Notre Dame, at No. 8, is the only team in The Associated Press top 10 poll that began season unranked. The team once known for being methodical is playing a four-guard lineup that has made the Fighting Irish the top-ranked team in adjusted offensive efficiency according to Ken Pomeroy.
The Irish welcome No. 4 Duke to Purcell Pavilion on Wednesday, which marks the first time they've hosted a game between two top-10 teams in South Bend since 2003.
Notre Dame coach Mike Brey spoke with ESPN.com about Jerian Grant's email critiques, advancing in the NCAA tournament and mock turtlenecks.
How do you keep the Duke game, and the hype that comes with two top 10 teams meeting, from being overwhelming to your players?
You do have some concerns about that, but I think mine are probably less with the leadership that we have on this team. Grant and (Pat) Connaughton have kept us so focused and so grounded after big wins and thrilling wins, which we've had a lot of them. We're really able to start focusing on the next opponent in the locker room. We started talking about Duke in the NC State locker room after the game. Each week they've handled success really well, they've moved on to the next challenge and haven't dwelled on wins or great wins or dramatic wins. It's kind of, "Who we got next, Coach?" I give a lot of credit to our leadership in Grant and Connaughton.
Speaking of close games, is there anything this team picked up from the early 1-point loss against Providence that has made you better in those tight situations now?
Grant is so good at closing games -- even in the Providence game we had a shot to win it right there at the end. He's the ultimate closer in wanting to take a big shot or being creative to get a clean shot for one of our shooters or (Zach) Auguste rolling to the bucket. An interesting stat: We're 9-1 in our last 10 overtime games, we're 15-3 in our last 18 overtime games; well, Jerian Grant has been a key in all of those, in him being able to be a playmaker and love that moment.
Last year when Grant was out, he said you asked him to send email critiques after games. What was your reasoning behind that?
I just wanted him to be as engaged as much as possible with us, so communicating with him was the key. He has a really high basketball IQ. He's one of the smartest players I've ever coached. I said, 'Your homework is, after games, I want you to email me what you think. What we did well, what we didn't do well, how you feel about guys,' cause he was communicating with guys. I would get that maybe an hour after a game, because he was on the edge of his seat watching and digesting. A lot of the feedback was every bit as good and maybe better than the assistant coaches because he's so plugged into the team. And I used -- I didn't tell the players -- but I used some of his feedback with the team and with individuals. I think it helped him stay connected.
Is it possible Grant came back better than you imagined he would?
Yes. I think he matured. He grew up. Maybe it took a crisis situation and a lot of embarrassment. The thing that I feel for the kid, not only was he gone, but every game that we played when he left, the first five minutes of the broadcast they'd show his picture, suspended for academic reasons and the reason we're not winning. That's a lot to handle on top of it all. So I was always very conscious of that and his psyche. He needed all of five years to be a finished product. He was the youngest kid we ever signed and we redshirted him. Thank God we redshirted him or he would have been done last year halfway through the year. There may have been for 24 hours, 'Should I go [to the NBA], should I put my name in?' That was fleeting. It was unanimous with his parents, high school coach, AAU coach: Get your butt back to Notre Dame, finish the right way and get your degree.
Was having a guy like Pat Connaughton, who rebounds like he's much bigger than 6-foot-5, the main key in being able to play small since he'd be playing against much bigger power forwards?
You're exactly right. We had a foreign tour to Italy, which came at a very strategic time for our program. We started that lineup -- with (Demetrius) Jackson and Auguste as starters -- the first day of practice for the foreign tour in late July. They started all four games in Italy and certainly they've started all the games (this season). My feeling always was Pat Connaughton was the leading returning defensive rebounder in the ACC. So, my gosh, I think we can play this way and hold our own on the defensive boards, but be really, really hard to guard.
Spending eight years as an assistant coach at Duke under Mike Krzyzewski (from 1987 through '95), is there anything you picked up from him that you will use against him Wednesday?
