On Thursday night, in anticipation of what I imagined to be (and was) an easy beating of the Seton Hall Pirates, I watched the Notre Dame "Fightin" Irish. Though, in fairness to all the other players that have worn the uniform in years past for NBC's team, the term 'fightin' is to be taken quite lightly.They'd wind up losing to West Virginia, never getting much closer than 10 or so points. They started the game down 17-2, and from there things rarely got better.
Earlier in the season, I'd say around the first week of January, I made a bet with a kid from work about Notre Dame. Having travelled to the Joyce Center last year, having seen them destroy Syracuse not only that time but on many other occasions, I was convinced that this year the Irish would again, easily, make it the NCAAs. No questions asked.
My friend was sold that they wouldn't make it. Convinced he was the fool (how stupid I turned out to be only amazes me), I bet him five dollars Notre Dame would make the tourney. If I'd had a million dollars on me, I'd have bet that much. I was that sure.
What followed you already know. They lost their Top 25 ranking soon thereafter (a seven game conference slide will do that to you), and even found themselves losing three conference games at home this year after having won 20 Big East home games in a row.
And so, each time Notre Dame got a chance to play a big time opponent, which seemed to be every other night, I kept thinking that this was the night they'd turn it around. The trouncing of Lousiville really had me thinking they righted the ship, but a road loss to, conveniently, WVU derailed any serious momentum.
Watching on Thursday, I tried to see what went wrong. Besides a tough schedule (as Mike Brey will have you believe was the only reason), Notre Dame just didn't have it this year.
What was it?
It was rebounding, outside of Luke Harangody. It was anyone that could consistently get their own shot off, outside of big Luke. It was a true point guard (sorry, Tory Jackson). It was top notch effort (the defensive switches and rotations were generally pathetic). It was Kyle McAlarney, who for the life of him couldn't get open.
McAlarney was really the main issue. Statistics won't bear it out (ppg, 3PT% and 3PT made were all up this year from last), but he seemed to randomly drop in and out of games. West Viriginia's game on Thursday as a microcosm of the whole season, McAlarney showed a few things. One, that if he's face guarded, he's going to have a hard time getting open unless there's two or three really good screens set. And two, he can't shoot off the dribble. Oh, oh. Sorry, and three, when he's out of sorts, he's generally worthless. Then again though, most streak shooters tend to be.
Still, while I for one will never feel bad for any Notre Dame failing sports team, this one has to go down as one of the more disappointing seasons for an Irish basketball team in quite a while.
The schedule was certainly rough, but Louisville, Syracuse, Marquette, Connecticut and Villanova were able to handle it. Maybe they just weren't that good.
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