NEW YORK

With five seconds left and Notre Dame up by 12 points against Rutgers, Big East player of the year Troy Murphy stood at half court, pumped his fist and dished the ball off to point guard Jimmy Dillon.

Dillon clutched the ball and held it as the final horn sounded.

How fitting. Dillon, a four-year member of the team and a first-year starter, knew all about playing in the Big East tournament.

Now he and the Notre Dame basketball program know what it's like to win one there.

"It's been exciting for me throughout the season and even in the preseason," Dillon said. "I just got a sense that we had something special this year. It's been exciting to see the team progress through the years.

"Our togetherness and our coaching staff, it just seems a lot of things were clicking for us this year," he continued. "Coming into the Garden, I've never been more excited to play in a game."

The Irish have come to the world's most famous arena each of the past four years looking for that elusive first conference tournament win, only to have their hopes dashed in the first round each time.

Now the Irish, who tied their best conference record and earned their highest seed in the tourney, are moving on to play No. 2 seed Miami tonight.

"This means a lot to this program," Murphy said. "We never had a win in the Big East tournament, so this is a big step forward for us. This is a great team win and I had a great time playing tonight."

There were also a few former Irish players on hand who had a great time watching them Wednesday night.

"Kelly Tripucka is in the background there and he is someone who is a great supporter of us," first-year head coach Matt Doherty said. "We've got some former players back there and I try to bring them back and try and bring back the old days. I hope we made you proud, Kelly."

The Irish players definitely made their coach proud.

Notre Dame came out ready to play and stuck to the fundamentals — executing their half court offense, crashing the boards and playing solid zone defense.

The Irish clearly had a lot to play for and a lot to prove. Revenge was on their minds.

"It was a good motivator that we got Rutgers as a draw," Dillon said. "There was a sense of payback and our team was up for it."

"I know they had a lot to play for and they played like it," Rutgers head coach Kevin Bannon said. "That looked like a team that really had something on its mind and was out to accomplish something."

Doherty challenged his team before the game and they responded.

Now he will see how his troops fare against a tough Miami team.

"Miami may be the best defensive team we have played this year," Doherty said.

"We had a 12-point lead against them in the second half in Miami and then they really tightened up the screws defensively. So we have a big challenge.

"They are the co-champs of the league and we have nothing to lose really," he continued. "We need to go out, play hard, play smart, play together and, hopefully in the end, we'll be in position to win the game."

The Irish and Hurricanes tip-off in the quarterfinals at 7:30 p.m. at Madison Square.

Notre Dame dropped two regular season contests to Miami. The Irish will find out just how big a motivating force revenge can be.

The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.

• Irish avenge regular season loss to Scarlet Knights
  
• Dillon, Irish finally learn about winning in Garden