Column: Productive NCAA Tournament run gives Notre Dame its final push over ‘line in the sand’

Mike Brey summed up the goal of his 22nd season as Notre Dame head coach with a few catchphrases.

“Line in the sand,” he offered on a postgame Zoom last March as he lamented the end of Year 21, which produced an 11-15 record.

Another? “365-day chase.”

This one was his favorite in recent weeks as Notre Dame neared that line in the stand: the NCAA Tournament. The Irish had to show up in that bracket, or else. They began the chase on Selection Sunday 2021, gathering at Brey’s house to watch the reveal of a bracket they knew wouldn’t include them. A year later, they convened in the same spot, hopeful for a spot but nervous one wouldn’t come.

The invite was extended three minutes into the selection show.

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Line crossed. Chase complete. Notre Dame’s March Madness drought stopped at four seasons.

Ending it was a noble goal, and would satisfy the bosses, but a mere tournament bid might not shift the big-picture view of where this program is headed and erase four years of momentum in the wrong direction before it morphed into full-on irrelevance. Making the First Four as the last at-large team selected to the field and bowing out there would be limping across the line, not leaping over it.

What, then, would be a better goal for this year? Deliver some signs this thing can get back on the rails under this coaching staff. Return some good vibes. Be relevant in the postseason and on the recruiting trail.

Notre Dame crossed off all those boxes.

Closing out Texas Tech Sunday night to advance to the Sweet 16 would have removed all doubt, but two wins in the NCAA Tournament and matching haymakers with the nation’s No. 1-ranked defense is still a strong body of work. Notre Dame didn’t just show up for a participation medal and bounce. It outlasted Rutgers, a team known for its toughness, in a double overtime game. It picked off No. 6 seed Alabama 33.5 hours later, 78-64. It had the No. 3-seeded Red Raiders on the ropes, ultimately falling 59-53.

The Irish were must-watch in the tournament. In other words? They were relevant. Notre Dame fans went five years without tasting that feeling.

Seasons are often defined by March results, though in Notre Dame’s case, its momentum reversal is the product of several months. The Irish went 15-5 in the ACC, a record that ages better with the league’s tournament success. They toppled Kentucky in December. They have a freshman guard with an NBA future in Blake Wesley, even if his most recent game was a forgettable one.

“We’re not where we’re at unless the young man came up the road from downtown South Bend,” Brey said Sunday.

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Nor do they go 24-11 and reach the second round without a commitment to defending. The Irish finished 2020-21 with their worst adjusted defensive efficiency of the Brey era, per KenPom. Opposing offenses too often resembled layup lines. Enough was enough, Brey said. He needed change. He needed help. In came associate head coach Anthony Solomon for a third stint on staff to strip down the defense and overhaul it. New scheme. New voice. New ideas.

The result? A 129-spot jump in defensive efficiency and KenPom’s No. 2-rated defense in ACC play. Look no further than the final game of last season and this one for a showcase of the year-over-year change. North Carolina ran the Irish off the floor last year in a 101-59 ACC Tournament loss. Sunday, Notre Dame held Texas Tech to 0.94 points per possession, 35.6 percent shooting and four three-pointers.

Good work, all told. Now comes sustaining it, the first steps of which had to happen before Notre Dame could even play a game this year. What’s a tournament season worth in the big picture if there’s no reason to think more like it will come?

The Irish’s three-man 2022 signing class looks like fuel for a return. It’s ranked No. 19 in the country, per the On3 Consensus Team Recruiting Rankings, and has three four-star players. The headliner is J.J. Starling, the No. 24 overall prospect and the program’s first McDonald’s All-American since 2013.

“It had to start with recruiting,” Brey said. “I thought our recruiting momentum from our November signing and just blistering it in the summer through the fall to November signing to sign the three young men we got was the first step in it.”

A run in the tournament was the last. For the first time in four years, Notre Dame heads into the offseason having provided something other than blind faith and hope surrounding its ability to return to its peak under Brey — and with Brey in charge.

That’s the new line in the sand.