A couple of weeks ago, as Notre Dame flailed in chin-high flood waters and calamities mounted, Mike Brey mused about identity theft.
The Irish coach sensed his team wasn’t anything like itself. No offensive rhythm. Just a bunch of jangled nerve endings. The Big East grind, like one giant sweep of industrial-grade sandpaper, eroded all of Notre Dame’s distinguishable features.
But in a 103-84 throttling of Providence on Saturday, Notre Dame looked more like its ideal self than it had in weeks. No one had said self-rediscovery would be a solo journey. Just when the Irish’s NCAA tournament hopes dangled in the balance, presto, the Friars and their appallingly passive defense appeared.
Providence, indeed.
“When we’re running and gunning and taking open shots, we’re capable of putting a lot of points on the board,” Irish guard Jon Peoples said.
First it was slumping Louisville that helped break a seven-game losing streak. Then it was feckless South Florida allowing Notre Dame to build momentum.
Then, after a loss at West Virginia, the Irish (15-11, 6-8) received more well-timed help, skewering the uninterested Friars with 13 three-pointers, 48.6 percent shooting and a season-high for points scored.
“When we can establish that style of play, we can play with a lot of people in this country,” Brey said. “Our league is so good this year, at times, our style of play has been taken from us.”
First the Irish tore apart Providence’s zone with 11 first-half three-pointers. Ten of those arrived via Ryan Ayers (team-high 28 points) and Kyle McAlarney (25 points), more than compensating for the combined 15 minutes and three points provided by foul-plagued Luke Harangody and Tory Jackson.
“Because we play so well together, we pass the ball, we can kind of cut up the zone,” Ayers said. “We have a nice low-post presence that you have to be aware of, and that opens it up for shooters. We’re moving, cutting and just finding each other.”
When Providence (16-11, 8-7) briefly rallied, cutting the lead to single digits early in the second half, Peoples provided an unlikely answer. Six straight points pushed the Irish to a 13-point lead that never again dipped below double digits.
The former St. Joseph star’s 14 points, nine assists and 28 minutes were all career highs, an any-port-in-the-storm effort that as much as anything signaled this was the Irish’s day.
“[Brey] has been telling me to be aggressive on offense when I get in there,” Peoples said. “He’s telling me to take open shots and do what I do in practice. Eventually it just turns over into game time.”
Optimism hardly reigns as far as a postseason fate, still. But at least Notre Dame, in breaking a seven-game road losing streak, once again looked anything but lost.
“If you can get hot at the right time, man, that really helps,” Brey said. “That’s not lost on them.”
———–
bchamilton@tribune.com
All Irish, all the time: Follow Notre Dame with Brian Hamilton’s blog, Around the Bend, at chicagotribune.com/notredame
