Notre Dame sent quite the message in its Atlantic Coast Conference debut. Eric Atkins scored 19 points, Pat Connaughton had 16 and the Fighting Irish upset No. 7 Duke 79-77 on Saturday. The victory comes in the wake of leading scorer Jerian Grant's dismissal from school two weeks ago for an academic violation and provides a much-needed confidence boost as the Irish begin play in their new league. ''It's really important for our group given the two weeks we've had to feel like, 'Hey, we may still have a shot at this thing.' Because nobody else thought we had a shot,'' Notre Dame coach Mike Brey said. More...