Notre Dame Hoops Thrives On The Road
Mike Brey’s 20th-ranked Irish keep getting tested, put in uncomfortable spots in Atlantic Coast Conference road environments.
So far, so good.
Notre Dame is 3-0 on the road in ACC play, while the rest of the league — considered to be the toughest in the country — is a combined 8-25 in conference road games.
The Irish (16-2, 5-0 in the ACC) sit alone in first place in the league, but face perhaps their toughest test of the season Wednesday, traveling to Tallahassee, Fla., to take on ninth-ranked Florida State (16-2, 4-1).
The Seminoles dropped their first league game this past Saturday, losing on the road at North Carolina 96-83. The loss knocked Florida State out of a first-place tie with the Irish.
The latest win on the road came this past Saturday at Virginia Tech. The Irish blew a 19-point first-half lead and trailed in the final minutes before rallying once again.
“They’re really good and we know how good they are in this building,” Brey said of the Hokies. “They made a run and I love how we answered. That’s three road games where we’ve finished. We really believe that we can win close games. It’s a great psychological advantage for us right now.”
Since the 2014-15 season, the Irish have a 14-7 record on the road in ACC play.
A big part of that has been how Notre Dame’s guards have played. From Jerian Grant and Demetrius Jackson on past teams to the team’s current backcourt heroes — senior Steve Vasturia and junior Matt Farrell — the Irish have the right guys handling the ball in crunch time.
Brey acknowledged that fact once again Saturday.
“There’s no question that a Farrell and Vasturia set a great toughness tone for us at the end of games,” Brey said.
And Vasturia and his teammates have embraced the challenge of going on the road.
"This three-game trip is obviously going to a pretty tough test," Vasturia said prior to last week's Miami game. "...Obviously half our games are going to be on the road and we're going to have to win there just as well as we have (at home). We got some experience at Pittsburgh, and they're all going to be hostile environments. It's good that we get a couple on the road here at the beginning and we can see what we're made of on somebody else's floor."
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