Comments on: Disappointing Performance Ends Notre Dame’s Season

By: Scranton Dave

Scranton Dave — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 19:36:13 +0000

For 3 1/2 games before the 2nd half of the Louisville game, the Irish looked awesome! Its like something was broken in the 2nd half of the Louisville game and they never got it back. I agree they looked awful against Akron and I was very worried going into Sunday night.

By: Kayo

Kayo — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 16:35:31 +0000

Okay, no “apple to oranges comment” even though it’s true.

By: kelly green

kelly green — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 15:16:40 +0000

Irish didn’t look good in the first round game against Akron, Akron hung around the whole game. Irish looked weak in that game, so you could kind of see the next game against FSU coming. ND played a horrible second half against Louisville in the Big East Tourney.

Obviously, Billy Rafferty saw the lack of athleticism when he compared the team to a good mens league team in a bar league. Nice way of saying they are slow , can’t jump and are soft.

By: JOE MEYER

JOE MEYER — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 04:56:17 +0000

OFFENSE IS THE FUN PART, DEFENSE IS THE BLOOD, SWEAT AND TEARS PART. IT TAKES BOTH BUT I BELIEVE DEFENSE WILL GET YOU MORE WINS IF THE OTHER PART IS WORST OFF. LOOK AT WHO IS LEFT AND ASK OF THESE TEAMS DID THEY NOT HAVE THE BETTER DEFENSE? IN YOUR SHORTS DEFENSE TAKES MORE DEPTH THAN SEVEN PLAYERS. TILL COACH BREY EXCELLS IN DEFENSE WE WILL HAVE WHAT WE GOT NOW.

By: Brian

Brian — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 01:13:11 +0000

Let’s not over analyze what happened or point fingers at Brey. The Irish were very hot at the end of the season and began to cool after the CINCI blow-out in the Big East tournament. Everyone knew that if ND’s 3 point shotting went south, so too would the Irish. And that’s what happened. End of story. FSU’s defense was good, but the Irish wouldn’t have beaten Texas A&M either. Ben was spent.

By: MTZ-Irish

MTZ-Irish — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 00:37:55 +0000

Like many of you I’m afraid, all of my NCAA pick sheets had the Irish advancing AT LEAST to the Sweet 16. It was awfully disappointing last night. Watching the Akron game, I thought I saw small signs that the team beginning to implode. I tried to convince myself that it wasn’t so–obviously, my gut reaction was correct. That’s not to take anything away from FSU. Florida State deserved the win, no question. They played a tremendous game–if they can repeat that defensive performance a couple more times, they’ll make the Final Four.
I think what was hardest for me watching the game, though, was how ridiculously ordinary Ben Hansbrough played. I mean no disrespect, because Ben is one of ND’s all-time greats. But when you’re the conference player of the year…and a guard…and it’s the big dance…they ought to be able to put you down for 25 pts, 7 assists, 3 steals, lock-down defense, and half-a-dozen rebounds to boot. That’s what conference POYs do in important games. Florida St. should have been scared stiff of him. Ben gave them no reason to have an ounce of fear. He looked ‘honorable mention’ last night (and did for the last several games)–and that’s probably being generous. You can’t win without your studs being studs.
In a week, we’ll all feel better. Before you know it, we’ll be watching the opening kickoff of ND football 2011!

By: jeff

jeff — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 22:42:24 +0000

In reply to Jonny Jumping Irish II. If you're an ND grad, you should know hot to spell "Ivy"

By: Scranton Dave

Scranton Dave — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 20:59:05 +0000

Also, Brey is doing a great job with what he has to work with. People that want him out are very off base. With the academic standards and the not so great facilities he is behind the 8 ball to get the top kids. Look at the current roster, only Atkins was a top 100 recruit and he was towards the bottom of the top 100. On a bright note Connaughton coming in this year is top 100 and Biedscheid in the current HS JR class is in ESPNs top 60 so recruiting is taking a step up. Brey has done a great job in turning lightly recruited kids like Abromaitis and Scott and making them very good players. Actually Scott Martin was a top 50 recruit but he was a transfer. His injury was big last night too because he was starting to carve a bigger role for himself but didnt do much last night after getting injured.

By: Scranton Dave

Scranton Dave — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 20:52:46 +0000

I’m with Kayo, I need about a week to get over this, but I’ll give some thoughts. I agree with some points that some have made. I thought in mid February that they could make the Final 4, but could also lose in the 2nd round if they got a bad matchup. FSU was a bad matchup, and couple that with our poor shooting, and them being uncharacteristically hot from outside and you get an Irish loss. I think its unfair to say they didnt show up, they tried out there, but I think they played tight. I didnt like what I saw against Akron as I thought they were tight against them too. I think the pressure to make a deep run got to them. For 3 1/2 games, ( Nova, UConn, Cinci, 1st half of Louisville) they looked as good as anyone in the country. They lost the momentum in the 2nd half of the Louisville game and they never got it back. Very disappointing ending but it shouldnt take too much away from the great regular season they had. Lets get ready for Football, go Irish!!

By: GeronimoRumplestiltskin

GeronimoRumplestiltskin — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 19:38:58 +0000

In reply to ED.

ND’s tournament disappointments are, sad to say, not anything new. Digger’s tournament record wasn’t much better: 14W-14L (not counting the consolation games that were played back then). During the “glory” years of ND basketball in the modern era, 1974-1981, when ND was a fixture in the Top 15, Digger’s tournament record was 10W-8L, winning more than one NCAA Tourney game in a given year only twice; this was with some ridiculously talented rosters:

’74 – This team ended UCLA’s streak, finished the regular season 25-2 and ranked #2, and had 3 players that were 1st round NBA draft picks…..and won exactly 1 tournament game before falling behind Michigan 28-8 in regional semi-finals and losing 77-68.

’77, ’78, ’79 – These teams had 7, 9,and 7 players, respectively, that would be drafted by the NBA the majority in the first or second round. The ’77 team blew a 14-point lead to North Carolina on St. Patrick’s Day, the ’78 team sleep-walked through the first half against Duke in the Final Four on their way to a loss, and the ’79 team got run out of the gym by Magic Johnson and Michigan State in the regional final.

’81 – The last hurrah of Kelly Tripucka, Tracy Jackson, and Orlando Woolridge (and a sophomore John Paxton) ended by blowing a double-digit lead to BYU and Danny Ainge in the regional semi-final.

I feel like Charlie Brown every fall- I go to kick the football and Lucy always pulls it away.Each year we think things will be different-but they never are.

I was really hoping that this year’s team would be able to shake the almost 4-decade-long program motif of “regular season, home court power; post-season disappointment”. The wins in Orlando, at Pitt, and at Connecticut were encouraging, and at halftime of the BE Tourney semi-final I was thinking that ND basketball had joined the ranks of the elite. After that, there was very little to feel good about. On the one hand, it’s sad that such an entertaining season ended on such a sour note; on the other, ND was again exposed as what many here thought we were – a team a bad matchup away from being drummed out of the tourney early.