In my sports fan life, the list of miraculous in-season turnarounds I've been privileged enough to witness as a fan of the team involved is incredibly short.The 2004-05 Chicago Bulls started 0-9 before finishing the year winning 45 of their last 73 games, making the playoffs for the first time in 7 years.
The 2007 Chicago Cubs were as many as 8.5 games behind Milwaukee in late June before a 5-run comeback, capped by a walk-off Aramis Ramirez home run, propelled the team to the best 15-month stretch I've ever had in my sports-fan life, as the team ripped off the best record in baseball the rest of that season to win the division and the best record in baseball the following season to win another division. Typical of the Cubs (and for that matter all of my teams in important games), they failed to win a playoff game either time, but that's not the point.
Well, add the 2009-10 Notre Dame Fighting Irish to that list. And, incredibly, it all began with their best player (and one of their top 5 players ever) being injured - proving, again, the Ewing Theory perfected by Bill Simmons reader Dave Cirilli. This theory follows around players whose teams 'inexplicably' play better when they are injured or unavailable - but there are usually good reasons why. In Harangody's case, the injury forced Carleton Scott into the lineup full-time, forced Jack Cooley into Scott's spot as the 7th guy in the rotation, and made ND more athletic, bigger and better on defense. In addition, Mike Brey decided to go Princeton on us, slowing down ND's pace rather than trying to outrun people. It's a move that coach Mike Brey claims was in the works prior to Gody's injury, but because of the injury made ND a team that had more energy at the end of games.
It started with the Irish at 6-5 in the Big East going into the Seton Hall game. To that point, ND had been relatively disappointing, showing flashes of brilliance (an incredible 1st half that propelled them to a key win over West Virginia early in Big East season, for instance), but for the most part seemed, just like the 08-09 model, to be playing below their talent level. Stupid losses to Cincinnati (horrible FT shooting by a usually-good free throw shooting team) and Rutgers (RUTGERS?) had ND fans scratching their heads and wondering if it was OK to call for Mike Brey's ouster just two years after a 14-4 Big East season.
Naturally (because bad things just happen to the Irish hoopsters without explanation), Jeremy Hazell chose that game to shoot out his ass, making at least four wild off-balance three-pointers and scoring, I believe, 35 points on 20 shot attempts or something insane. The Pirates not only won, but their arena was the site of Luke Harangody's deep knee bone bruise when he landed wrong attempting to get a rebound. The injury would keep him out the next five games.
It looked like ND was screwed regarding its latent NCAA hopes. Even more so when the team managed to lose at home to St. John's, thanks to a horrid game from Tory Jackson, to fall to 6-7 in the league. Without Luke, the five games that remained - @Louisville, Pittsburgh, @Georgetown, UConn, @Marquette - looked like a gauntlet. The team needed 4-1 to even consider a tournament bid, it appeared. And 1-4 (or 0-5) looked a hell of a lot more likely.
Instead, Notre Dame did something neither I nor any other close observers thought possible - they toughened up on defense, they slowed down their pace, and they didn't miss a beat whatsoever. In fact, the Irish got better. A lot better.
I confess to having skipped both the Louisville and Pittsburgh games. They conflicted with what I thought were more important Ball State home games. Both teams would go on to make me look silly for feeling that way, but anyway. Herewith, a game by game recap of the team that (appears to have) changed everything.
Game 1: ND loses to Louisville in double OT
ND went on to fight their butts off against Louisville, losing only because 1) Ben Hansbrough missed 4 free throws at the end of regulation and 2) Samardo Samuels was allowed way too much latitude, resulting in every ND big man fouling out of the game. (This info is gleaned from the ND board I frequent, so take it with whatever sodium substitute you choose.) So many Irish fouled out that we were left with four people who were no taller than 6'2" in the game towards the end of double OT. The game sadly ended when ND failed to get a shot off on their final possession, stepping out of bounds. At this point the Irish were 6-8 in the league and were essentially out of tournament consideration. Only sweeping their final four games would even broach the attention of the selection committee - ND's nonconference schedule, as it has always been the last few years, was too weak for ND to be considered at 9-9.
Game 2: ND blows out Pittsburgh at home
Again, I skipped this game. Although impressed by the Irish's gutty performance against Louisville, I prioritized Ball State's game against Eastern Michigan - Senior Night - above this one. Pitt came in as the hottest team in the league and I assumed a beatdown was forthcoming for my Irish.
