SOUTH BEND – For one afternoon on a sunny day outside in Northern Indiana, the dark clouds that hovered all week over Notre Dame basketball lifted.
For one afternoon, it was the product on the floor at Purcell Pavilion, not the post-game press conference, that was worth watching.
For one afternoon, it wasn’t about wondering how something that was right there to get again went so wrong. It wasn’t about worrying about what players might toy with the transfer portal, or how this coaching staff might need to tap that portal.
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It wasn’t even about the head coach and what he did or said afterward.
For one afternoon, a double-digit lead in the second half would not be fumbled away.
For one afternoon, the Irish offense and the Irish defense seemed on the same page.
For one afternoon, fans in the arena stands came to their feet deep into the second half. Not to head for home, but to give the guys in the green jerseys a deserved ovation. Once. Twice. Three times. All deserved.
For one afternoon, Notre Dame basketball was fun.
Again.
Finally.
That’s what happens when you continue to believe, when you continue to fight, when you continue to stay focused when everything seems to be crumbling around you. When your head coach is getting hot. Then, getting overheated. When the league losses are piling up. When it looks like this regular season cannot end soon enough.
That looked the case when Notre Dame played one of its worst games in a 15-point loss Sunday to Louisville and followed with a worse one in a 23-point pounding Wednesday from SMU. Needing to salvage something from a three-game Atlantic Coast Conference homestand, Notre Dame collectively decided enough was enough and that this day was going to be its day. It saved the best, it turns out, for last.
On a day when they could’ve quit, the Irish competed. For loose balls. For rebounds. For one another. For what awaits over the final two weeks of the regular season.
The Irish did what needed to be done early and down the stretch of a 76-72 victory over a Pittsburgh team in the same neighborhood where Notre Dame lived for the previous six days. Wondering. Searching. Struggling.
There was none of that Saturday from Notre Dame, which improved to 12-15 overall and 6-10 in the ACC.
For an afternoon, it was worth it for the home fans to stick around until the end. It was worth it for the players to stand in a straight line and sing the alma mater.
None of what happened, not the win, not the 46 points in the second half, not the ability to shrug off the loss of two starters (Matt Allocco, Braeden Shrewsberry) to injury, not winning at home for the first time since Jan. 28, would’ve been possible without two Irish who have spent more time on the bench than the floor this season. All season.
Notre Dame basketball doesn’t do what it did Saturday without senior swingman J.R. Konieczny or freshman shooting guard Cole Certa. There was little sign that everything on this day would be different for both. It was so different.
Different as Konieczny stepped to the foul line six times over the final 37.9 seconds and made six free throws. In a season where confidence has been difficult to display, Konieczny was one confident kid in the closing seconds.
Pressure? Not on him.
“I wasn’t even thinking about it,” Konieczny said. “I was just, same shot, every single time and it’s going to go in. I kind of had that confidence going in there. Like, I want to be the one shooting the free throws at the end of the game.”
Shooting them and making them.
Different it was for Certa, who came into Saturday having scored 12 points in 11 games. He was so far down in the rotation that he might as well be sit in the stands.
Certa erupted for 12 consecutive points in a 3:41 second half burst that helped everyone on the Irish bench believe that today would be different. They were all up. They were all hyped. It reached a point when Certa stood unguarded in front of the Irish bench with both arms fully extended. Stood calling for the ball. To shoot it again. To make it again.
Let Certa cook!
“Every time I check in, the other four dudes on the court instill confidence in me,” Certa said. “Them telling me, ‘Shoot that whenever you’re open,’ it builds everything up. They don’t know how much that means.”
On Saturday, Certa’s confidence meant a lot. His shots meant a lot.
“He gave us great minutes,” sophomore guard Markus Burton said of Certa.
Confident minutes. Competitive minutes. Winning minutes.
The Irish competed better than they competed three nights earlier. Th Irish believe better than they believed six nights earlier. That they stayed together wasn’t a surprise. That’s who they’ve been throughout this yo-yo of a season.
“Things happen; you’ve just got to stay positive, roll with the punches,” Burton said after the Irish absorbed their share of body blows during the week. “We didn’t play well last week. It happens. You’ve just got to stay true to yourself and stay level-headed. Block it out and trust ourselves.”
For one afternoon, we saw what this Notre Dame basketball team can be over the final four regular-season games and whatever the league tournament in Charlotte might hold.
Now, let’s see it again.
Follow South Bend Tribune and NDInsider columnist Tom Noie on X (formerly Twitter): @tnoieNDI. Contact Noie at tnoie@sbtinfo.com
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Notre Dame basketball needed some home success Saturday vs. Pittsburgh
