The Greatest Show in NCAA Basketball Now a Title Threat as Notre Dame Downs Duke

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Notre Dame coach Mike Brey strutted back onto the court following his team's come-from-behind 77-73 win over Duke on Wednesday night, and he had a message for the media lining the tunnel.

"You all should have paid for a ticket."

He's got a point.

Welcome to the greatest show on hardwood, starring the comeback kid Jerian Grant and his three-point-shooting gang.

If you think college basketball is broken and no one can score anymore, get to South Bend.

The eighth-ranked Irish have everyone in the sport's attention now for what they've accomplished—a 20-2 record and 8-1 start in the ACC—but it's the way they're getting it done that should make this group appointment television.

And the backstory is just as good.

Joe Robbins/Getty Images

The Irish limped to a 15-17 finish last season with Grant kicked to the curb for the second semester because of an academic suspension.

Instead of testing the NBA waters, the fifth-year senior guard decided to return with one simple mission in mind: "Get a lot of wins."

Brey, meanwhile, scratched conventional basketball wisdom. He moved 6'5" guard Pat Connaughton to power forward, surrounded Grant with a bunch of shooters and a pick-and-roll master in Zach Auguste and unleashed the best offense college basketball has seen in decades.

"Man, it's fun," Auguste said.

It sure looked that way down the stretch against the Blue Devils.

After trailing by 10 points nearly midway through the second half, the Irish scored 24 points over their final 19 possessions to sneak out a win.

Get this: It was the fourth time in the last five games that Notre Dame has rallied from a deficit of 10 points or larger.

"We got cocky offensively, and we do do that in crunch time," Brey said. "We get a real offensive swagger when Jerian starts driving that lane and then Demetrius [Jackson] as a secondary driver, and we've got guys spotting up."

Grant had the signature game of his career—23 points, 12 assists, six rebounds and two blocks—and he may have surpassed Duke's Jahlil Okafor in the Player of the Year race over the game's final few possessions.

He had what would equate to a Heisman moment.

Joe Raymond/Associated Press

With his team ahead by one point as the clock approached one minute, Grant got the ball near midcourt and started slowly measuring up Duke guard Tyus Jones. When Jones nearly picked Grant's pocket, the senior regained the ball and hit a one-footed leaner at the free-throw line to put his team ahead by three.

On the next possession after the Blue Devils had cut it to one again, the Irish turned to Grant again late in the clock. As he backed down Quinn Cook, Grant planned to unleash a fadeaway near the right elbow. Instead, as Grant rose to take the shot, Duke guard Rasheed Sulaimon darted to the basket to get the rebound, leaving Notre Dame's Steve Vasturia wide-open for the game-clinching three.

"When his eyes are wide like that and the karma's good in the building and it's swirling and he's got that look, we get a flat ball screen for him, and we let him read it and make plays," Brey said.

Grant is so dangerous that Duke face-guarded him for 40 minutes, and he still put up one of the most impressive stat lines of his career. He's now scored 23 or more points in three of the last four games. 

It doesn't matter the strategy, Grant is going to find a way to dissect the defense, and the Irish's confidence is growing with each of these comeback wins.

Brey realizes he has such a potent offense that he's thinking way outside the box. 

USA TODAY Sports

Such as the decision on Wednesday night to let his big men go one-on-one against Okafor, the best back-to-the-basket scorer college basketball has seen in years.

"Okafor is a special talent, man, but our feeling was, if you start helping too much, he's a really good passer and you can't let them scorch you from the arc," Brey said. "I felt if we were giving up twos, we would hopefully score enough to escape."

Okafor feasted on that strategy with 22 points and 17 rebounds.

Didn't matter.

That's the luxury of knowing that your offense is never out of any contest. This isn't just a one- or two-game sample size. If the season ended today, the Irish's 124.4 points per 100 possessions would be the best mark of the Ken Pomeroy era, which encompasses the last 14 years.

Notre Dame ranks 143rd in adjusted defensive efficiency, per Kenpom.com, and that usually doesn't add up in March. The last team that looked a lot like Notre Dame—2011-12 Missouri—bowed out in the first round to Norfolk State.

But two years ago, Michigan had the best offense in college basketball and a mediocre defense—48th in adjusted defensive efficiency, according to Kenpom.com—and made the national-title game.

More wins like Wednesday night will give the Irish reason to dream, and Grant believes they belong among the nation's elite. He was waving the students off from a court storm as the clock struck zero on Wednesday night.

"It's not an upset," he said.

It is quite the story. And for the good of college basketball, let's hope it unfolds into April.

If the Irish do make it that far, there's one thing that will be certain.

A Final Four ticket to Indianapolis will be worth the price of admission.

C.J. Moore covers college basketball for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @CJMooreBR.