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The Morning After: Still Reveling In Notre Dame’s Upset Of Duke

By Nicholas D. Blazek

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It was hard to sleep last night. I was that excited about Notre Dame playing in the ACC Championship game against North Carolina tonight. Even more excited that the Irish beat Duke–which most predicted they didn’t really have a chance–for the second time this season.

I’ll admit that after the 30-point thrashing at Cameron Indoor, I was slightly nervous. And even after great early execution by the Irish, scoring inside on a team that they should have done so against so easily? I was still nervous. I quickly recalled how excited I was at the end of the first half against Miami the night before. And hadn’t forgotten that it’s Duke.

But even as the second half wore on, and the Blue Devils chipped away at the once 13-point lead–Mike Brey and his Irish never looked worried. Maybe after the night before they were more prepared. But they just never seemed to panic. I can’t say the same for myself. My position on the couch shifted every possession. But with a Brey coached team, you seem to always hear one word to describe them.

Veteran.

Clearly that can be attributed to the seniors, or guys that have been in the system that have seen a large quantity of minutes. But I don’t think that the poise they showed comes from being seniors or veterans, it comes from Brey himself.

There’s been a knock on Brey since he’s been at Notre Dame. He can’t win in the tournament. Conference or NCAA. In six tries in the Big East, the Irish never got to Saturday’s Championship. Now, a year removed from being the first team out, they’ll get the chance to play for the ACC title.

And they did it by beating the historically best team in the ACC tournament, and will need to beat the second best to win it.

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Mike Krzyzewski is one of the greatest, if not the greatest coaches in NCAA history. Many have coached underneath him, eventually moving on to take head coaching positions of their own. Brey of course one of them. Not only is he the only one to have beaten Coach K, last night’s win pulled him to an even 3-3 against the winningest coach in Division I history.

As a coach, fan, student or otherwise of Notre Dame–the Irish playing in tonight’s ACC title game is something to be proud of.