Tom NoieSouth Bend Tribune
SOUTH BEND —Don’t tell Notre Dame men’s basketball freshman guard Markus Burton that an early February home game for a team that probably isn’t going anywhere much past early March didn’t matter.
You didn’t see him standing there just over halfcourt as the final seconds ticked away, the basketball tucked in his left arm while he pumped his right fist once, twice, three times like the Irish had locked down a high seed in the NCAA tournament.
Shrews Views: Notre Dame men's basketball coach Micah Shrewsberry talks staying confident amid losing streak
Don’t tell the Notre Dame fan base that there had to be better ways to spend a Saturday night in early February than watching an Irish team flirt with basketball futility that hadn’t been seen on that campus since 1966, since before that arena was built.
You weren’t part of a spirited group of 7,394 that threatened at times in the second half to break the Purcell Pavilion scoreboard noise meter because when the Irish needed that one extra push to get them over a finish line that they hadn’t crossed in over a month, the home crowd pushed.
Noie: An eventful day with Heritage Hills forward Trent Sisley, one of the premier prep juniors in Indiana
Don’t tell the Irish that their first win since January 9 doesn’t mean anything other than they managed for at least one night to stay out of sole possession of last place in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
You didn’t hear the music pumping from the other side of the white cinder-block walls of the Notre Dame locker room after this one went final. You didn’t get to see what head coach Micah Shrewsberry saw – all those faces staring back at him with something he hadn’t seen in seemingly forever.
Smiles. There were fist pumps and chest bumps. There were high fives and hugs. There was happiness. After all that ACC misery, it was Mardi Gras.
“They deserve every bit of it, man,” said Shrewsberry, who’s been admittedly hard on his guys through this stretch. “I show up because of them. That’s cool for me to see and how excited that they are for each other is all that matters.”
No, this one won’t much matter in the biggest of basketball pictures this season for Notre Dame (8-16; 3-10), but that the Irish snapped a seven-game losing streak and won for the first time in 32 days, that they won on their homecourt in league play for the first time since December 30, at this point, for this program, that means something.
For the immediate future, it means that all the believing and competing and coming back in trying to be better after another tough league loss can pay off. Shrewsberry said it himself, standing there on the Purcell Pavilion floor the previous afternoon. Said it as if he was part coach, part soothsayer.
“They just keep showing up because you don’t know when success is coming,” Shrewsberry said Friday. “If you keep going, you keep pressing, you keep pushing on, like, when is success coming for you? Don’t know, but if I keep showing up, there’s a chance it’s coming. If I quit, there’s zero chance that it’s coming.”
These Irish weren’t going to quit. Their head coach wouldn’t let them. They wouldn’t let them. Guess what? Here comes some success. A sliver of it, but these guys have to start somewhere, right?
“It means a lot,” Burton said. “Us showing up every single day, busting our butts in practice, getting yelled at, working hard, just to get the winning feeling, today we showed the fans we kept fighting and we’re still here.”
Success arrived just after 8 on Saturday night with the 74-66 victory over a Virginia Tech squad that had owned Notre Dame. The Hokies had won six straight dating back to 2021. Nobody on the Irish roster had experienced what it was like to beat Virginia Tech.
Now they all do.
“We’re fighters,” said sophom*ore power forward Kebba Njie who’s had to fight through a ton during this streak. “We never give up. We’re going to keep showing up every single day. That’s our motto this year.”
Here's an ACC win, now go and grab it
They keep competing (we’re going to wear all the tread off that word this season). They keep battling. They keep playing and believing that what happened Saturday would happen. It was hard. It often was miserable picking up the pieces with loss after loss after loss. It happened Saturday not because Notre Dame wanted it to happen. You can want for wins all you want in the ACC.
It happened for Notre Dame because Notre Dame went and took this one. It trailed by as many as nine in the first half and by four at halftime. The Irish then did something they’d done too few times — they hit the other team with a sledgehammer run (9-0) to start the second half. That four-point deficit flipped to a five-point lead barely three minutes into the final 20. Virginia Tech was going to make a run because Virginia Tech is too old and inexperienced and talented to not make a run.
