Notre Dame is on a winning streak and riding some long-lost confidence.
A 73-59 disposal of Miami Sunday night featured engaged defense, outrebounding an opponent and sound shot selection. All good signs and reversals of problem areas.
Notre Dame also has a grip of the larger picture.
The Irish’s record is still 5-8. They’re ranked No. 78 at KenPom. Yes, Mike Brey’s risqué choice to bench his starters for the opening minutes sent a message, but to have the season arrive a point where that’s a needed move with a group of upperclassmen is a dose of unpleasant reality.
“We still have a lot of basketball to play and only have two wins in the league,” said guard Prentiss Hubb.
Two wins over injury-plagued ACC bottomfeeders won’t be confused with an arrival. There’s still a 27-game losing streak against ranked opponents hanging over the program’s head, one that it has a chance to snap Wednesday night when it hosts No. 20 Virginia Tech (7 p.m. ET, Regional Sports Networks).
With the exception of a Dec. 8 five-point loss against Ohio State, Notre Dame hasn’t provided much resistance the six previous times it faced a top-25 team this season. The Hokies (11-3, 5-2 ACC) shoved Notre Dame aside in the second half of a 77-63 win in Blacksburg Jan. 10, putting up 42 points and holding Notre Dame to a measly 2-for-19 shooting in the final 20 minutes.
Knocking off two teams headed nowhere isn’t erasing the memory of all that. It’s better than the alternative, though, and Notre Dame heads into this one feeling like it has a chance. KenPom even gives the Irish a 45 percent shot at winning.
“I feel like we took a step in the right direction,” Hubb said. “Most games we came out strong, took a lead in the first half and we somehow would lose that lead, and it would start a spiral effect. Our intensity in the locker room at halftime, we talk about it enough, but we have to actually go do it.”
In South Florida, the Irish did. Notre Dame grabbed an eight-point halftime lead at Miami and pushed it to 19. When the Hurricanes surged back to within seven, Notre Dame landed a return punch by breaking their press for three straight layups. The script in a Jan. 16 win over Boston College was similar. Both were the opposite of the last time out against Virginia Tech, when a seven-point lead at intermission disappeared barely four minutes into the second half.
In that putrid stretch, Notre Dame couldn’t make a shot. Couldn’t generate many good shots. Couldn’t get stops or get rebounds. Same thing happened in the first 25 minutes at Virginia three days later. The next week-and-a-half of practices were spent soul searching and trying to inject some urgency, particularly on defense. The Irish found some, to a degree. Neither Boston College or Miami averaged more than 1.0 point per possession.
“We’ve been after our guys about better defensive stances,” Brey said. “We got into this thing called stop-score. [At Miami], we got 17 stop-scores. It’s a new analytic we’re messing around with in practice and something we have to keep using as a teaching point.”
Added Hubb: “We just have to go in and play confident like these last two games we’ve played. It starts from the defensive end. We have to play more downhill and not on our toes, not walking the ball up and we have to pressure the ball a lot.”
Virginia Tech will be without one of its starters, guard Tyrece Radford, due to an indefinite suspension. He’s a frequent opponent nuisance on both ends and was for Notre Dame last time, providing four offensive rebounds, sturdy on-ball defense in the pick-and-roll and a few strong dribble drives.
“He’s a heck of a player and that’s a big loss,” Brey said.
No. 20 Virginia Tech (11-3, 5-2 ACC) at Notre Dame (5-8, 2-5)
When: Wednesday, Jan. 27 at 7 p.m. ET
Where: Purcell Pavilion
TV: Regional Sports Networks
Radio: Notre Dame basketball radio network
Series history: Notre Dame leads 9-5
Last meeting: Virginia Tech won 77-63 on Jan. 10 in Blacksburg, Va.
Line: Push
KenPom prediction: Virginia Tech 72, Notre Dame 71
• Virginia Tech’s computer rankings are much lower than its AP poll number. KenPom ranks the Hokies 45th, the NCAA’s NET metric has them 49th and Bart Torvik’s T-Rank puts them at No. 56.
• After two straight games with at least nine assists, Hubb leads the ACC with 6.29 assists per contest. His 20.6 percent turnover rate is nearly identical to last year’s 20.4.
• Notre Dame leading scorer Nate Laszewski had 17 points and was 11-for-12 from the foul line against Virginia Tech earlier this year, but took only one three-pointer. Virginia Tech’s switching on all screens and ability to keep Notre Dame from running eliminated his two sources of open threes: pick-and-pops and in transition.
“It reminded me of what Florida State has done to use and to others with their athletic ball pressure and switching everything,” Brey said.
• Virginia Tech has been less three-point reliant this year. It led the ACC in conference-game three-point volume a year ago, but is eighth in percentage of shots taken from deep in league play this year. The Hokies are 14th in the ACC in three-point accuracy in conference play, at 31.4 percent. They’re second, though, in free throw rate.
• Radford was averaging 11.1 points and 6.2 rebounds per game, which both rank second on the team. Elsewhere, he averaged 2.1 assists and shot 53.7 percent from the field.
• Forward Keve Aluma leads Virginia Tech in scoring (13.9 ppg), rebounding (7.1 rpg) and blocks (1.3 bpg).
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