Mike Brey had an inkling this team could be good. From the close of their disappointing NCAA Tournament loss to West Virginia, the Fighting Irish head coach hinted this edition could be special. Wednesday evening, in a tropical paradise, they’ll get a chance to prove their coach right.

Tuesday’s merciless, relentless annihilation of a power five team was a pretty good sign. Notre Dame dispatched the LSU Tigers 92-53 in a game that didn’t even feel that close. From the opening tip, Notre Dame was all over their SEC foes and never let up. Two minutes and 48 seconds in to the game, sophomore T.J. Gibbs drilled a three to make the score 7-4. It was a lead Notre Dame simply built upon from there.

I’m not going to spend a ton of time on review and personal performances. If you watch any of the highlight packages, you’ll get the idea. Notre Dame’s ball and man movement on offense was phenomenal. The Irish defensive performance was among the tops in the Brey era. Guys were getting their hands on passes, disrupting dribblers with ball pressure, and conceding nothing to the Tigers.

Individually, it was nice to see Mooney confident out there, even though his FT stroke is cause for concern. Martinas Geben also logged one of his best performances on both ends. The Lithiuanian senior will enjoy seeing his dunk all over SportsCenter over the next 24 hours. He was the beneficiary of a little five-hole magic from Matt Farrell.

The Irish PG was outstanding again, orchestrating a complete offensive attack. T.J. Gibbs did a lot more than make that early three. Gibbs led ND in scoring with 26. Of course, Mr. Double-Double did his work too. Bonzie Colson’s highlight on the night had to come when he blocked a shot on one end, recovered the loose ball, then drained a three on the other. Trust me, they all played well.

The stats from this one bear it out. 1.42ppp to LSU’s 0.82. Notre Dame continued to shoot the lights out (63% eFG) while holding yet another opponent in the low forties (42% eFG). ND held on to the ball, turning it over only 9% of possessions, while LSU coughed it up over a quarter of the time (26%). The Irish neutralized the battle on the glass (36% to 32% OR%). It was ND’s lowest FTRate of the season, only 27% FTA/FGA. The drop-off is easily explained by ND’s season-high 32 attempts from behind the arc. The Irish shot a blistering 15-32 from deep. That kind of volume and accuracy puts defenses under tremendous pressure, and LSU wasn’t up to the task.

The victory pushes Brey’s squad to a perfect 5-0 on the season. More importantly, it earns the Irish a date with sixth-ranked Wichita State. The Shockers easily handled Marquette 80-66 in the other semifinal. The last meeting between these two teams was in March of 2015, with the Irish cruising to an 11 point win en route to the Elite Eight.

This is Brey’s second trip to the Maui finals. In their previous trip, Notre Dame fell to the eventual National Champions. This time around, the Irish hope to stamp themselves a title contender. To do so will require another complete performance from Notre Dame.

If you were to only look at statistics, you’d see two very similar teams. The eye test, however, shows just how differently these teams achieve similar results. Like the Irish, Wichita runs a very efficient offense. The shoot the ball well, take care of it well, get on the glass, and get to the line. They’re far less reliant on the three ball than Notre Dame, opting instead to use the interior strength of senior Shaquille Morris to drive them. Morris is a 6’8″, 280 pound beast inside who has made 65% of his two-point attempts this season and shoots 78% from the line. Defending Morris without fouling will be a key to this game. Geben will have to bring all the Beijing confidence he can muster to this match-up.

Defensively, the Shockers want to turn up the pressure. Gregg Marshall has no problem heating up the temperature of the game. The Shocker defense hasn’t been great at turning people over so far this year. Marquette managed to keep it to nine. Notre Dame has to handle the full-court pressure to be successful. Marshall runs a lot of bodies out there to keep the defensive intensity high. Eight guys played double-digit minutes against Marquette.

Over the last several years, Notre Dame has welcomed teams to try to pressure them in the full court. Mike Brey’s insistence on recruiting guys who are good with the ball gives the Irish multiple options to advance into the front-court. With both Gibbs and Farrell on the floor, Notre Dame should handle the pressure fine, but the Shockers punish bad passing. The Irish must be crisp and precise inbounding the ball and bringing it up the floor.

Of course, the easiest way to avoid pressure is to get stops and finish them with defensive rebounds. To me, that’s the key tonight. Notre Dame has plenty of offensive weapons. I believe they can score on just about anyone. Can they hold up inside? Can they get stops? Can they clear the defensive glass and transition into offense? Can Notre Dame dictate the pace and tone of this match-up? It is going to be a massive challenge.

This is probably a good point to remind everyone (including me) that it is November. We haven’t even had our Turkey yet. The NCAA crowns its champion in April. Every team in the country is a work in process. Notre Dame has some seasoned veteran guys, so their learning curve isn’t as steep as some, but they’re still far from everything they can be. Playing a top-ten team on the third of three consecutive nights is a great barometer, and great preparation for the spring. Please don’t go out and spend on gold-plated net-cutting scissors if they win this one, or stab yourself in the heart with them if we don’t. For those of you tranisitoning over from football, a single loss doesn’t define a season. There’s great “teachability” for Brey and his staff with either result.

With that disclaimer in place: Go Irish! Beat Shockers! Let’s go get some Hawaiian hardware.

Two last postscript thoughts:
Dakich, seriously? Yogi Farrell? You must have stock in a company that makes mute buttons. You can’t think of anyone but an IU guy as a comparison? Do you even watch non B10 games? Ugh. That breeze you’re feeling from the mainland is every Irish fan breathing a sigh of relief that you’re not on the call tonight.

Second, I’d bet good money that the Loosest (yet most superstitious and nervous) Coach in America rocks the green tee again. In fact, if we play well tonight, you might see the green tee and shorts back home next week.