Notre Dame Excited For “Clean Slate” In NCAA Tournament

Spending time inside the locker room in Purcell Pavilion on Sunday afternoon, one would have little idea the Irish were just 48 hours removed from a 31-point beatdown in the ACC Tournament semifinals at the hands of top-seeded North Carolina.

Excitement was in the air. Some players cracked jokes with each other between answering questions from the media, with many smiles and a few laughs to go around.

For Notre Dame, this Selection Sunday represented a reset button of sorts. A new beginning. No wins, no losses for any of the squads in the tournament.

“We’re really excited,” junior guard Steve Vasturia said. “It’s a culmination of a lot of things we achieved this season.

“It’s a whole new tournament now. It’s exciting to find out who you get to play and where you are. We have a whole week to prepare, so it should be fun to watch.”

Vasturia noted he didn’t know much yet about Notre Dame’s potential opponents — the Irish will face the winner of a play-in game on Wednesday night between No. 11 seeds Michigan and Tulsa — saying he’s only seen them a couple times on television this year.

Truly, not worrying about the opponent for a couple days might even actually be for the best. Notre Dame could benefit from some practices working just on itself, getting back on track after dropping four of its last seven games — and a few of those in blowout fashion.

If the Irish plan to last longer than the opening round, it’s necessary they fix a few lingering issues from both ACC Tournament games, starting with ball control.

Brey’s squad set a new season high with 18 turnovers in an 84-79 overtime win against Duke in the quarterfinals, with all the giveaways digging the Irish a hole as big as 16 points with 11 minutes to play before a miraculous comeback.

They responded with an almost equally poor 17 turnovers in the 78-47 loss to the Tar Heels. At times, it seemed Notre Dame had issues simply holding on to the ball, like fumbling passes.

On the season, the Irish rank 10th nationally with a 14.8 percent turnover rate, according to KenPom.com.

“It’s something that we’ve always prided ourselves on, taking care of the ball,” Vasturia said. “That’s something that we’ve been doing all season long.

“That’s something we’ve slipped up on in the last couple of games, and it’s something we all know — myself and the other guards included — that we have to be better at.

“We’re confident that we will be; it was just a tough couple games there. Just getting back in practice and getting reps is always a good thing.”

Like Vasturia, junior guard Demetrius Jackson is thankful Notre Dame doesn’t have to play in Brooklyn until Friday in the late game, after No. 3-seeded West Virginia and No. 14-seeded Stephen F. Austin tipoff at 7:10 p.m. ET.

They have a couple days of nothing but practice at home this week — maybe even as long as through Wednesday — to work out the recent kinks in the offense, and get the ball moving freely and efficiently again.

“It’s a fresh start,” Jackson said. “We go into this one 0-0 [record].

“I’m looking forward to going out and competing with the team. I’m excited to work on things this week in practice and get better, so when game time rolls around we’ll be ready to go.”

The Mishawaka, Ind., native explained he moved on quickly from his 1-of-10, three-turnover performance against the Tar Heels, but it’s also important to analyze what went wrong in order to diagnose and prevent further issues.

“You want to drop that one because we know we’re better than that,” Jackson said. “We moved on quick, but there’s also lessons to learn from that game.

“One of which being myself, I need to take better care of the ball. And as a group we need to take better care of the ball, and make better decisions. We can learn from that game, and also learn what a great start can do for us.

“We experienced great starts my sophomore year and it really helped us throughout the games. Maybe we can figure out different ways to get back to that, and not be in such a hole to try to dig out of.”

Quicker starts. Less giveaways. Crisper offensive movement.

There’s a lot for the Irish to work on before a Friday night estimated tip of 9:40 p.m. ET.

Luckily for them, they have the time. And a clean slate.