Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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UNDER THE DOME UConn and 2-1 versus Duke during those respective years) — but they don't hang banners in Purcell Pavilion for such feats. Brey's stellar achievements always were followed by a "yeah, but …" as in: "Yeah … but those other top three Big East coaches won league titles and national titles." "Yeah … but Brey was only 10‑13 (.435) in the Big East Tournament and never reached the final." "Yeah, Mike Brey was Big East Coach of The Year three times (and National Coach of the Year once) … but he is 6‑9 in the NCAA Tournament — when it counts." Brey was like the overachieving col- lege student who in an advanced course posted a B+ or A- average through the first 16 weeks of the 17-week semester — and then, despite intense study, fin- ished with a D in the heavily weighted final exam, thereby bringing down the overall grade. And it wasn't just about devastating first-round exits to No. 11 seeds Win- throp (2007) and Old Dominion (2010), plus No. 10 seeds Xavier (2012) and Iowa State (2013), but also the second- round collapse to No. 10 seed Florida State (2011) when the Fighting Irish were No. 5 in the country. Time and again, the Irish found a way to wrest de- feat from the jaws of victory in NCAA Tournament outings, including losing to No. 1 seed Duke in 2002 after holding a 71-64 lead with 6:24 left, or unbeaten and No. 1 Kentucky rallying in the clos- ing minute of last year's Elite Eight. Yet over the last two seasons, karma and the law of averages have helped the Fighting Irish achieve a March mojo never achieved in the program's his- tory: • In 2015 and 2016, Notre Dame is the lone men's program in the country to advance to the Elite Eight in both years. • In 2015, Notre Dame won the ACC Tournament — possibly the program's greatest achievement in its modern-day history (post-World War II). • For the first time since it began accepting NCAA Tournament bids in 1953, Notre Dame won three straight games in the tournament in consecu- tive years. • The six NCAA Tournament victo- ries are the most ever over a two-year span, eclipsing the 1978 Final Four unit that won three and the 1979 edition that posted two. Those two teams were replete with future NBA stars such as Kelly Tripucka, Orlando Woolridge, Bill Laimbeer and Bill Hanzlik, among oth- ers. • After winning only six NCAA Tour- nament games his first 14 seasons at Notre Dame, Brey has won that same amount in the last two. He is 4-1 the last two years in the ACC Tournament (two of the wins coming against Duke) and 6-2 in the NCAA Tournament. And in a 360-degree turn, Notre Dame routinely is now snatching vic- tory from the jaws of defeat. • Four times from Feb. 6 on, it ral- lied from double-digit, second-half defi- cits (versus North Carolina, Louisville, Duke and Michigan) to win games. • In its last 12 overtime contests, the Irish are an amazing 11-1, including an OT win in round two last year versus