It was almost as if Notre Dame head coach Mike Brey knew a five-overtime game against Louisville was coming.
The No. 25 Fighting Irish watched videos of great boxing matches before their marathon win over No. 11 Louisville on Saturday night. Brey talked to the players about going deep into a match — and now the Irish players know what that feels like.
”I talked about it being a 15-rounder and taking punches and being put on the mat,” Brey told The Associated Press. ”At the fourth or fifth timeout I said, `Has there ever been a 20-rounder?”
The Notre Dame players were skeptical of Brey’s analogy, but that was before the game lasted over 3 1/2 hours.
”We’re like, 15 round matches, that doesn’t happen,” Notre Dame forward Jack Cooley said. “And then we played five overtimes. So that’s how it went.”
The game was the longest in Notre Dame history and the longest in Big East regular season history. Watch clips from the marathon matchup in the video below.
