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This Is How Notre Dame Dances (All Over Michigan)

By Joshua Vowles

Mar 18, 2016; Brooklyn, NY, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish players celebrate on the bench against the Michigan Wolverines in the second half in the first round of the 2016 NCAA Tournament at Barclays Center. Mandatory Credit: Anthony Gruppuso-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 18, 2016; Brooklyn, NY, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish players celebrate on the bench against the Michigan Wolverines in the second half in the first round of the 2016 NCAA Tournament at Barclays Center. Mandatory Credit: Anthony Gruppuso-USA TODAY Sports /
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Notre Dame has a special team this year, and dancing on Michigan’s grave was just spectacular.

The 2015-2016 Notre Dame basketball team may not be as talented or as good as the 2014-2015 version, but they still have a chance this year to top what that team did in the NCAA Tournament last year.

How is that possible? For starters, this team has been living on the edge for most of the season. Epic comebacks and toppling big time programs have been more of the norm than an anomaly. Which is why the first half against Michigan was so extremely frustrating and disappointing.

For all of the good things that Notre Dame had done this season, it’s hard to forget those horrible losses to both Florida State and Miami at the end of the season and the loss to North Carolina in the ACC Tournament.

In fact… that’s EXACTLY how this game against Michigan looked and felt. It was a carbon copy of the North Carolina game- LAST SECOND FIRST HALF SCORE BY THE BAD GUYS AND ALL. Seriously, it was difficult to imagine Notre Dame finding a way to come back and win this one with so much momentum riding on the side of Michigan.

But then- but then… it happened. Notre Dame played tougher and Mike Brey made the right adjustments at halftime to crawl its way back to tie the game and then on a huge 3 from VJ Beachem, the Fighting Irish took their first lead of the night.

From that point on, it was a slugfest and Notre Dame swung harder and hit Michigan right in the face. Notre Dame won (again) despite the odds and proved itself to be a major factor in the tournament moving forward.

Up next for the Irish is S.F. Austin after they upset the West Virginia Mountaineers in the game prior to the Notre Dame / Michigan matchup. While most analysts predicted an Irish loss to West Virginia in the second round, the tale takes a much different turn indeed, as Notre Dame looks to go back to the Sweet Sixteen for the second year in a row.

Notre Dame is dancing- and why not? They found their comeback juice once again and have a chance to prove the doubters wrong again by advancing. This team is much different than last year, but they stay in the game. This is what they do, but failed to do in the past few weeks. They got their groove back as odd and twisted as that is.

Notre Dame is dancing, and Michigan is done. It was a good night.