CLEVELAND -- Beware, Kentucky. That little leprechaun looms.
The pristine season, the presumed NCAA championship, the aura of invincibility and every other plaudit being thrown at the so-good-they're-scary Wildcats are all at risk. There is a proven giant-killer waiting.
Notre Dame, with a long history of defeating basketball behemoths, stands in Kentucky's path to the Final Four and perhaps the first undefeated season in the college game since Bobby Knight's Indiana squad ran the table 39 years ago.
The Fighting Irish get another chance tonight at bringing down this team of teams, one that some feel is invincible. You know, like the 1974 UCLA Bruins, who had their 88-game winning streak stopped by the Irish.
Double-digit underdogs, the Fighting Irish (32-5) believe they'll take the floor against Kentucky with something extra.
"We are America's team tomorrow," Coach Mike Brey said Friday. "We love it. We certainly will take all that support. We've got a monumental challenge on our hands."
No doubt. Kentucky has a half-dozen future NBA first-round draft picks, and the top-seeded Wildcats (37-0) are coming off a jaw-dropping, 39-point victory over West Virginia in the semifinals of the NCAA Tournament's Midwest Regional.
Kentucky showcased all of its splendor -- size, depth, defense -- in running the Mountaineers out of Quicken Loans Arena. But beyond having one of the most efficient offenses in the country, three-point shooters and underrated toughness, the Fighting Irish believe they can defeat the Wildcats.
"We have a lot of confidence," guard Jerian Grant said. "We feel they haven't played an offensive team like us. Just go out there and play our game I think we'll be able to get a win."
Notre Dame has knocked off The Associated Press' No. 1 team eight times, most recently in 2012 against Syracuse. While that won't necessarily help them as they try to tame the Wildcats, the Fighting Irish believe it can happen again.
"You look back in history, we've been able to do it," senior forward Pat Connaughton said. "Something that I and this team have preached on the whole year is that we've kind of been writing our own history, doing things the Notre Dame basketball program hasn't done in a long time or ever. So as much as you look back, you've got to still be in the present time and know that you're going at this, it's completely different.
"You can't rely on history to play its course. You need to write your own history."
Talking about beating Kentucky is one thing, but pulling it off is something else. West Virginia had a plan, but once the Mountaineers were down 18-2 everything went out the window.
Kentucky doesn't beat itself, and Coach John Calipari doesn't believe someone will have to play a nearly perfect game to upend his Wildcats.
"My team knows that every team that's left playing can beat us. We know that," he said. "Somebody talked about perfection. We're not perfect; we're undefeated. I mean, we should have lost five or six games. We easily could have lost those games and we were lucky enough to win.
"Well, this is the same kind of game. You can't help Notre Dame. If you do, you're going to lose because they're that good."
Andrew Harrison, the Wildcats' leading scorer, said he doesn't expect his sore, dislocated left ringer finger to slow him down. Harrsion was injured while trying to make a steal in the second half against West Virginia, and his finger was bent so grotesquely that a Kentucky trainer ran on the floor and threw a towel over it.
"When I first saw it, I heard my wife just scream as a mother," Calipari said. "I had to look away."
Harrison headed toward the locker room but quickly returned after the medical staff popped his finger back into place. When he returned to the bench, Calipari wanted to know if it would affect his shooting touch.
"I said, 'Is it your left hand or right hand?' " Calipari said. "He said my left hand. That's why I kissed him."
Brey, who believes his team is better tested than Kentucky after a season in the rugged ACC, knows what it takes to conquer a seemingly unbeatable team. He was on Duke's coaching staff in 1991 when the Blue Devils stunned undefeated UNLV in the Final Four.
Brey remembers early success snowballing into a victory few thought possible.
"We got off to a great start and then you believed," he said. "It's similar to tomorrow. You get off to a good start against Kentucky in here tomorrow night, OK, we've got a shot at this thing."
Notre Dame went 14-4 in the ACC, quite a turnaround for a team that won just six conference games last season. Not only did the Irish acquit themselves during the regular season, but they went to Tobacco Road and beat Duke and North Carolina in Greensboro on consecutive days to win the ACC Tournament.
Brey said there is no better training for Kentucky.
"We were 4-1 against Duke and Carolina this year," he said. "If that doesn't get you ready for playing these dudes tomorrow, I don't know what does."
Sports on 03/28/2015