ACC Tournament live: Notre Dame’s Brey drained of emotion (but not Waffle House) for finale
Mike Brey shared a brief word with Mike Young, his Virginia Tech counterpart, moved quickly through the handshake line and disappeared into a tunnel at the Greensboro Coliseum, moving on to what ever comes next.
Brey’s 23-year tenure at Notre Dame came to an end Tuesday night when Nate Laszewski’s 3-pointer at the buzzer rimmed out, giving the 11th-seeded Hokies a 67-64 win. Virginia Tech moves on to face sixth-seeded N.C. State in Wednesday’s nightcap, while the 14th-seeded Irish are headed home.
And where’s Brey headed?
“Tonight? I’m going to smoke a cigar and hang out a little bit and visit with my staff,” Brey said. “You need time to decompress. When you’re in the season, you’re just grinding every day. We’ll take a couple deep breaths and tonight we’re just going to lay low.”
Grant Basile had 20 and Justyn Mutts 18 for Virginia Tech, while Marcus Hammond had 23 and Cormac Ryan 18 for Notre Dame, although the game turned on a late monitor review (and lengthy discussion among the officials) that added a technical foul on Notre Dame’s Matt Zona to a foul on Virginia Tech’s Sean Pedulla. Pedulla missed one of the free throws so it was only a one-point swing, but it was Zona’s fifth foul on a night he scored nine points after scoring a total of 25 all season to that point.
Brey, daring the ACC to collect a fine on his way out the door, didn’t hold back.
“I’ll be very honest, now that I’m not in the league anymore,” Brey said, “if you have an ‘A’ officiating crew, and that was not an ‘A’ crew, you say ‘basketball play,’ we shoot the free throws and we play basketball. I think we got a little overanalyzation on that part of it. Look, Virginia Tech made plays, but I don’t think that was handled right.”
It’s been a long seven weeks of farewells since Brey announced he was leaving Notre Dame, which means that this final ACC tournament was more of an anticlimax at this point than anything.
Once he broke his own pledge never to cross the threshold and went drinking with the students at South Bend’s infamous Linebacker Lounge after his final home game, there just weren’t that many emotions left.
“You know, I think I’ve been through them all at this point,” Brey said Monday after Notre Dame’s practice at the Greensboro Coliseum. “But it has been nice to be in this place. Because this is the spot of the greatest memory and achievement in our program’s history, to win this thing in ‘15.
“So I stayed with my tradition that when we pulled in, instead of lunch with the team I walked right out the back door to Waffle House, because I’ve been draining that Waffle House through the years. There’s some really great memories.”
Notre Dame went into the game against Virginia Tech a 6.5-point underdog after a disappointing season that saw the Irish return four players from last year’s second-round NCAA tournament team and start 5-0 before losing 12 of 16, which lead to Brey announcing his impending departure in January.
The Irish managed to upset Pittsburgh in Brey’s final home game but a 23-point loss at Clemson to close out the regular season was Notre Dame’s 20th of the season. Tuesday made it 21.
In the end, he left the ACC on the same floor where he won a championship, eight years later.
“It was an honor to be part of it,” Brey said. “I grew up watching the league as a Maryland fan in Rockville, Md., certainly an assistant at Duke, and great memories here in Greensboro. I’m really proud. You got to be part of this league, and we won a championship in this league. I’m really proud of that. And in our second year.
“If Bonzie Colson doesn’t sprain his ankle in Brooklyn, we may have got two in a row. If we’d won two in the first three years, y’all would have kicked us right back out. We’d be an independent in basketball, too. We’d be dead.”
Hokie travel trouble
Virginia Tech was about 15 minutes late for its open practice Monday, one of the last of the day, after its bus took a wrong turn on the way to the coliseum. Hokies coach Mike Young, an annual visitor to the arena during his days in the Southern Conference, wasn’t exactly thrilled.
“We went to the damn hotel and not over here,” Young said. “I’ve been to this arena a thousand times having played here. We made it. We got some shots up, that’s what we wanted to do.”
Georgia Tech 61, Florida State 60
Ja’von Franklin’s free throw with 0.3 seconds to play capped a remarkable comeback by 13th-seeded Georgia Tech, which trailed the 12th-seeded Seminoles by as many as 11 in the second half and were down five with 2:04 to go before scoring the final six points.
The Yellow Jackets moved on to face fifth-seeded Pittsburgh on Wednesday in a game that made up in drama what it lacked in aesthetic appeal. Miles Kelly had a game-high 21 points for Georgia Tech while Franklin — who deliberately missed the second free throw — had 10 points and 19 rebounds.
Florida State became the first team to depart Greensboro, and after this 9-23 season there will surely be questions about whether the difficult year was enough to push 74-year-old Leonard Hamilton into retirement after 626 career wins.
Boston College 80, Louisville 62
The worst Louisville season in decades mercifully ended on Tuesday when the Cardinals (4-28) squandered a slim halftime lead and were eliminated by Boston College.
The 10th-seeded Eagles advance to play No. 7 seed North Carolina on Wednesday night. Boston College (16-16) won despite 7-foot senior center Quinten Post (ankle) being unavailable against Louisville.
Makai Ashton-Langord led Boston College with 16 points as four Eagles scored in double-figures. Durham’s El Ellis led Louisville with 16 points. The Cardinals made only four of 14 3-pointers while shooting 38% overall.
Tuesday’s results
No. 13 Georgia Tech 61, No. 12 Florida State 60
No. 10 Boston College 80, No. 15 Louisville 62
No. 11 Virginia Tech 67, No. 14 Notre Dame 64
Wednesday’s schedule
Noon No. 8 Syracuse vs. No. 9 Wake Forest (ESPN)
2:30 p.m. No. 5 Pitt vs. No. 13 Georgia Tech (ESPN)
7 p.m. No. 7 North Carolina vs. No. 10 Boston College (ESPN2 or ESPNU)
9:30 p.m. No. 6 NC State vs. No. 11 Virginia Tech (ESPN2 or ESPNU)
Thursday’s schedule
Noon No. 1 Miami vs. Wednesday Noon winner (ESPN or ESPN2)
2:30 p.m. No. 4 Duke vs. Wednesday 2:30 p.m. winner (ESPN or ESPN2)
7 p.m. No. 2 Virginia vs. Wednesday 7 p.m. winner (ESPN or ESPN2)
9:30 p.m. No. 3 Clemson vs. Wednesday 9:30 p.m. winner (ESPN or ESPN2)
Friday’s schedule
7 p.m. Thursday afternoon winners (ESPN or ESPN2)
9:30 p.m. Thursday evening winners (ESPN or ESPN2)
Saturday’s schedule
8:30 p.m. Championship (ESPN)
Jim Phillips tie report
The ACC commissioner is famous for his enormous collection of ties in alternating ACC (and neutral) colored and white stripes, a personal fashion trademark.
Tuesday: burnt orange
This story was originally published March 7, 2023 at 2:02 PM with the headline "ACC Tournament live: Notre Dame’s Brey drained of emotion (but not Waffle House) for finale."