On February 5th, Notre Dame had 15 wins and 7 losses, 6 wins and 4 losses in the ACC. It wasn’t a bad season at that point. There was a reasonable path to the NCAA tournament, but there was work to do; and if the Irish could eliminate some repeating failures from the early part of the season, they might have found themselves playing well enough to make the NCAA Tournament’s round of 16.

Then things got very interesting.

Over a span of eight days, Notre Dame upset North Carolina at home; travelled to Greenville, SC to deliver Clemson’s first home loss of the ACC season; and returned to Purcell Pavilion to defeat Louisville. With a suddenly improved 18-7/9-4 record, Mike Brey was talking about topping the ACC in the regular season standings instead of having a resume good enough to make the tournament.

“Why not talk about a regular season championship,” Brey asked during his Louisville postgame press conference. “Last year’s team chased the regular season title until the last week or so. Why not chase that?”

What Happened?

Undoubtedly Notre Dame went on a shooting streak. Right?

Nope. They made 42.5% of their shots in the three games. Not awful. Not great.

Maybe they were hot from three point range.

Nope. They only made 36.7% of their long distance attempts.

Enough “guess again.” Here’s what happened.

The Irish competed on the boards against three bigger teams. They gathered 37 rebounds per game compared to the three opponents’ 34; and the offensive rebounding battles were a stand-off with ND and its opponents averaging 13 each. In addition, the Irish had two more steals per game and committed only half of the turnovers their opponents made even though the opponents’ turnover numbers were low. Finally, they made their free throws… 83.5% of their free throws.

The December version of the Fighting Irish lost to Monmouth, Alabama, and Indiana because they didn’t take care of the ball late in games, didn’t get key rebounds, and didn’t make free throws. The February version got second half leads and kept them.

“One thing we have developed in the last week is amazing will to win,” said Brey. “We have some fearless guys; and boy, it comes at just the right time with March around the corner.

“We’ve been really cruel competitors this last week, and I couldn’t be prouder,” Brey continued. “When we sense it, we go for it. Last year’s team did that. This year’s team had not shown that until last Saturday (vs UNC). We had to do it in Greenville (vs Clemson), and we did it again tonight (vs Louisville). I’m really excited about that aspect of us.”

Evolution

Brey gives team captains Zach Auguste, AJ Burgett, Steve Vasturia, and Demetrius Jackson a lot of credit for keeping the team focused on developing its offensive style and finding defensive approaches it can execute successfully.

“One of the things I wasn’t sure about, and I’m so proud of, was our leadership going into the season,” said Brey. “The job that those four guys are doing, setting the tone and running our team, I am so pleased because the two guys we lost did an unbelievable job. These guys are doing as good a job. I didn’t know if I’d be able to say that this year. That’s probably what I’m most pleased about.”

As important as it is to have the upperclassmen setting the tone together, successful teams inevitably have one guy who is the leader. At Notre Dame, that guy is Demetrius Jackson.

Anthony Iannarino, a popular author and speaker on successful selling, defines leadership as the ability to generate results through others. Iannarino delineates two leadership roles – strategic orchestrator and conductor. Brey is the strategist. Jackson is the conductor.

The conductor keeps everybody on the same page in order to produce the end result. He leads from the front, and his actions are visible to all.

Sharing leadership duties in this construct works if the parties are on the same page.

Jackson told me how his approach to leading has developed over the course of the season. “What I’ve learned is understanding ways to reach each player in an individual way,” he said. “Everybody’s different. Some guys, it may take you to yell at them. Some guys, it may take more of a positive vibe. Just understanding my guys, my teammates, my brothers… just understanding them and trying to bring out the best in everybody.”

Brey echoed Jackson’s self-assessment.

“As you’ve seen this week, he is firmly at the controls of this team,” Brey explained. “I think he’s learned how to talk to them, when to get on guys. He really challenged Bonzie (Colson) and VJ (Beachem) at halftime last week against North Carolina. He’s done a good job of knowing when to get on them and when to encourage. He’s been great in timeouts. I’ll talk at the beginning of the timeout. He usually finishes it. It’s his voice, his team.

“I did not think we’d be able to get this good in leadership, this stable and steady. I’m thrilled about that. I know his numbers, but I’m thrilled about that more than anything.”

The Next Eight Days

If the Irish finish the ACC season in first place, they will have made hay in the upcoming eight day segment of the season. They will be favored to win Saturday at Georgia Tech, but the game is not a gimme. The Yellow Jackets are only 4-9 in the conference; but they have a series of close losses to good teams – by 4 points vs Louisville, 3 points vs Syracuse, 1 point vs Virginia Tech. They also have victories over Virginia and Florida State. Notre Dame must play well to win.

Two more road games will follow the Georgia Tech game. The Wake Forest game might have been a gimme before Deacons head coach Danny Manning suspended two players. It’s squarely in that category now. That leaves Florida State, a team that will be trying to eke its way into the NCAA Tournament by putting a quality win on its resume.

Meanwhile the teams in front of Notre Dame are going to take some losses. First place Miami has to play North Carolina, Virginia, and Louisville before the Irish get a chance to beat the Hurricanes in South Bend. North Carolina has to play Miami, Virginia, Syracuse, and Duke. Virginia has to play Miami, North Carolina, Clemson, and Louisville.

If you thought the last eight day stretch was very interesting, stay tuned.