The Irish are now 80-36 against the Golden Eagles in the series. Eleven of those games have come since MU joined the Big East in 2005, with ND now winning just five times.
Notre Dame and Marquette split their two games last year, with the Irish winning 80-75 at home on Jan. 22, 2011. That win, coupled with Saturday’s victory, gives the Irish their first two-game winning streak over the Golden Eagles since they joined the Big East.
The win also snapped Marquette’s seven-game overall and Big East Conference winning streak.
A Familiar Face
Former Notre Dame offensive lineman, Larry Williams, was named the Athletic Director at Marquette on Dec. 5 and was at Saturday’s game at Purcell Pavilion at the Joyce Center.
Williams had held the same position at the University of Portland since 2004. He worked in the Notre Dame athletic department and on local radio before that.
Williams earned All-American honors at Notre Dame and was a 10th round pick of the Cleveland Browns in the 1985 draft.
