GREENSBORO, N.C. — On Selection Sunday, Notre Dame roommates Jerian Grant and Eric Atkins scrolled through the various conference championships on television and, coincidentally, settled on one: Xavier’s tilt vs. St. Bonaventure for the Atlantic-10 title.
So when the Musketeers appeared opposite the Irish in the NCAA tournament bracket later that night, barely a nanosecond passed before the thought occurred to both of them: We better be ready.
“I don’t think we’ve played two guards like that this year,” Atkins said. “But I’m excited for the test ahead. I know Jerian and I are going to be ready for it.”
The promising but relatively inexperienced Irish backcourt faces a stiff test in the kinetic, bottlecap-sized Xavier pairing of 6-foot senior Tu Holloway (17 points per game, 5.1 assists per game) and 6-foot-1-inch junior Mark Lyons (15.5 points per game, 2.7 assists per game).
That backcourt was perhaps the central reason Xavier earned high preseason praise and will be the reason the Musketeers advance past the Irish if Atkins and Grant don’t contain them.
“Throughout the Big East season you always get a guard match¿up where the two guards are highly talked about and are really good,” Grant said. “Me and Eric have been through this before, so we’re ready to bring our ‘A’ game.”
That said, it’s not as if Atkins and Grant haven’t met the challenge before, either. They are as much a reason the Irish emerged from early season doldrums to earn the NCAA invite, and at a combined 24.5 points and nine assists per game they’re just as dangerous.
They just have to prove it under the klieg lights at Greensboro Coliseum.
“Not a lot of people talk about us that much, so we feel like in order to earn respect and earn people to talk about you, you have to play well,” Grant said. “And whenever it’s a big match¿up, we talk about playing well so people can come into this game and know our name and we can get a win and people can start talking about Notre Dame and the two guards they have.”
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