LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- On the first weekend of December, even the Notre Dame Leprechaun did not put up his dukes to argue the Fighting Irish would have a finer basketball season than the University of Louisville.
How could he?
The Cards went on the road to beat North Carolina State that weekend. That was Louisville's Atlantic Coast Conference opener. The 5-point win pushed U of L to 6-2 overall, the No. 39 team nationally in Ken Pomeroy's computer power formula.
That was Dec. 4, one day after Notre Dame went to Boston College and lost by 16. That was Notre Dame's ACC opener, and the Fighting Irish looked every bit the 8th place team they were projected to be on ACC Media day.
Mike Brey's team slipped to 3-4 overall. Considering he will turn 63 next month and that his program has not played in the NCAA Tournament since 2017, Brey was the ACC coach most likely to headline the 2022 Hot Seat lists.
Well, well, well.
Since beating N.C. State, Louisville has lost 11 of its last 16 games, including 6 straight for the first time in 31 seasons.
Since losing to BC, Notre Dame has won 15 of 18, surging into a first-place tie with Duke atop the ACC with six games remaining. That Notre Dame victory over Kentucky no longer looks like such a crazy result.
The Fighting Irish beat Louisville by a dozen at the KFC Yum! Center in what turned out to be Chris Mack’s final home game as the Louisville coach.
The Fighting Irish beat Louisville by a half-dozen in South Bend, Indiana, last Wednesday, the most recent game the Cardinals have played for interim coach Mike Pegues.
I asked Pegues if he could explain the amazing ascent of the Fighting Irish, who do not appear to be markedly more talented than the Cardinals.
"Notre Dame is an old veteran group, led by an old veteran coach who knows what he's doing," Pegues said. "They're going to give teams problems down the stretch and in Brooklyn (at the ACC Tournament)."
Pegues, remember, excelled for Brey at the University of Delaware. On the ACC coaches' conference call, Pegues said that when he coached against Brey, he looked toward the Notre Dame bench, "to see what he was doing, to see how he was coaching, how he was motivating his guys.
"What I saw was a guy who was really passionate in his early 60s. He was running up and down the sidelines. He was incredibly positive.
"Those are certainly some takeaways that I will add to my coaching."
Of course, it's more than enthusiasm and energy. It always is.
The numbers show several reasons why Notre Dame has been successful and the Cardinals have wobbled. The Irish value the basketball, turning it over on 14.2% of all possessions, second best in the ACC.
They've become a solid defensive unit, ranking third in the ACC in defensive efficiency after ranking No. 12, No. 13 and No. 11 the three previous seasons. The Irish start four juniors and a senior. They've stopped giving lip service to defending.
And the Irish are the best team in the league at not sending opponents to the foul line.
And Louisville?
The Cards have become so perimeter oriented they rank last in the ACC in getting to the foul line, by a considerable margin.
For the season, because of an off season shift in philosophy, Louisville has taken more than 43% of its field goal attempts from distance. But the Cards are well below average as a 3-point shooting team, making 31.9%. That ranks 264th among 358 Division I teams.
There has been nothing formidable about Louisville's defense. The Cards are 13th in the league in defensive efficiency, 14th in blocked shots and 15th in making steals. Opponents make shots that Louisville does not block without making enough steals.
Again, how has Notre Dame ascended?
"I think it starts at the top," Pegues said. "They obviously have a great coach, who's done it before, who's had really good teams. He always seems to get more with less.
"They beat us (last Wednesday) with 6 guys, 6 1/2 guys. I think they played one kid who barely plays. It doesn't bode well for me to have to say that, but it's true.
"But I think that they get a lot of mileage out of the kids that they do have."
There is one other reason. The Irish also have Blake Wesley, one of the best freshmen in the ACC. Louisville recruited Wesley last season. For a variety of reasons, Wesley decided to stay in South Bend, where he played high school basketball.
Wesley is Notre Dame's second leading scorer at 14.2 points per game. Louisville does not have a player averaging 10 points per game.
Unless Malik Williams or Noah Locke (both at 9.5 points per game) rally, this will be the first season since 1944 that Louisville will finish without a double figures scorer.
"(Wesley) changes the game for them," Pegues said. "You add a first-round NBA pick for them, a potential first-round pick to a group of guys who really understand how to play, that are willing to play their roles, that share the ball, that can make shots at a high level.
"There is no indecision about who does what. Everybody is comfortable in their own skin and they play the game together. They share the ball. They understand the details of being a solid defensive team.
"They don't try to be some crazy offensive rebounding team. They know who they are."
And who Notre Dame has been is the most surprising team in the ACC while Louisville has been the most perplexing.
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