Like its next opponent, Notre Dame looks unbeatable vs. Wichita State

CLEVELAND — For a moment, Mike Brey thought about letting the possession play out. Notre Dame had just fallen behind Wichita State, had just lost its massive lead, had just invited in all the demons of postseasons past.

Five seconds ticked off. No timeout. Notre Dame got into its offense. No timeout.

Then Brey flashed back to Greensboro, N.C., and the ACC tournament and a moment in the championship game when things started looking shaky before the Irish reeled off a 15-0 run.

"Not a lot of drama, not a lot of strategy," Brey said. "I said, 'Fellas, we've been here before. Little did I know it was another lightning strike."

Pick your own weather metaphor: A lightning strike, a flash flood, a hurricane. What Notre Dame does to its opponents comes on strong, blows through fast and leaves a trail of devastation in its wake.

The Fighting Irish are into the Elite Eight for the first time since 1979 with a team unlike any other in college basketball, a team that does not need to play well for 40 minutes because just a few will often do the job.

At some point, no matter how much they struggle for a five- or even 10-minute stretch, Notre Dame's spacing and passing and relentless screening are going give it open shots and turn it into a simple game of make-or-miss. And when the Fighting Irish start making, there's little that can be done to stop them.

"I've never seen a one-point lead get out of hand so quickly," Wichita State coach Gregg Marshall said. "And it did because of their firepower."

Coming out of Brey's timeout with 16:28 remaining after Notre Dame lost all of its early 13-point lead, here were the Fighting Irish's next nine possessions: Made three-pointer, made 3-pointer, made layup, made 3-pointer, made layup, made layup, made layup, made layup, made layup. For nearly 5½ minutes, Notre Dame didn't miss a shot.

For most teams, that kind of stretch — particularly in an NCAA tournament game — would be considered a fluke. Making nine of 19 from three-point range is the kind of outside shooting teams hope to catch once a tournament. For the Fighting Irish? It's pretty much who they are.

"It's like blood in the water," senior Pat Connaughton said. "You feel it and you want to get those stops so you can keep running. It's something you can't get enough of. When we're in that moment, we feel like we can run with anybody."

And it may be the very thing that gives Notre Dame a chance in Saturday's Midwest Region final against Kentucky. Like every other team the Wildcats have played, Notre Dame has no chance to score consistently at the rim against Kentucky's size. Unlike the other teams who have tried and failed to crack Kentucky's defense, Notre Dame may not need to.

"We can get into those flows at any time," Brey said. "This group is cruel, and I love it. It's a great trait. When they feel a little blood in the water, they go for it again, and that's why they're special and playing for a regional championship."

Notre Dame is also quite clearly playing without pressure. For years, so much of the narrative surrounding Brey's program has been its failures in the postseason. Since making the Sweet 16 in 2003, Notre Dame won just two NCAA tournament games in the following 11 years.

Brey has not run from that record, but he says it hasn't weighed on him, either. He's too far along in his career, too secure in his job and the big picture of what he's built at Notre Dame to let the results of a one-and-done tournament affect how he does things.

But as much as Brey didn't want this Notre Dame team to feel the weight of what has been done (or not done) in the past, there was certainly some external pressure on this group not to flop last weekend, particularly coming off the great ACC tournament run.

"We were a little tight," Brey said.

Once Notre Dame pushed through those close games against Northeastern and Butler, though, it was as if the Fighting Irish had been unburdened. They rode a pair of early three-pointers by Demetrius Jackson to an 18-5 lead, went through a dry spell to end the first half, then got going again when Jackson hit a couple more.

Against one of the best defensive teams in the country, Notre Dame made 75% of its shots in the second half. That probably won't happen again, but it will certainly serve as a warning for a Kentucky team that can't rely on simplyl packing the paint and blocking shots.

"It took longer than I liked, but once I figured out how they were guarding ball screens and denying me on top, we got in a rhythm and started playing our game," guard Jerian Grant said. "When we get on those runs we're just playing. When other team try to counter us they play a little quicker, get out of their rhythm and counter our offensive attack and we just like to feel that and keep pushing." ​