NEW YORK – There isn’t anyone playing better than Notre Dame right now. If the fact that they had only lost once since mid-January doesn’t convince you, then perhaps their 89-51 dismantling of Cincinnati in the quarterfinals of the Big East Tournament will.
Notre Dame won’t leap out at you with big-time talent. There’s a reason many are surprised by how good this team has been, and it isn’t just that they lost the program’s all-time leading scorer in Luke Harangody and a key leader in point guard Tory Jackson. In the past, they’ve had plenty coming back, but this year that didn’t appear to be the case. But this team is much more than just the sum of its individual parts, and while it’s a cliché, it rings so true with this team that it bears mentioning.
The way this team does it is with the teamwork of a group of experienced, skilled, intelligent and tough players. It’s a great example of how intangibles make all the difference.
“I think everybody on offense just knows how to play,” said senior Tim Abromaitis. “Everybody is a good passer, everybody can dribble it, handle it, rebound it, so on any given night it can come from anybody. That makes us a dangerous team.”
There’s certainly a high basketball I.Q. on this team, and it spreads throughout the team. They don’t force things that aren’t there, they prepare well, and they come to play 40 minutes.
“I think it’s a matter of how you prepare, and I think this group has prepared tremendously all year,” said Big East Player of the Year Ben Hansbrough. “You can look at it either one or two ways, a bunch of young guys would look at it that maybe we don’t prepare the best but we prepared ourselves mentally and take our mental preparation to the next level and we did that through practice.”
Notre Dame shot over 56 percent from the field on Thursday. That’s the 12th time this season they have shot over 50 percent and it ties a season high, as they had the same percentage at Providence late in the season. It was also the 14th time they had at least four double-digit scorers, and they have won every one of those games. For good measure, they turn the ball over less than 11 times per game.
It’s easy to look at the offense, especially with the way they put up 89 on Cincinnati on Thursday night and made 20 three-pointers against Villanova in the next-to-last game of the regular season. But this is a team whose defense is underrated, and it’s part of their identity. This is a fiery squad, one which Hansbrough likes to highlight the intensity with.
“The intensity is the best I’ve ever been around,” said the senior guard. “In practice, it’s almost unacceptable to be scored on one-on-one. We’re just upping our defensive intensity.”
Cincinnati shot below 33 percent from the field on Thursday night, including under 27 percent in the second half. Opponents are shooting about 41 percent from the field against the Fighting Irish on the season.
Most of all, head coach Mike Brey trusts this veteran group. He seems to manage them like a low-maintenance team, and that’s exactly how they come off. Their focus is a big reason this team just seems to get better all the time, even in a conference like this where there are lots of obstacles. There’s also a consistency of message – talk to a few players on this team, and you get very similar responses.
“We feel good, but we’re not comfortable,” said senior Carleton Scott. “You have to keep working and keep focused on that goal that we came into the season with. Everybody is looking at each other every day with that same mentality.”
There has been talk of the Fighting Irish as a strong candidate for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. If they win the Big East Tournament, they would have to be right in the mix for one. Even if they don’t, they should still be in that discussion, although they won’t have quite as good a case. But they don’t have to do anything more after Thursday night to show that no one is playing better than they are right now.
