The day of one of Mike Brey’s biggest career victories came with a heavy heart.
After his team’s 67-64 overtime victory against Butler in the third round of the NCAA tournament at Consol Energy Center, the Notre Dame coach announced that his mother, Betty, passed away from a heart attack Saturday morning at age 84.
Betty Brey, who Mike referred to as “the real driving force behind everything I’ve done,” was a competitive swimmer who was on the 1956 U.S. Olympic team.
He said her death took his mind off the game against the Bulldogs, but he couldn’t help but feel her presence as he stood on the sideline.
“I feel she was definitely with us down the stretch,” he said.
Brey said he will join his family in Florida on Sunday to celebrate his mother’s life. While down there, he will watch a third-round game between No. 2 seed Kansas and No. 7 Wichita State, with the winner of that matchup drawing Notre Dame in the Sweet 16.
Jones comes up big
The day after Butler won an NCAA tournament game in a turnaround season under the guidance of a man who has been the head coach for barely two months, the focus was on the left knee of an undersized power forward.
But for his Bulldogs team, the status of Roosevelt Jones’ sprained knee was potentially the difference between a berth in the Sweet 16 and a one-way ticket back to the school’s Indianapolis campus.
On a hobbled limb, Jones nearly helped carry his team to a win. The junior, who sprained his knee in a win against Texas Thursday, scored a game-high 23 points in a loss against Notre Dame, dispelling any doubts about his health while almost propelling his team to the tournament’s next round.
After sitting out nine minutes against the Longhorns, questions faced Jones and Butler coach Chris Holtmann the day prior to the third-round matchup against the Fighting Irish. Holtmann was steadfast that his second-leading scorer would have his usual place in the starting lineup.
Jones wasted little time showing everything was fine. He made five of his first eight shot for 15 first half points – more than half of Butler’s 29 total – to help keep an otherwise middling offense within two points of its high-powered opponent.
Though his production tailed off a bit in the game’s final 20 minutes, he was still a focal point on both ends of the court. Along with his scoring numbers, he finished with five rebounds, three assists and two steals.
Irish break through
The question has dogged Notre Dame for much of the past decade – how can a team that’s so accomplished in the regular season fade come March?
Even as a No. 3 seed in the NCAA tournament coming off an Atlantic Coast Conference tournament championship, the doubts and skepticism lingered for a team that had lost its past three NCAA tournament games, all of which came against lower-seeded teams.
That troubling trend came to a halt Saturday, as the Fighting Irish’s win sent them to their first Sweet 16 since 2003. That season, Notre Dame, a five seed, lost to No. 1 seed Arizona, 88-71. In his 15th season as the Fighting Irish coach, Brey has eight NCAA tournament wins, though four of those victories came in his first three seasons in South Bend.
Fighting Irish swingman sets career mark
Notre Dame senior guard/forward Pat Connaughton played in his 137th career game with the Fighting Irish Saturday night, breaking a program record previously held by Tory Jackson, who played in 136 games from 2006-10. In his record-setting appearance, Connaughton had an underwhelming scoring night with seven points, but his nine rebounds put him over 800 for his career. He’s the 12th player in Notre Dame history to accomplish that feat.
Butler’s Barlow steals some history
Though he fouled out in the overtime session, Butler senior Alex Barlow was able to collect a parting gift. The 5-foot-11 guard had two steals against Notre Dame, tying a single-season program record of 72 set back in 2001. Barlow was second in the Big East in steals this season, averaging 2.2 per game.
Craig Meyer: cmeyer@post-gazette.com and Twitter @CraigMeyerPG
First Published: March 22, 2015, 4:53 a.m.