That run came, and the Irish, unlike previous league games, had a counter. Several. Three times over the final 16 minutes, Virginia Tech pulled even. Tie game. Anyone’s game. All three times, the Irish looked down the barrel of a possible eighth-consecutive loss for the first time in decades and collectively said to themselves, said to the Hokies, said to the energized audience, nope, not tonight. It’s not happening again.
“Just the composure that they showed,” Shrewsberry said. “Everybody came in and did really big things for us. We needed every bit of it. For us to withstand a run was some resiliency that this team has shown.”
Notre Dame found ways to stop Virginia Tech runs by sharing the basketball (14 assists), by taking care of the basketball (eight turnovers), by scoring the basketball (the Irish finished a point shy of a league season high), by finishing plays, by finishing the game.
“Our work is starting to show,” Njie said.
With 8:13 remaining, it was 53-51 Irish, which meant that it was there for anyone to take it. Notre Dame took it with a corner 3 from Logan Imes with 7:24 remaining. It was never a one-possession game the rest of the way.
That’s growth, That’s determination. That’s showing up and competing (there it is again) and believing and in the end, winning.
“We just kept fighting and kept digging,” Njie said, who puts his shovel to use daily.
It also helps to have Burton, among the most gifted young guards in the conference. Maybe, the country. He finished with a team-high 16 points, tied his career high with eight assists and set a career high with six steals. When special was needed, Burton was special.
“Coach Shrews is really big on defense,” Burton said. “Coming out of high school, I wasn’t really a defender like that because the teams we played in high school weren’t like that.”
Like what? Maybe ... good?
Burton was beyond good Saturday. Only two players in program history had previously gone for at least 16 points, at least eight assists and at least six steals in a game since 1996-97 – Jerian Grant and Chris Thomas. That’s some serious select guard company.
Saturday, it was more than just Burton. Everyone Shrewsberry called on delivered in some way. Maybe it was defending and rebounding. Maybe it was taking care of the ball and making shots. Maybe it was making late free throws. This wasn’t just Burton. This was Njie and Braeden Shrewsberry. This was Imes and Carey Booth. This was Tae Davis and J.R. Konieczny. This was Julian Roper and Matt Zona – ZONA! - offering something to the cause.
For one night, for one program, college basketball mattered. You could see it from the players. You could feel it in their building. They’re not ready to let all that go so soon.
Go and be greedy.
Follow South Bend Tribune and NDInsider columnist Tom Noie on X (formerly Twitter): @tnoieNDI. Contact: (574) 235-6153.
∎ NOTRE DAME 74, VIRGINIA TECH 66
At Purcell Pavilion
VIRGINIA TECH (66): Beran 3-6 1-2 8, Kidd 1-3 0-0 2, Cattoor 7-16 0-0 18, Collins 1-6 0-0 2, Pedulla 4-12 4-5 13, Nickel 3-5 1-1 9, Poteat 6-8 2-3 14, Rechsteiner 0-1 0-0 0, Young 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 25-57 8-11 66.
NOTRE DAME (74): Booth 3-5 2-2 8, Davis 1-4 1-2 3, Njie 4-7 3-3 11, Burton 6-18 4-4 16, Shrewsberry 4-7 0-0 12, Roper 3-4 0-2 7, Imes 2-2 3-4 8, Konieczny 2-5 0-0 4, Zona 2-3 0-0 5. Totals 27-55 13-17 74.
Halftime: Virginia Tech 39-35. 3-Point Goals: Virginia Tech 8-24 (Cattoor 4-11, Nickel 2-4, Beran 1-2, Pedulla 1-2, Rechsteiner 0-1, Collins 0-4), Notre Dame 7-20 (Shrewsberry 4-6, Imes 1-1, Roper 1-2, Zona 1-2, Booth 0-2, Konieczny 0-2, Burton 0-5). Rebounds: Virginia Tech 27 (Beran 13), Notre Dame 31 (Njie 6). Assists: Virginia Tech 13 (Collins 5), Notre Dame 14 (Burton 8). Total Fouls: Virginia Tech 16, Notre Dame 14. A: 7,394 (9,149).
