Same old story for Notre Dame in Big Dance
By DOUG GRIFFITHS
ISL Assistant Editor
This was supposed to be a good season for Notre Dame, perhaps even a very good season.
It turned out to be a disappointing one.
For the second year in a row, the veteran-led Fighting Irish failed to win a game in the NCAA Tournament, didn’t advance to the Big East tournament championship game — something they’ve never done and won’t ever do considering this was their last chance — and finished tied for fifth in the regular-season conference race.
Some will try to put their spin on the 2012-13 Notre Dame season by saying it was a success. They’ll say the team won 25 games, started the year 14-1, upset then-nationally ranked Kentucky and knocked off the NCAA tournament’s overall No. 1 seed Louisville in a five-overtime thriller that will be forever remembered in college hoops’ annals.
But when you really analyze it, this Irish team, which featured six seniors (including graduate student Scott Martin), took advantage of a soft schedule and was supposed to use last year’s NCAA tournament opening game loss to Xavier as motivation for a deep run in March. That didn’t happen. In fact, Notre Dame was embarrassed in its NCAA tournament game against Iowa State.
It was simply overmatched by the Cyclones.
The Fighting Irish basically put up no fight against ISU and were outclassed in terms of speed and athleticism in their opening-round game Friday night in Dayton, Ohio. The result: an embarrassing 76-58 loss.
The defeat meant Notre Dame has now gone one decade without surviving the first weekend in the Big Dance. In its last seven NCAA tournament appearances, the Fighting Irish have won no more than one game in each of those.
It was apparent early in this one that Notre Dame would be sent home after 40 minutes of basketball.
Iowa State looked anything like a No. 10 seed and Notre Dame was anything but a No. 7.
None of the Irish players had an answer for why their team played so poorly in the season’s biggest game of the year.
Why should they? This is a trend that started long before they arrived in South Bend and by the looks of it will continue in the foreseeable future.
Brey’s program faltered in its NCAA opener for the third time in the last four seasons, something that even has the Irish head coach baffled.
“I really would think it’s the next step for our program,” said Brey, who didn’t have the happiest 54th birthday on Friday considering the result. “We’ve been so consistent in the regular season and we haven’t been able to do much here. That’s what keeps me up at night, and keeps me trying to figure out how we can be better at it.”
Notre Dame wasn’t the only Big East team to struggle early in the Big Dance. Five of the eight conference schools participating fell in their first games. Only Louisville, Syracuse and Marquette survived.
The Fighting Irish were so careless with the basketball from the outset against Iowa State that it was obvious they weren’t going to survive and advance.
Notre Dame turned the ball over with regularity – 14 times in the first half – and fell behind by a dozen at the break. Keep in mind, that was only four short of equaling Notre Dame’s season high, which was set in that five-OT game against Rick Pitino’s team.
For whatever reason, the Irish tried to play an uptempo game — or that’s the way it seemed — which really played into the hands of Iowa State’s athleticism.
“We played fast in the half-court,” Brey said. “We rushed things. My guards have been so good all year with controlling tempo and making decisions, and it just wasn’t a very good night for them. When our guards aren’t in a good rhythm, we probably can’t beat anybody.”
The deficit just ballooned in the second stanza. At one point, the Cyclones led by 27.
Everything about the night was painful. Just ask junior guard Jerian Grant.
“It hurts,” he said. “All season, I felt like we had the team this year to have a deep run in March. I really believed that.”
In reality, even though this Irish team had tons of experience and returned all five of its starters from a year ago, it had plenty of deficiencies that reared their ugly head against the Cyclones.
Notre Dame, not known for being overly athletic, looked like they were moving in slow motion compared to its Big 12 counterpart.
In fact, it was so bad and Notre Dame’s foot speed was so glaringly deficient that it couldn’t guard ISU as the Cyclones constantly drove by Irish defenders and got to the rim with ease.
The defensive effort was so poor that in the second half Brey yanked Jack Cooley out of the game and gave him an earful.
It didn’t matter. Brey could’ve yelled to the point where he lost his voice and it wouldn’t have made a difference.
Iowa State did whatever it wanted.
ISU shot better than 70 percent for a better part of the second stanza. The Cyclones knocked down 12 of 14 shots to begin the final half. Sure, they were hot, but Notre Dame might as well not even have been on the floor the way it was playing defense.
Cyclone freshman forward Georges Niang matched a season high with 19 points and Melvin Ejim added 17.
Leading Notre Dame in scoring were Tom Knight and Jack Cooley who had 14 apiece.
Unfortunately for Knight and Cooley their collegiate careers are over and they’ll have to deal with their final game in Irish uniforms being such a lopsided affair.
No doubt it will be a long offseason for Brey and Co. and his team will definitely have its work cut out to make its fifth straight NCAA tournament next season when it joins the ACC.
There will be those who question whether Brey can lead the Irish to the kind of success people expect nowadays. He’s averaged 21.9 wins per season in South Bend and his job is safe as it should be, but that won’t quiet the critics that say he can’t win when it matters most.
Five months ago many believed this had a chance to be Brey’s best Notre Dame team. It didn’t pan out that way and as a result expect the pressure on him to only intensify going forward.
