ND-BC Notebook

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – A huge road win for Notre Dame over Boston College on Saturday here definitely paved a way for the Irish to have a chance to sneak into the NCAA tournament.

“We’re fighting and scratching and trying to stay alive in this thing,” Irish head coach Mike Brey said after the win.

The win brought the Irish to 6-8 in conference play going into a home matchup with the Miami Hurricanes.

“When we got back from (North) Carolina, I said, ‘We’ve been on three Saturday-Monday swings. This was the third,’” Brey said.

Notre Dame got swept in its first such swing – falling to Virginia Tech and Duke. Last week, the Irish split, beating Florida State before falling to the Tar Heels.

“I said, ‘We need to go 2-0. We need to get them both,’” Brey continued. “I said, ‘If we go 2-0 and we get to 7-8 in the league, if you squint, you’ll see the bubble and then we’ll see what happens down the stretch.’

“We didn’t talk much or celebrate at all in there. We talked about getting another one. We need to go back and get some rest.”

A 10-8 conference finish certainly isn’t out of the question given how well the offense and Matt Farrell played.

“We’re flowing good offensively now and maybe that can carry us into some territory that we yearn to get to,” Brey said.

The Irish are very close to getting D.J. Harvey back and Bonzie Colson may even return before the end of the season.

Following the Miami game Monday night at Purcell Pavilion, the Irish will play Wake Forest and Pittsburgh before the season finale at Virginia on March 3rd.

“It’s a good win for us,” said Farrell. “We have a good opportunity to beat a really good team on Monday, so hopefully we use this as momentum.”

CAN’T STOP HIM, CAN ONLY HOPE TO CONTAIN HIM: Boston College star Jerome Robinson lit up the Irish for 48 points in the teams’ previous meeting earlier this month in South Bend.

“Luckily, we scored 96 or we’re dead in the water at our place,” Brey said.

On Saturday, the Irish defense did a good job “holding” Robinson to just 29.

Doubling Robinson often and matching him up with Rex Pflueger seemed to keep him in check. A key focus for the Irish was keeping Robinson away from the three-point line.

“The biggest thing was could we chase him off the three-point line and make him a two-point shooter,” Brey said. “I felt we could score enough against them to absorb twos from him. But if he’s going to make a bunch of threes, we’re in trouble.

“He is a great guard…It’s hard to just shut him down.”

The Irish definitely made it a focus to slow the junior forward who only scored 11 points in the second half, compared to 18 in the first half. Robinson did his job, hitting 11 of 15 shots from the field, but the rest of team was just 14 for 41.

PFLUEGER FALLS, EXPECTED TO GET BACK UP: Pflueger took a hard fall after being fouled on a drive to the hoop in the second half. The Irish took a timeout to let him recuperate. Mooney entered the game for Pflueger with 14:29 remaining in the game. The junior didn’t return to the game, finishing with 4 points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists. After the game, Brey said he should be okay.

“I think he’ll be fine, it’s a bruise.”