Instead, the Irish blasted Pitt. The final was 68-53, but 15 was about as close as Pitt had come the entire second half. The Irish physically dominated Pitt (a sentence that I never thought I'd write about a basketball game). Four Irish scored in double figures, and ND outrebounded Pitt by nine. It was a command performance by Notre Dame, but for the time being, it seemed to serve as little else but a reminder that these Irish should have been a lot better than they were. After all, ND still had two road games left against top-notch Big East competition, and they had to this point won exactly once at an opposing team's venue.
Game 3: ND handles Georgetown in Washington, DC
Georgetown played the toughest schedule in the league this year, their RPI is in the top 15, and as a big, tough team, they are a matchup nightmare for Notre Dame, a team that makes a living out of being quicker and getting open shots. This would seem impossible for ND against a bigger team. Austin Freeman was sporadic and ineffective - we would later find out he had diabetes - but this seemed like a minor stumbling block.
Notre Dame shot 57 percent from the floor and blocked 7 shots. I sat for much of the game in a state of shock. This was a Notre Dame team that was unlike any team the Irish had turned in since I had begun following them at the turn of the century. Carleton Scott was, quite simply, the best player on the floor, scoring 21, blocking 3 shots, absorbing a blatant cheap shot from Greg Monroe of Georgetown, and playing beyond his experience level. ND had 12 offensive rebounds. Georgetown had 12 defensive rebounds. Ben Hansbrough fought off the only serious Hoya threat late in the game by canning a 3. Suddenly, Notre Dame had two winnable games left (in fans' eyes), and a tourney bid was, impossibly, in our sights.
Game 4: ND earns revenge on UConn
UConn can be described using the old adage 'million dollar talent, ten-cent heads'. UConn is a talented team. UConn plays like a "bunch of retards trying to hump a doorknob out there", to quote Patches O'Houlihan. UConn chucked 14 3's, many long after it became obvious it wasn't going to work (they only made three). ND, of course, was 3/15 themselves, but they fought their butts off. Although UConn was so much bigger than the Irish that ND couldn't have a rebounding advantage, the Irish managed to keep UConn's advantage to 1.
Carleton Scott, so much a non-factor early in the season that he actually quit the team for a time (he missed the WVU game), had another double-double, with 12 and 14. And Tory Jackson, quite possibly the most unappreciated player in Notre Dame history, had 22 points in his final home game. Jackson has led the Big East in assists 3 times in his 4 years in South Bend. He has received all-Big East mention zero times. How is this? You tell me.
Game 5: ND pulls off a heart-stopping win at Marquette
I must confess something: At no point in this game did I think Notre Dame was going to win. At no point whatsoever. I wasn't comfortable with the way the game was going, Lazar Hayward is a ninny who always seems to save his best performances for us, Luke Harangody was back (which against all odds was not something I was looking forward to, considering the last two weeks), and Maurice Acker, who transferred from Ball State, is precisely the kind of player who would haunt Notre Dame. Acker already had by randomly lighting us up for 11 points in the 2nd half of Marquette's Big East tourney win over ND in 2008 that probably knocked the Irish down a seed line (or two).
ND couldn't shoot - again - so they were reduced to scrapping - again. Gody played but a few minutes, scoring 5 points and generally trying not to mess up his new team's flow. (I have to say, I admire the way Gody has handled all of this. It would be easy for a guy like him to get selfish after 3 straight years of carrying ND on his back, but when it was announced this weekend that he will continue to come off the bench the rest of the year, he was more than happy to do it. He knows that he has a chance to reinvent his legacy somewhat here at ND, and helping the Irish to a Sweet 16 bid - even not as the focal point - would simply add to his legend. Gotta love him.)
Tim Abromaitis hasn't been able to shoot in weeks, but showing why I love him so much, he powered his way to 18 points anyway. Tyrone Nash quietly had 13 and 9. The Irish outrebounded a bigger, faster, more athletic Golden Eagles team by TWELVE. Still, I doubted, doubted and continued to doubt, right up until the last four seconds, where, with ND down three and Marquette unbelievably refusing to foul despite plenty of opportunities, this happened.
The Carleton Scott 3 might end up going right in there with the Aramis Ramirez walk-off homer in 2007 and the Ben Gordon running floater at the buzzer to beat the Knicks in 2005 as moments that changed everything for me as a fan for quite some time. I've watched the clip of Jack Nolan losing his mind at least 15 times and I will watch it at least 30 more. From that moment, I knew ND was going to win, and sure enough, they did.
ND's now 10-8 in the Big East and pretty much a shoo-in for the NCAA tournament, barring some very surprising occurrences in Championship Week. It's an in-season turnaround that defied all description. And for once, it happened to my team.
Go Irish, and watch out, you 6/7 seed types that may end up drawing Notre Dame in round 1.
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