When head coach Mike Brey and his Notre Dame players talk about taking games “one at a time,” it’s become more figurative than cliché.
On Thursday night, the Fighting Irish were involved in a school-record sixth one-point outcome this year with a dramatic 62-61 victory at Boston College when senior guard T.J. Gibbs, on a sharp look and feed from sophomore Prentiss Hubb, converted a short floater with 0.1 seconds remaining.
Nine days earlier at home, sophomore forward Nate Laszewski drilled a three-point jumper on a perfect pass from fifth-year senior guard Rex Pflueger, following his offensive rebound, with 2.2 seconds remaining to cap a 77-76 victory in which Notre Dame trailed by 15 points with just more than eight minutes remaining in the contest.
Both outcomes were one month early from the “survive and advance” theme that occurs in the NCAA Tournament, which the Fighting Irish are attempting to reach for the first time in three years.
A loss in either of those contests would have all but clinched Notre Dame needing to win the ACC Tournament in order to be invited to The Big Dance.
With three regular-season games remaining — at Wake Forest on Saturday, versus No. 6 Florida State at home March 4 and then hosting Virginia Tech March 7 — a Notre Dame outfit that is now 18-10 overall and 9-8 in the ACC while tied for fifth place in the 15-team league has upgraded its fortunes from “critical” to “serious” in medical terms when it comes to receiving an NCAA Tournament bid.
A loss to either the Tar Heels or Eagles likely would have removed it from the basketball life support.
Those two conquests also evened out one-point verdicts this year at 3-3 — and a best-of-seven outcome in another one-point outcome this year, one way or another, could determine its fate.
Chronologically, the previous four one-point results were:
Dec. 7: Lost 73-72 to Boston College
Jan. 4: Won 88-87 at Syracuse
Jan. 25: Lost 85-84 at Florida State, resulting in a $20,000 fine for Brey after he called out the officiating while his squad fell to 2-6 in the league.
Feb. 11: Lost 50-49 in overtime at Virginia.
Thursday’s win at BC broke the previous single-season school record of five one-point outcomes first set in 1922-23 and then tied by Brey’s 2004-05 team.
The first came under head coach Walter Halas, brother of longtime Chicago Bears head coach and owner George Halas, who is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The Irish were 2-3 and finished 10-12 overall that season.
In 2004-05, Notre Dame was 3-2 in one-point outcomes during a disappointing 17-12 season (9-7 in the Big East before losing to Rutgers in the opening round of the Big East Tournament) with record-setting guard Chris Thomas.
Overall in his 20 seasons at Notre Dame, we have Brey at 21-17 (.553 percentage) in one-point outcomes, meaning that prior to this year he averaged about 1.4 such games per season.
One-on-one action is taking on a new meaning this year for Brey and Co.
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