The score was 55-55. Butler’s Roosevelt Jones had the ball with a standing dribble at quarter court as the clock wound down. Pat Connaughton stood in a defensive stance as he waited just outside the free throw line for Jones to drive for what he hoped would be a game winning shot.

Jones had been fantastic throughout the game. Playing with one injured leg, he combined upper body strength with a variety of clever shooting angles to score 23 points in Saturday’s game. It was Connaughton’s job to stop Jones just this one time and send the game to overtime. He did.

Connaughton blocked the middle of the lane. Jones drove to the right and shot with 5 seconds left on the clock. Connaughton, a tremendous leaper, contested the shot. It missed, and Zach Auguste grabbed the rebound. The clock was running.

Auguste’s concentration lapse with 1:35 left to play had already given Butler one extra possession. He didn’t concentrate as he received a routine pass in halfcourt offense. He dropped the pass, and Butler’s Andrew Chrabascz pounced on the loose ball. Fortunately for Auguste and Notre Dame, Kellen Dunham missed a jump shot; and the bullet was dodged momentarily. Another turnover, by Vasturia this time, gave Butler the possession that appeared to end with Auguste’s rebound.

The Irish broke down court hoping to get one crack at a buzzer beating basket. It’s hard to tell whether Auguste was looking right to pass and realized that nobody was there or he thought about launching an 85 foot desperation shot. Whatever he first thought, Auguste decided to dribble instead; but he had already moved his left hand towards the ball. He couldn’t stop it. The left hand touched the ball. The whistle blew. Double dribble. It was Butler’s ball with 0:02 left on the clock.

Auguste was beside himself. Time out Notre Dame.

Start the stopwatch.

Chaos

As the Irish huddled near their bench, sophomore guard Demetrius Jackson was yelling; and his ire appeared to be directed at Auguste.

The Irish pride themselves on being able to call each other out, to challenge each other to do better.

“The biggest thing was everyone bought in at the beginning of the year. They knew that nothing was to be taken personal, no matter how brutally honest it may have been,” Connaughton told Forbes’ Jerry Barca in a recent interview.

But the already distraught Auguste didn’t need to be called out. He needed to concentrate on the task at hand, the task of stopping Butler and getting the game to overtime. He needed his confidence re-ignited.

Jerian Grant stepped into the fray. He put his arm around Jackson trying to calm him, but Jackson wasn’t ready for that. Grant persisted, and head coach Mike Brey followed with his own not-so-gently worded instructions for Jackson.

Cooler Heads

Connaughton was next. He stepped forward, put one arm around Jackson and the other around Grant, and started to talk. Both listened. The situation was defused, but the team still needed to refocus.

It was Brey’s turn. The stopwatch read 1:05, the time that had elapsed since the whistle blew, and he had less than a minute to instruct his team before it returned to the floor. He had the team’s undivided attention, but were all five men focused?

Both teams returned to the court, but Brey never intended it to be more than an opportunity to see how Butler was aligned. He called his final timeout. 2:00 had passed since the whistle blew for Auguste’s turnover.

That’s when Connaughton had a one-on-one discussion with Auguste, arms around his shoulders and heads close together until Auguste gave him an “I’m okay” tap on the shoulder. Then Connaughton addressed the team.

“I made sure I got Zach,” Connaughton told the Chicago Tribune’s Chris Hine. “There was a timeout where guys were frustrated. But I made sure after the timeout, I pulled all of them together and said what happened is dead and gone. There’s nothing we can do to bring that back.”

“I wanted to put my head down so bad and wanted to give up, but my brothers had my back,” said Auguste. “They didn’t let me. Pat and Jerian came up and talked to me and got my head back in the game.”

Focus

2:50 had passed since the turnover whistle blew as the teams returned to the court. Butler was not able to get the ball in bounds against an Irish defense that was keyed by Auguste using his lanky frame to disrupt the passer. Time out Butler.

That gave Brey one last opportunity to be sure his team was on task. He reviewed their plan and then spent 15-20 seconds one-on-one with Auguste. The conversation was strictly task oriented with Brey demonstratively showing what he wanted done. Emotions either were or weren’t in check by then. This was the most likely way to assure task orientation.

A focused team returned to the court as the stopwatch reached 4:00.

Aftermath

You know what happened next. Connaughton blocked Dunham’s shot. The game went to overtime. Notre Dame won 67-64.

The Irish played almost flawlessly in the overtime. They scored on five of their first six possessions, the only hiccup being Grant’s missed three pointer on a wide open shot as ND ran the shot clock down to 0:02 the fourth time it had the ball. Notably, Auguste grabbed a pair of key rebounds and blocked a shot. There were no Fighting Irish turnovers.

After a meaningless Butler basket with 0:03 left to play, Jackson passed the ball to Steve Vasturia. The clock expired, and Jackson immediately ran to Auguste and hugged him.

Chaos threatened to spoil a great basketball season; but in a span of four minutes, leaders restored order, refocused the group, and prevailed on the court.

It isn’t the conflict. It’s the resolution.

Smart Play

It’s easy to forget given the drama that followed, but Grant made a potential game saving play with 0:21 left in regulation. Chrabascz missed a short shot, but Kameron Woods rebounded and passed to Dunham near the free throw line. Dunham, an outstanding shooter, needed one dribble to get a short open jump shot; and that gave Grant enough time to reach from the side to foul him. Butler was not in the bonus, so the Bulldogs had the ball side out instead of a high percentage shot.

Teams use the “foul to give” all the time, but it’s usually planned to be used as the opponent has possession as the clock nears 0:00. The presence of mind to use the foul on a scramble play after a long rebound is a beyond the norm for college basketball players.

House Money

Notre Dame fans, do you remember when making the tournament was the goal for the season? In that respect, November and December seem like several lifetimes ago. Based on expectations before the season started, the Irish are playing with house money; but if you’re like me, a 14-4 ACC record, a conference tournament championship, and a hard earned trip to the round of sixteen has altered your expectations. The new most important game in the Mike Brey era is Thursday.

Talking about Connaughton, Mike Brey told the AP’s Tom Coyne, “He is the cruelest of competitors. Nice guy off the court. But he will cut your heart out on it. He’s set a great tone for us.”

If that is indeed the tone this team takes, it will be playing Kentucky for a puncher’s chance at the Final Four on Saturday.