I don't know any specifics, but I had unbelievable training. I'm always grateful. You have to remember I was an assistant high school coach at DeMatha High School when he hired me in 1987, which was really thinking outside the box. But if you look at Mike's career, he's always thought outside the box and adjusted. He's been great, he's been on the cutting edge of stuff. I think the biggest thing I learned was the day-to-day competing to run a program. That was the best thing I learned: Competing in the offseason in recruiting and marketing your program as much as during the season. And that day-to-day intensity really being around it, picking it up, helped me both at Delaware and at Notre Dame.
What's more fulfilling as a coach: Having a team expected to do well and playing to its potential or a team like this season that was off the radar and now shocking people?
I think given the year we had last year, and Grant being gone, this has really been gratifying to watch. I've watched this group come back with a chip on their shoulder and pissed off on how the year finished last year. We really went to work in the summer and had the foreign tour to kind of develop our identity and get guys confident. It's been really gratifying to watch this group grow.
Looking long-term, it's been since the 2002-03 season that Notre Dame has played past the first weekend of the NCAA tournament. This has to be the team that changes that, right?
I think this team has a great chance to do that. There's no question. I've been frustrated that we haven't been able to get out of that first week. We've been amazingly consistent in the regular season through the Big East and earning bids. Even in the Big East tournament, we went to four straight semifinals before we went to the ACC last year. For us, that's the next step. It's great to think about that now, and I know you have Bracketology up every day now even though it's two months away, but we've still got the second half of the ACC slate to play. I'm always really guarded about getting too much ahead of ourselves. But I think anytime you have guards like we have in Grant and Jackson, I think you have a chance to have some fun in March.
This might be the most important question I ask you. Did you abandon the mock turtlenecks for good?
I changed gears about three years ago. Maybe it was a midlife crisis that I just said the mock is out of style now. I do have people still ask about it, but I've kind of done away with that. But I'm still not wearing a tie. And that's what people will say: You may have given up the mock, but you're still not wearing a tie. I wear ties to my former players' weddings and then to funerals. That's the only places I wear ties.
Funny you mention ties, because I wondered if when you're alone in your office, do you secretly use a highlighter and wear a tie of the same color as a tribute to Digger Phelps?
As much as the old coach is here now, even more since he's not working for [ESPN], I've stayed away from that. Of course, his [signature look] was the carnation. Maybe if you get to the point where you're right there close to his record in wins -- right now I'm like 75 away (Brey has 319, Phelps had 393) from him as the all-time winningest coach here. If I live that long and they keep me around maybe on the night, if I'm still here, maybe I wear the carnation that night in honor of Digger.
STATE OF THE GAME
Each week, we'll have a coach talk about an aspect of college basketball.
Louisville's Rick Pitino on why defense seems to rule the day: "We as coaches spend about 80 percent of the time choreographing our defense to stop the other team's offense. And we only spend -- and I'm guilty of it as well -- 20 percent of the time with our offenses trying to attack the other team's defenses. Because of technology today, it's very easy to pick apart weaknesses and tendencies on a computer with every single basketball player, so the defenses are better today than they've ever been in the history of college basketball."
TALKING POINTS
Oklahoma's Lon Kruger on having played nine ranked teams, most of any schedule in the nation: "It is a grind, and I think that's what teams in the Big 12 have to get accustomed to. And I think our players have to understand that a little bit more clearly. We've played those teams, we haven't really done anything exceptional against them. We have to understand how tough it is, how tough you have to play for 40 minutes. We've kind of been in position a couple, three times and not been able to finish those on the road. We've got to play better is basically what it comes down to, because we're playing teams that are playing really well."
Villanova's Jay Wright on year-to-year improvement of college players: "Sometimes that is not appreciated enough in college basketball. When a junior becomes a senior and a sophomore becomes a junior, especially those age groups, when you have juniors who have started for three years that makes a big difference. You can have the same guys starting, and then they are a year older, and that makes a huge difference. In the pros, when a guy gets a year older, he is just getting old, and that is looked down upon a little bit. In college, it can be really valuable."
Wake Forest's Danny Manning on losing close games: "It ticks me off, and I hope it does the same for our guys. We have to finish games in a manner that gives us the best chance to be successful. And that's on us. As a coach, I have to continue to help us and teach my team to close better. Then we also have to continue to have that mindset of making sure we do everything possible to finish the game the way that we want to."