Notre Dame head coach Mike Brey started monitoring the weather Monday night both in South Bend and out east in Newark, N.J., and he didn’t appreciate what he saw coming to either locale.
So he put his staff and team on alert, ditched the original plans to travel Wednesday evening for its Thursday game with Seton Hall, and chartered a flight early Tuesday afternoon to beat the winter storm. With Newark International Airport expected to become bottlenecked through Wednesday, Brey didn’t want to risk having to travel on game day. The Irish may not make it back, but at least they’ll get there.
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Jackson scored nine points in the final seven minutes to help the Irish past Cincinnati Sunday afternoon.
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“We gotta get outta here. Let’s get there,” Brey said shortly before boarding the bus for the airport in South Bend. “Traveling on game day is dicey. You have a chance probably to try and improve your focus instead of worrying about, ‘Are we getting there tomorrow afternoon?’ ”
The players were given a waver (basically and excused absence) for missing some classes on Tuesday and Wednesday, and senior guard Tory Jackson sarcastically admitted to feeling deeply depressed because of missing a computer class. But Brey and the Irish believe the early arrival in New Jersey will better prepare them for an important road test on Thursday at the Prudential Center.
“I think that will help us out,” Jackson said. “It gets us there to develop that mentality that we have here, to practice there the way we practice here. Usually when we go there, it’s only like a light shoot around. To get there a day early, practice tonight, practice tomorrow. It’s great for us.”
This will be the second time this season the Irish have had an extended stay on a road trip, and the results from the first worked out very well.
Notre Dame arrived early for a Tuesday game against South Florida on Jan. 5 and left Tampa with a 74-73 win, one of only three Big East road wins for the Irish in the last two seasons (at Depaul and at Providence last season).
“You got a little more time in the hotel but you can watch some film, you can do some things,” Brey said. “I think sometimes you can really get focused pretty good when you’re away and it’s your group.”
As a transfer from Mississippi State and the SEC, senior guard Ben Hansbrough hasn’t had to deal with many snow delays during his playing career. But he did share a story about a time at Mississippi State when he missed the front end of a one-on-one that sent the game to overtime. And during the overtime period, a tornado hit the area.
“I probably saved thousands of lives,” Hansbrough said of sending the game to overtime and keeping the fans inside and in their seats. “That’s why I always say I missed that free throw.”
“Kobe” Jackson
Jackson did his best impression of Los Angeles Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant during Notre Dame’s 65-62 home win over South Florida on Sunday, he even said so.
With his teammates struggling to hit any shots, Jackson took the game over and scored 14 of his season-high 18 points in the second half, including nine in the last seven minutes to help Notre Dame to the comeback win.
“Tory figured, the last seven minutes, ‘I've gotta win the game for us,’ ” Brey said after the game. “He's just one physically and mentally tough guy who just pulled us along and made us believe.”
But Jackson warned not to expect the Kobe Show every night. It’s not his preferred style.
“I don’t want to make it seem like I’m Kobe now just because I scored,” Jackson said. “I’m going to be the same person that is out there dishin’ and keeping everybody happy. It just seemed the other day my team needed me to do that in order for us to pull out a win.”
The “180 Club”
Tim Abromaitis is in some pretty exclusive territory for a basketball player at any level. The 180 Club is reserved for players who excel making shots from the field, from three-point range and from the foul line.
By adding the percentages from all three shooting percentages, players that reach 180 are in some elite territory.
With an overall shooting percentage of 53 percent, a three-point percentage of 47 percent, and a free throw percentage of 87 percent, Ambromaitis stands at 187, and is actually flirting with the 190 Club.
“He’s an amazingly efficient basketball player. What benefits him is, there is a little bit of the perfect storm of who he plays with,” Brey said. “He plays with two of the best passing guards in the country, and they find him. And he also plays with a great player in Harangody that everybody is looking for. But to his credit, he has found a way to play off of them and spot up so it has come together pretty good.”
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