In the Big East quarterfinal night cap on Thursday, Notre Dame knew that it would face a pretty feisty South Florida Bulls squad. This was honestly a true battle of two teams that have learned to succeed through running the "Burn Offense." For those of you who aren't familiar with this style, it's very simple. With the Burn Offense, that particular team slows the tempo of the game down so that their opponent cannot succeed on defense, while using a majority of the shot clock and keeping the control of the game in their hands. It caters to their offense getting exactly what it wants and the defense being stymied because it completely throws off their game plan.
Thursday night at Madison Square Garden, you just had a feeling that #23 Notre Dame was going to do whatever it had to do possible to get the win and advance to play Louisville in the Semifinals Friday night.
Neither team shot anything close to good. South Florida shot 38% and Notre Dame 39%. The two matched each others' three-point shooting, with the Bulls shooting 8-17 (47%) and the Irish knocking down 8-16 (50%).
Up by a narrow 28-26 halftime lead, Notre Dame tried to do what it could to pull away, but there's no pulling away from this USF team. The Bulls outdueld the Irish 19-17 in the 2nd half to knot things at 45-45 to take this Big East tilt into overtime.
The leadership of sophomore Eric Atkins showed up big in the overtime frame. Atkins scored all 6 of his points in overtime, but he does much more than score for Notre Dame. The Irish point guard also grabbed four rebounds, dished out six assists and nabbed a couple of steals. If he's not scoring, that's exactly what you want out of your point guard!
If you want my honest opinion, there should have been an over-the-back foul called on USF's Augustus Gilchrist when ND's Jack Cooley grabbed a rebound in the waining seconds of regulation. The call was a jump ball and we headed to overtime. I think it really only motivated the Irish to dial it up a notch in the extra period.
That said, Notre Dame took the overtime 12-8 and won the quarterfinal 57-53. Tonight (Friday), the 3rd seed Irish play in the 2nd Big East semifinal against 7-seed Louisville. Notre Dame won the regular season meeting at Louisville, 67-65 in double overtime.
Freshmen Pat Connaughton and Jerian Grant led Notre Dame with 12 points a piece in a very shared offensive effort for the Irish. Scott Martin notched a double-double with 10 points and 12 rebounds. Somewhat of a quiet night for center Jack Cooley with 9 points and 3 blocks (just one rebound). Eric Atkins filled up his stat line with 6 points, 4 rebounds, 6 assists and 2 steals to his credit. Alex Dragicevich dropped in 8 points (2-2 on 3's) off the bench. Tom Knight also spelled Cooley well during his time off the bench, grabbing two rebounds.
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