PHILADELPHIA – When it was over, Notre Dame coach Mike Brey was waiting with a smile. Demetrius Jackson couldn’t do it. He couldn’t smile back. The scoreboard showed 34 seconds left in the East region final and Notre Dame too many points behind North Carolina.
This was Brey giving Jackson his moment, but this was Jackson in the throes of exhaustion and despair, hugging his coach and then tapping fists with assistant Martin Ingelsby and several teammates before stopping at 6-10, 253-pound sophomore Martinas Geben. Jackson lowered his head as Geben started whispering to him, then put his forehead against Geben’s massive chest and started to cry.