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ACC Roundup - Mike Brey Gets A Fine Sendoff

As Notre Dame comes through in his final home game

By JD King
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Pittsburgh v Notre Dame
SOUTH BEND, IN - MARCH 01: Trey Wertz #3 and retiring head coach Mike Brey of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish walk off of Notre Dames court for the final time following the game against the Pittsburgh Panthers at Joyce Center on March 1, 2023 in South Bend, Indiana.
Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images

In Wednesday’s ACC Action, Notre Dame upset #25 Pitt 88-81, and it was nowhere near that close as the Irish send Mike Brey out in style in his final home game.

After a typical back and forth early, Notre Dame started to pull away with about 9:00 to play and took a 42-28 lead into halftime.

And the Irish still had a 19 point lead at 74-55 with 5:38 to go.

Pitt made a late charge, but it didn't change things: Notre Dame wins, Brey has his moment, and Pitt has a problem: we think this is a Quad Three loss and that's just not good for any tourney hopeful, least of all in March.

Pitt had some costly mistakes, including a technical on Jeff Capel and another on Jamarius Burton.

Three starters also finished with four fouls - Burton, Nelly Cummings and Blake Hinson. But the Irish had more, and saw two guys foul out and two more finish with four.

The Panthers also left 16 points on the foul line.

Pitt gets a chance to make up the damage with Saturday’s trip to Miami and of course everyone gets a shot in Greensboro.

We knew Syracuse wasn’t playing very well, but this bad?

The ‘Cuse has lost four straight, all by at least 17 points and given up 286 points in the last three games alone.

Jim Boeheim acknowledges that his defense has regressed and that, he says correctly, is his fault.

Duke shot 54.5 percent and 50 percent on threes. Clemson shot 52.3 percent, Pitt shot 47.1 percent but hit 16 threes and Tech hit 52.2 percent and 18 threes. We don’t know that it’s true, but we read that this was the worst defeat Syracuse has ever suffered in the Dome.

All of which is adding up to pressure for Jim Boeheim. Over at Syracuse.com, but paywalled, Brent Axe says it feels like the Boeheim era is drawing to a close.

Then there’s this guy, who is clearly not happy. There is a somewhat viral picture of a Syracuse fan in the Dome with a bag on his head. And it doesn’t stop there.

Syracuse Nation seems to have reached consensus, even if Boeheim says he has not made a decision. As Jeff Bzdelik learned at Wake Forest, you can only go so far without the fans. And Boeheim’s boss, John Wildhack, along with Boeheim of course and every coach in every sport at every school knows this: if it comes down to him or Boeheim...it’ll be Boeheim.

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