The Notre Dame basketball team is trying to build up all the goodwill that the football team lost this fall.
The No. 24 Fighting Irish picked up a 77-70 victory against No. 9 Louisville on Wednesday night, moving to 2-0 on the young Atlantic Coast Conference season.
It seems impossible that Rick Pitino, one of the best coaches in college basketball history, has never won at Notre Dame. 0-7 (0-1 with UK)
— Tim O'Malley (@timomalleyND) January 5, 2017
This win came three days after Steve Vasturia’s late 3-pointer in overtime knocked off Pittsburgh in the ACC opener.
Vasturia was the star again on Wednesday, scoring a career-high 24 points to beat Rick Pitino and the Irish.
With Coach K out at Duke for awhile, the ACC suddenly seems a little more winnable than usual. At 2-0, coach Mike Brey’s team joins Florida State as the only teams still unbeaten in the 15-team ACC, if you can believe that.
The Irish have a chance once again do something Illinois teams have failed to do, and that’s to make noise in the NCAA Tournament.
It’s a team that’s easy to like, and is doing the things you need to do to win tight basketball games in March.
https://twitter.com/DeanHuppertWSBT/status/816873614515597312
With experienced players like Vasturia, Matt Farrell, Bonzie Colson and V.J. Beachem, it has the makings of one of Brey’s best teams, and he’s been a pretty underrated coach, reaching the Elite 8 in each of the last two seasons and the NCAAs in eight of the last 10.
Maybe this is his year to take it even further.
With football season done and gone in these parts, here’s a local team you should be following.