Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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defeat to UConn and struggled in a 65-58 loss to Rutgers. The 3-3 Irish had four days to regroup before un- defeated and top-ranked Syracuse came to South Bend. And by the time Cooley (17 points and 10 rebounds) was done beating on the undefeated Orange on Jan. 21, the Irish had sent shockwaves around the college bas- ketball world in a stunning 67-58 upset. "I can't even describe this right Notre Dame hit the road after the DOWN GOES NO. 1 now," Cooley said. "They were 20-0. I can't put it to words how amaz- ing this is. We came out with energy. This was a great opportunity and we didn't want to squander it." Notre Dame improved to 12-8 over- newly bulletproof show on the road as well. Beginning with the upset over the Orange, Notre Dame rattled off nine consecutive league victories — a program record. But it was the next game after Syra- cuse that changed Brey's expecta- tions. Notre Dame visited a talented Seton Hall team on Jan. 25 with everyone watching to see how the Irish would respond after one of the biggest wins in its history. A 55-42 victory helped send ND on a higher trajectory. "We talked on Monday and Tues- all and 4-3 in the Big East with its 10th all-time victory against a top- ranked team. Eight of the victories had come against the No. 1 team in the Associated Press poll, which is the ranking the NCAA uses to recognize wins over No. 1 teams. The eight wins are tied for fourth nationally. It was Notre Dame's first win over a No. 1 since topping North Carolina, 60-58, on Feb. 1, 1987 inside Purcell Pavil- ion. The nine-point margin of victory was Notre Dame's second largest ever against a top-ranked team. Notre Dame never trailed and had day if we could be mature enough and be hungry and focused after the huge win on Saturday against Syra- cuse," Brey said. "Most teams might have been given a pass after a win like that, but for this team to be ma- ture enough to get a win like this makes me proud. "In some ways this game is bigger padded its cushion to as many as 18 points with 1:28 left in the first half. Notre Dame shot 50.0 percent (8 of 16) from behind the three-point line and held a 38-25 rebounding ad- vantage over the Orange. Connaughton, in his first career Big East start, nailed a pair of three- pointers early in the game to give ND an 11-2 lead. He'd start every game from that point on. "It was amazing," said Connaugh- to No. 20 in the AP poll and No. 18 in the coaches poll, capped its nine- game spree with a 71-44 thumping of West Virginia in South Bend. It was the ninth time in Brey's 12-year than Saturday [versus Syracuse] be- cause we handled a great win so well mentally and turned around and beat a really good team on the road. I told our team: 'If you get this one, I think you're showing signs of possibly be- ing special,' and they delivered." Notre Dame, which had climbed 10 double-doubles up to that point and averaged 19.2 points and 12.6 rebounds over the last five games of the streak. Grant had reached dou- ble-figures in all nine games. Stal- wart sophomore point guard Eric Atkins scored 10 or more points in seven of those contests. Square Garden in New York City a little over two weeks before it would head to the Big Apple for the league championship. It wasn't a fruitful trip to NYC after falling to lowly St. John's, 61-58, on Feb. 25. Two days later the Irish dropped a 59-41 deci- sion at surging Georgetown, ranked 11th nationally at the time. A home victory over Providence pushed the Irish to 21-10 overall and 13-5 in the Big East, which locked up third place in the regular-season race and a dou- ble bye in the league tourney. A 57-53 overtime win against Notre Dame got a taste of Madison THE BIG EAST TOURNEY BACKING INTO South Florida in the quarterfinals set up a semifinal rematch with Louis- ville, which rallied last season from a double-digit deficit to prevent Notre Dame from reaching its first Big East title game. This time around, the Cardinals were in full control and cruised to a 64-50 win en route to a conference championship. Losers of four of its last six, Notre ton, who was hoisted on friends' shoulders and paraded around Pur- cell Pavilion after fans rushed the floor. "I've never been a part of any- thing like this. You see it all growing up when No. 1's get knocked off. We wanted to experience that today. One of my best friends hoisted me up and found me right away. It was an unbe- lievable moment seeing Eric [Atkins] hoisted up there as well. It was great to accomplish that." spoke, well, it wasn't just for the home crowd. The Irish took their www.BLUEANDGOLD.com That new streak of which Brey A RACE TO THE FINISH Head coach Mike Brey led the Irish to their sixth straight 20-win season, tying the school record achieved both from 1976-81 and from 1984-89 under Richard "Digger" Phelps. PHOTO BY JOE RAYMOND tenure the Irish had reached 20 victo- ries. The team's four road wins dur- ing that stretch were the most since the 2000-01 season, Brey's first year, when Notre Dame captured five straight away from Purcell. Cooley had produced a team-best Dame slipped to a No. 7 seed in the NCAA Tournament, where No. 10 seed Xavier ended the year for the overachieving Irish, 67-63, in Greens- boro, N.C. Irish fans will remember a critical turnover by Atkins and a costly lane violation by Grant in the closing 32 seconds, but it was an im- pressive run for a squad that wasn't expected to make the NIT field when Abromaitis went down. "That's just a tough one for us," said Brey, who fell to 6-8 in the NCAA Tournament while at Notre Dame. "I'm so proud of our group. We battled and gave ourselves a chance to win. It was a great basket- ball game. It's a tough one for us be- cause we felt we were in pretty good position to close it out." ✦ APRIL 2012 49