Notre Dame basketball coach Mike Brey's father dies

Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly, on the other hand, is 2-6 ATS in bowls and his program hasn't won a premier bowl game since 1993.

Brey led the Irish to an 87-78 win over Youngstown State on Monday, two days after his father, Paul, died in Florida. Bonzie Colson also reached double figures with 14 points.

The Penguins open Horizon League play against Detroit, Saturday, Jan. 2. Notre Dame scored the next nine to take a 14-9 lead, and led by eight, 21-13, midway through the first half.

Over the first eight minutes of the second half, Notre Dame pushed its lead to 24 points, 62-38, and led by 22, 80-58, with just over five minutes to go. "I actually ran an out of bounds (play) for him to get the ball and get fouled".

The Notre Dame players found out about their coach's loss and wanted to win for Brey.

Pflueger assisted on a Jackson reverse layup, and the Irish used a 7-0 run to take an eight-point lead into the half. "He's been an intriguing one in practice".

Notre Dame: Brey's son, Kyle, is the tight ends coach for Youngstown State's football team under head coach Bo Pellini. According to the school, Brey's father passed away on Saturday night and junior forward V.J. Beachem said later the team has been working to lift him up ever since.

ABOUT YOUNGSTOWN STATE (5-7): While it was a bit of an extreme - with the Penguins shooting just 29.8 percent from the field - the loss to MI shows that when Youngstown State doesn't shoot well, it usually loses.

Should Prosise return, the Notre Dame ground game that hardly missed a beat without him against Stanford, would get the added dimension of Prosise's homerun ability and his skills as a receiver out of the backfield.