Notre Dame Hoops: Irish Look To Stand Strong vs. Virginia

We’ve seen how tough this season has been for Notre Dame. Currently 3-8 in the ACC and 13-11 overall, this isn’t what Mike Brey or anyone else expected.

Even after winning two of the last three games, Notre Dame has lacked a sense of pride. The wins included a lot of ugly basketball and left many questions still unanswered.

John Mooney’s double-double streak came to an end at Miami, yet started right back up against Georgia Tech the next time out. Temple Gibbs finally took over a game while scoring 20-points vs. the Yellow Jackets. Yet, the guard still shot 38 percent.

Juwan Durham, back from injury, scored eight points vs. Miami in 12 minutes. In the games before and after that, he failed to record a point.

You just can’t quite put your finger on this team.

Despite all the heartache that has come with this ACC season, there’s been a reason to believe that so much could have gone differently.

From the Syracuse game Jan. 5th, to the Georgia Tech game Jan. 22nd, all four losses the Irish suffered were within ten points, many of which simply slipped out of the young team’s hands in the final minutes.

And then there was the Virginia game.

For the first time up to that point of the season, it had never been so clear that the Irish were outmatched. We all saw it, even the players.

Notre Dame looked beat. The confidence just wasn’t there that day and a 25-point first half showed it. Kyle Guy had 15 first-half points and De’Andre Hunter led all scorers with 19-points.

That day the Cavaliers had five double-digit scorers – the Irish had one.

Notre Dame needed it to be a low scoring affair, but had no answer on the defensive end. While the second half provided a little more competition, it was nothing to hang their hats on.

One positive about this Irish team right now is also one of their weaknesses – how young they are.

It’s been clear that in some instances they don’t know how to win. They’ve been right there but failed to get over the hump. Now with a couple of wins over the last few games, who knows how that’s affected their confidence?

A little hope can go a long way. And if anything has been proven over the last couple of weeks, it’s that Virginia is beatable. Of course, only Duke has accomplished this, but not one game for the Cavaliers has been decided by more than ten points since they last played the Irish.

North Carolina State fell by one point in overtime while Miami and North Carolina both made their games interesting.

Anything can happen in the ACC and with Notre Dame trending even slightly in the right direction, there’s a chance they could pull off the upset.

This time the Irish will travel to Virginia for the 2 PM ET tipoff on Saturday.