Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM MARCH 2024 81 MEN'S BASKETBALL filling up the seats, knowing that they still believe in us," Burton said. "Know- ing that we're still a super young team and we're still learning, it feels good today." The South Bend crowd wasn't just re- warded with a win. It was rewarded with some pretty darn good basketball. No one is going to mistake Virginia Tech for an NCAA Tournament team, but it's not a bottom-feeder by any stretch. Partic- ularly in the first half, it seemed like the Hokies couldn't miss. They went 6-of- 11 (54.5 percent) from 3-point range and shot 57.7 percent from the field before the break. Notre Dame, during that time, kept pace. The Irish moved the ball and pro- tected it, finishing with 14 assists and an almost unfathomably low 8 turnovers. They truly let everybody eat, as all nine participants made at least 1 field goal and six players scored at least 7 points. Full-team, high-quality hooping de- fined the first half, and Notre Dame added terrific defense and outright voo- doo from Burton in the second. Burton's offensive masterpiece was a layup in the third minute of the first half, when he spun around one defender and evaded another one mid-air before tossing the ball off the backboard and into the basket. But his best play might have come at the other end of the court. After sophomore forward Tae Davis turned it over late in the game, Virginia Tech junior guard Sean Pedulla tried to run the length of the floor for a quick bucket. But as he went up for a layup, Burton somehow snatched the ball from his hands and threw it to fellow fresh- man guard Logan Imes before falling out of bounds. "We want to keep getting better," Shrewsberry said. "I get to see them ev- ery day, so I know that they're making steps. Now, to get a win on top of that makes it even more special. Because I see how hard they're working." It looked like the Irish might let the game slip away from them as the first half wound down, while they went on an all-too-familiar five-minute scor- ing drought and the Hokies rattled off 11 unanswered points in just over two minutes. But Notre Dame responded, scoring a quick 5 points before the break and throwing a haymaker after they came out of the locker room, turning a 9-point deficit into a 5-point lead. Virginia Tech's run represented ad- versity in a game that came on the heels of so much of it over the past month. "It's really hard to show up, especially when you're losing, things aren't going right and you're right there," sopho- more forward Kebba Njie said. "But I think that was also motivating, that we were right there. That was a motivating factor in us showing up as well." Njie scored 11 points, his season high and his first time breaking double dig- its since Dec. 30 against Virginia. He fought through contact to will the ball into the basket and finish an and-1 with 2:16 to play, putting the crowd on its feet and all but sending the Hokies home. "We're fighters," Njie said. "I think that's who we are as people. We never give up." HOW THE IRISH GOT TO THAT POINT During Notre Dame's seven-game losing streak, Irish fans often found themselves thinking they'd seen this film before. And they didn't like the ending. Shrewsberry used a different pop- cultural reference to describe the fourth loss in the string, a 61-58 home defeat to Boston College on Jan. 27. "I don't pretend to know much, but I think Groundhog Day is in February," Shrewsberry said. "But for us, Ground- hog Day has been every single time we've had a game." Shrewsberry was, of course, referring to the 1993 classic movie by that name. Bill Murray, playing a TV meteorologist, lives the exact same day over and over and over again. Each game during the streak had its own unique twists and turns, but the result was always the same. The Irish would lose a low-scoring battle, bring- ing intense effort on defense but floun- dering in multiple ways on offense. The most frustrating part for Shrews- berry was that each loss stemmed from many of the same miscues as the one prior. As of Feb. 11, Notre Dame ranked — among all Division I teams — No. 300 in turnovers per game, No. 344 in fast- break points and No. 346 in the nation in scoring offense. No high-major team is worse than the Irish at scoring or scoring on the run. "We can't get tired of teaching until we get it," Shrewsberry said. "That's my plan. Just gonna teach it until we get it right. So, if it takes time away from game preparation to just do fundamen- tals, we're gonna keep doing it until you build habits. "Sometimes you've got to break hab- its to build habits. We've just got to keep breaking habits until we build them." With seven games remaining in the regular season, Notre Dame hopes it can build on its performance against Vir- ginia Tech and give itself confidence en- tering Year 2 of the Shrewsberry era. ✦ 2023-24 NOTRE DAME MEN'S BASKETBALL SCHEDULE Date Opponent (TV) Time/Result Nov. 6 Niagara W, 70-63 Nov. 11 Western Carolina L, 71-61 Nov. 16 vs. Auburn# L, 83-59 Nov. 17 vs. Oklahoma State# W, 66-64 (OT) Nov. 22 Maryland Eastern Shore W, 75-55 Nov. 28 at South Carolina% L, 65-53 Dec. 2 at Miami* L, 62-49 Dec. 5 Western Michigan W, 86-65 Dec. 9 at Marquette L, 78-59 Dec. 16 Georgetown L, 72-68 (OT) Dec. 19 The Citadel L, 65-45 Dec. 22 Marist W, 60-56 Dec. 30 Virginia* W, 76-54 Jan. 3 NC State* L, 54-52 Jan. 6 Duke* L, 67-59 Jan. 9 at Georgia Tech* W, 75-68 (OT) Jan. 13 Florida State* L, 67-58 Jan. 15 at Boston College* L, 63-59 Jan. 24 Miami* L, 73-61 Jan. 27 Boston College* L, 61-58 Jan. 31 at Virginia* L, 65-53 Feb. 3 at Pitt* L, 70-60 Feb. 7 at Duke* (ACCN) L, 71-53 Feb. 10 Virginia Tech* W, 74-66 Feb. 14 Georgia Tech* (ACCN) 7 p.m. Feb. 21 at Louisville* (ESPN/2/U) 7 p.m. Feb. 24 at Syracuse* (ESPN/2) 12 p.m. Feb. 27 Wake Forest (ACCN) 9 p.m. Mar. 2 Clemson* (CW) 7:45 p.m. Mar. 5 at North Carolina* (ACCN) 7 p.m. Mar. 9 at Virginia Tech* (ESPNEWS) 2 p.m. Mar. 12-16 ACC Tournament$ TBA # Legend's Classic at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.; * ACC game; % ACC/SEC Challenge; $ at Washington, D.C.