PITTSBURGH — Notre Dame coach Mike Brey said he has a feeling Pat Connaughton, one of his senior captains who also happens to be a minor league pitcher in the Orioles' system, might have a big game against Butler on Saturday night.
Connaughton will break the all-time record for games played at Notre Dame, with his 137th at the school.
"He's handled both sports at Notre Dame and he's getting a degree from the Mendoza School of Business, and there's never been any issue going back and forth,'' Brey said. "He was a man when he got here — mature. It was like talking to a young man when he was a freshman.
"And you know what? He's very disappointed with how he played [in Thursday's 69-65 win over Northeastern] — one rebound and maybe not defending as well as he feels he could. I'm excited to have him in that frame of mind in bounce-back mode Saturday] night.''
DeMatha High School, a hoops powerhouse outside of Washington in Hyattsville, Md., has been well-represented in Pittsburghduring the NCAA Tournament.
Brey is a DeMatha alumnus, as is his best player, senior guard Jerian Grant.
Also, North Carolina State, which plays No. 1-seeded Villanova on Saturday at the Consol Energy Center, is led by sophomore forward BeeJay Anya, a DeMatha product who scored the final four points in the Wolfpack's 66-65 comeback victory over LSU on Thursday night.
"Yeah, how about the Stags?'' Brey said Friday. "Jerian and BeeJay are really close. It will be a little bit of a DeMatha night [on Saturday]. I think people are coming from Hyattsville to see both of them play.''
Butler starting guard Roosevelt Jones, who had a Willis Reed moment in Thursday's 56-48 win over Texas — injuring a knee, leaving for the locker room and returning to the bench to an ovation with the game still in progress — is expected to play against Notre Dame.
Jones averages 12.4 points per game and is a key player for the No. 6-seeded Bulldogs.
"He's gotten around-the-clock treatment, so we certainly anticipate he's going to play,'' Butler coach Chris Holtmann said Friday. To what extent he's going to be [available], it's still yet to be determined because, obviously it's been a quick turnaround and we haven't seen him out on the floor.''
North Carolina State coach Mark Gottfried has some previous experience knocking a top seed out of the NCAA Tournament. He was at Alabama in 2004 and beat Stanford, which was a No. 1. He gets another shot Saturday when his eighth-seeded Wolfpack face Villanova.
"You have to believe that you have a chance to win," he said of what it takes to beat a top seed. "Our team this year believes that, as did that team in 2004. You know that comes from playing against great teams. We've played good teams. We've beaten really good teams.
"So you have to believe that you're going to win and you have a chance to win. I tell our guys all the time that you respect everybody that you play, but you fear nobody. Our guys will have the right mindset.''
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