After playing its best basketball of the season and coming away with nothing but a heartbreaking loss, shorthanded Notre Dame has to guard against a letdown this week.
The Irish travel to Dayton on Tuesday to take on the Flyers (10-7) in what has become a tough regional matchup, host Boston College on Thursday and face another highly ranked team in Duke on Saturday.
The 68-67 loss to Virginia on Saturday left the Irish (7-10) stunned. They are starved for a big victory this season. Seven of their 11 losses have been to teams ranked in the Top 25.
Coach Digger Phelps, perhaps feeling the heat of what could be his second- or third-worst season with the Irish, got angry when a reporter suggested his team might be snakebitten.
The Irish were leading Kentucky when point guard Tim Singleton went down with a back injury, they lost to Indiana by three points in the final minutes and to Virginia in the final seconds-without academic casualty LaPhonso Ellis- when Bryant Stith scored 17 points in the final 3:14.
Thin on the bench, the Irish have played well as a unit without Ellis, and 6-11 Keith Tower has performed exceptionally well.
For the most part, the Irish play six men, including freshman Jon Ross, who is getting a crash course in the physical intensity and quickness of the college game.
Though the Irish have blended well recently, when fatigue sets in down the stretch, a free throw will fall off the rim, a loose ball bounce off their fingers and their feet shuffle a tad too slowly to keep with their man.
Fouls are devastating for a team so thin in personnel. So it wasn`t a big surprise that when Tower fouled out with 1:52 to go, Stith scored 13 straight points to overcome a nine-point Virginia deficit.
