Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/114977
can get to double-digit wins in this league ��� and we played an ���A��� schedule, we played a tougher schedule ��� I���m thrilled. When Scott Martin went down and we were 3���3 [Big East], I didn���t know if that was actually possible. I wondered if we could get to the NIT.��� Senior forward Jack Cooley led a class that registered a school-record 48 conference victories, and this season marked the final year for the program in the Big East. There was a thrashing of then-No. 8 Kentucky during nonconference play and a five-overtime thriller over Louisville when junior guard Jerian Grant did everything but walk on water in the final minute of regulation, scoring 12 points to erase an eight-point deficit and electrify Purcell Pavilion. Unknown frontcourt commodities Tom Knight and Garrick Sherman shined at times, picking up the slack left from Martin���s absence. Freshman forwards Cameron Biedscheid and Zach Auguste showed signs of rapid development, and junior point guard Eric Atkins mixed in moments of perfection throughout an overall solid year. The midseason reinvention kept Notre Dame in contention for a regularseason title, and though that pursuit came up short, a No. 6 seed in New York City isn���t all that bad. Last year���s No. 6 seed, Louisville, ripped through the Big East Tournament on its way to a Final Four appearance. ���We have been to the semifinals three out of the past four years, but we never make it to Saturday night,��� Brey said. ���I would love to see our program make it to Saturday night before we head to Tobacco Road.��� Notre Dame Bids Big East Adieu The handwriting was on the wall, and Notre Dame head coach Mike Brey began mentally preparing himself for a change of scenery after 13 years. The league that he said helped form his coaching identity finally fractured in two. Big East Conference commissioner Mike Aresco announced March�� 8 the league reached an agreement with the seven basketball-centric Catholic schools scheduled to go their separate ways. The ���Catholic 7��� (Georgetown, DePaul, Providence, Seton Hall, St. John���s, Villanova and Marquette) will add schools and begin competition under the Big East name July�� 1. The current Big East will fill the voids and carry on under a new moniker. Louisville, Rutgers, Connecticut, Cincinnati, South Florida, Temple, Houston, Memphis, Central Florida and SMU will comprise the league next season. Tulane and East Carolina are expected to join in 2014, and Navy���s football team will drop anchor with the alliance in 2015. Louisville and Rutgers are bolting for the ACC and Big Ten, respectively, after next season, and Tulsa is a leading candidate to replenish the league as a 12th team in 2014 or 2015. ���I am pleased that this agreement has been reached,��� Aresco said. ���With the long-term well-being of our outstanding institutions and their studentathletes of paramount importance, each group worked through a number of complex issues in an orderly, compre-