No luck of the Irish allowed in Charlottesville as Kihei & Co. survive another ACC thriller diller

By Jerry Ratcliffe

By now, Mike Brey is safely back home in South Bend, curled up in his favorite easy chair by the fireplace, sipping on some classic Irish whiskey courtesy of Virginia coach Tony Bennett. There wasn’t any snow on the ground as Brey predicted — an oddity this time of year. You’d have to go all the way to Benton Harbor or Paw Paw to find a covering.

Those were Brey’s announced plans as he exited John Paul Jones Arena on Saturday afternoon. The Irish whiskey, a going-away present to the outgoing Notre Dame coach from UVA — it was the least Bennett could do after surviving a last-second scare by Brey’s team — would make for a nice diversion as the Irish coach thought about what might have been.

Literally all of the 14,230 people crammed into JPJ gasped Saturday afternoon when Notre Dame’s fifth-year deadeye Dane Goodwin let go of a desperation 3-pointer at the buzzer. There’s no one on the roster Brey would have rather launched the potential, heart-stopping game winner.

But as in most of Notre Dame’s 17 losses this season, it was as if all the Irish Luck had been used up, maybe during football season. There wasn’t a leprechaun anywhere to be seen.

Goodwin, who had made 43 percent of his 3-point shots over the past two seasons, watched in dismay as the ball caromed off into oblivion, setting off a Cavalier celebration that would lead UVA all alone into first place by day’s end.

Virginia 57, Notre Dame 55.

It was the second Cheat-the-Reaper kind of day for Bennett’s Cavaliers this week, although Wahoo fans likely gained more appreciation for the close call at Louisville after the bottom-feeding Cardinals whacked fourth-place Clemson by 10 points.

As Brey walked into the press room Saturday afternoon, his eyes were directed upward as he said, “I’m still looking at it in the air … I’m still looking at Goodwin’s shot and thinking, we couldn’t ask for a better look.”

Virginia owned a three-point lead (57-54) on team-leading scorer (15 points) Kihei Clark’s two free throws with 22 seconds to play. Goodwin attempted to tie it on a 3-point shot with nine seconds to play, but missed it and UVA’s Jayden Gardner grabbed the rebound and was fouled (see related blow-by-blow game story here), sending him to the line for a one-and-one. Gardner missed, and UVA fouled Trey Wertz with 3.9 seconds to play.

Wertz made the first shot — 57-55 — before a timeout was called. During the timeout, Brey looked at Wertz in the huddle and said, “You got a good miss in you?”

Wertz followed orders, missed, and in a wild scramble for the ball, Goodwin was wide open on the left wing, a dream scenario for Notre Dame.

“I see it, it’s in the air and I’m thinking, you know, don’t we kind of maybe deserve this one after … I guess not,” Brey said after watching the miss.

Bennett, who tried to honor Brey’s career prior to the game, a gesture declined by the veteran Irish coach, said that Wertz’s off-target second free throw was the perfect miss and felt fortunate that Goodwin “got the look and just missed it.”

Notre Dame, which has been in almost every game it has played, isn’t an easy matchup with essentially four guards and Nate Laszewski, who is a stretch 3 or 4. It did allow Virginia to play its smaller lineup most of the game.

For the second-straight outing, UVA’s backcourt came to the rescue with Clark, Reece Beekman and Armaan Franklin carrying the bulk of the scoring load, combining for 38 of the team’s 57 points. The rest of the team was only responsible for seven field goals made.

“They’re really hard to keep out [of the paint],” Brey said of UVA’s guards. “We were somewhat worried that in a game like this, if they make double-digit 3’s (Virginia was 7 of 24), and you over-help, you’re gonna lose by 15.

“With their tempo, they’re not going to race away from you, you’re able to stay within striking distance. But eventually, when it comes to Clark or any of their perimeter guys physically driving you, they’re really strong and old (experienced), and gifted in getting to the basket.”

Brey said that Clark has a way of getting in the paint and forcing fouls (he was 6 of 8 at the line). It was no surprise that the Notre Dame coach lingered in the handshake line at the end of the game to salute UVA’s record-setting, fifth-year senior.

“I told Clark, hopefully it’s the last time I’ll see him,” Brey smiled. “I really don’t want to see him anymore. He’s the ultimate winner, man. I said, ‘You’re a big-time winner.’ Just so impressed with his career.

“Clark has an air about him … Clark is Clark is Clark. He’s a winning dude.”

Brey was right. Earlier in the week, Clark became the winningest player in ACC history, passing Duke’s Shane Battier. He had already logged more minutes than any player in UVA history, and with the third of his four assists Saturday, he leapfrogged John Crotty as the Cavaliers’ all-time leader in that category, with Crotty in the audience.

Crotty, as expected, was gracious in handing over his record (684) since 1991.

“It means a lot,” Clark modestly said afterward. “It’s a team award. The guys make a lot of shots and I give the credit to them.”

The veteran UVA point guard was blown away by Brey’s comments to him in the handshake line as well.

“He just said that I’m a winner, that he had watched me develop throughout the year. So I appreciate the love and the praise from a lot of the coaches that I get from the ACC, and I know we have a lot of highly touted coaches in this league,” Clark said. “So any love I get from them, I really appreciate it.”

The praise included his own coach, Bennett, who had played in the NBA against Crotty, so he had a point of reference to Clark’s accomplishment.

“John was a heck of a player and he was tough-minded, but for Kihei to pass a player of that caliber is very impressive,” Bennett said. “I know it’s in five years, but still, Kihei has been so important for our program. He’s a competitor of the highest level and he’s made a difference ever since he stepped foot on campus from his first year. The fact that John was here, and he did that, was real special.”

The entire day was special in that records fell, Virginia stumbled its way into first place in the league and that JPJ’s ban on leprechauns (Notre Dame has never won in Charlottesville) is still intact.

Even that special gifted Irish whiskey must have been good going down back in South Bend.