SOUTH BEND — Somewhere down this crazy college basketball road, one of these was coming.

Maybe it would arrive early, at home, against an opponent that many figured would be an easy out for Notre Dame men’s basketball. Maybe it would arrive down the road and on the road, a place the Irish will soon visit with regularity when they go off to play five of seven.

Maybe it would happen in league play, which is closing quicker than anyone realizes with the first Atlantic Coast Conference challenge only weeks away.

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Somewhere along the way, Notre Dame men’s basketball was going to get tested in ways it hadn’t been tested. Tested when the shots from distance weren’t falling. Tested when the defense was a little too leaky. Tested when everything didn’t look and feel and seem so easy as it did last month in the exhibition in Fort Wayne or last month in the opener against Stonehill.

Tested when Notre Dame’s resolve and togetherness and the growth it made in each department by spending almost every waking hour together over the offseason would pay off.

On Monday, Notre Dame was pushed by a program that was picked in preseason to finish last in its league, pushed by a program of old dudes who were seemingly unfazed by seeing that ACC logo at each free throw line. Pushed to figure some stuff out.

Notre Dame figured it out. It did stuff it wasn’t prepared to do this time last season. Rewind back to November 2023 — second game on the schedule at home. Against Western Carolina. Notre Dame had no business playing Western Carolina at that point. It showed. On the floor. In the box score. The Irish took a home loss in a guarantee game, which means it paid Western Carolina a few high dollar figures to come to town ... and win.

Same situation this year — second game of the season. At home. Against Buffalo and another buy game. Notre Dame trailed early by as many as seven. Trailed at half by two. Had real game pressure applied at several points. Built a big lead. Almost lost all of it.

The deeper this game got, the more you thought about this year. About last year. In the post-game presser, Irish head coach Micah Shrewsberry said what you were thinking as you watched Notre Dame (2-0) build a 20-point lead, then hold off Buffalo for an 86-77 victory.

“Last year, we’re losing this game,” Shrewsberry said. “I can tell you that right now. We’re losing this game. We probably would've folded."

Amen. Notre Dame folded then because it wasn’t prepared this time last year to play a game like this. Now, the Irish are. They did. On a night when it wasn’t pretty, on a night when Shrewsberry didn’t go as deep in his bench, on a night when Notre Dame had to suck it up and play, it played. It won.

These Irish talked all preseason about their togetherness. About their trust in one another. About their belief in one another. On Monday, that couldn’t just be empty promises. It had to go into effect when Buffalo was making shots and carving up the Irish halfcourt defense en route to 40 first-half points.

A team that doesn’t trust, doesn’t believe and isn’t all that together never pulls it together in the second half the way the Irish did while going on a 24-2 run, scoring 48 points and limiting the opposition to 25 percent from 3.

In some ways, Shrewsberry may have been more pleased with Monday’s effort and all that it entailed than the 29-point win over Stonehill to start. That night, he lamented in the locker room afterward how his guys could’ve and should’ve done this and that and that and this better. Same was likely the case Monday. There remains much to clean up, but when the game was there to be won, when it had to be figured out, Notre Dame won it by sticking together and by figuring it out.

By stringing together stops and scores and stops and stops.

“Early on the year, you’ve got to be a group that shows a little resolve at times,” Shrewsberry said. “We're sticking to it. Let's huddle and talk about what we need to do next. I’m proud of our guys. Winning’s better than losing.”

Having guard Markus Burton and forward Tae Davis also helped. Burton quietly flirted with the second triple double in program history. You looked at the stats monitor halfway through the second half, not long after the Irish had built that 20-point lead and saw that Burton was within reach of finishing with at least 10 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists. He was close, but close was as close as he would get. He finished with 19 points, nine rebounds and eight assists.

“I didn’t know; I was just kind of playing the game,” Burton said. “I knew it wasn’t my best night (8-of-21 from the field), but I knew I had to get my teammates involved. It was fun finding all my teammates making sure they get easy shots.”

Burton joining only former Irish guard (and fellow former Mr. Indiana Basketball) Chris Thomas as the only two players in program history with a triple double would’ve overshadowed a career night by Tae Davis. With so much defensive emphasis placed by Buffalo on stopping the Irish guards, Davis was kind of free to roam. Float out toward the 3-point line (where he should never stray for obvious percentage reasons), attack the rim, draw fouls, get to the foul line and make a lot of free throws.

Even with Burton and fellow guard Braeden Shrewsberry getting theirs (each scored 19 points), Davis finished with 27 points, which included 12-of-13 from the foul line, and six rebounds.

“My mindset was just keying in on the game, playing basketball the right way and just kind of hooping,” he said.

More nights like Monday await. Maybe later this month. Maybe early next year. Now the Irish know. How to answer. How to adjust. Maybe more importantly, how to win.

Follow South Bend Tribune and NDInsider columnist Tom Noie on Twitter: @tnoieNDI

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: What was different about this game for Notre Dame men's basketball?