1Colson-)True warrior for the team. His defense is suspect but his rebounding and offense is AA caliber.
2)Farrell- Erratic at times but did way more than expected. Great year for him.
3)Center play-We need much better. Terrible recruiting by the staff has put us in this position.
4)VJ- The enigma of the year. He has the tools but looks disinterested. Will be playing overseas next year.
5)Vasturia- Great kid who was forced into a role he does not relish. Basketball IQ is off the charts but his lack of athleticism hurts.
Bench strength was the achilles heel. Unless Mooney and Gibbs are way better next year, we are in trouble.
Brey and staff did a a good job. Signature wins against FSU,Louisville and Northwestern and a first win in some time against UVA. Problem is we are not in the elite category.
Overall, this is the ceiling for the program. Sweet 16 is where the ladder rungs get cut off.
Hope the women take up the slack and get to the Final 4. They are the real deal.
Al Maguire famously said, in response to a question how one wins the NCAA, that you have to be lucky, and the last shot has to go in.
That applies to each game in the tourney. Last year, ND was lucky (both because the higher seeds got beat, and the last shot went in against Stephen A. Austin-- a major College hoops powerhouse, dontcha know). This year ND was lucky when the wide open last shot by Princeton -- another hoops factory where players don't have to go to class -- did NOT go in. That's college hoops. They were lucky to get by the first round, and predictably lost to a much better team. No shame there.
ND was certainly better this year than I expected. Brey did a better job than I can recall getting his team to play defense. Bonzie Colson was unbelievably good -- never better than against WVU. And Farrell was way better than I thought. They are not, in my view a Top 16 team.
With Colson back, if Gibbs matures and Farrell is as good or better, they should have a similar season next year -- beat the teams it should, beat some it shouldn't and lose the majority of games against ranked teams. BTW, the Tourney seems to show that the ACC was not the super-conference we all believed it to be.
Looking forward to watching the Muffettes tonight.
until next year.
It must be great being you. All perfect n shit.
Do you think profanity makes you smarter? Do you have anger issues?
I suppose the fact that this is a Board where people post opinions is lost on you.
My "smug" & "perfect" advice:
1. Grow up
2. Try keeping your comments to the merits of the issue instead of name calling and using foul language.
3. Change your moniker: Knute Rockne was a winner.
Notre Dame ran into a team today that it couldn't solve. That happens. If they were to play again, the outcome might be very different with a chance to respond better to the press.
That said, this team has shown the last three years the Sweet 16 isn't the ceiling. Next year Notre Dame brings back Colson (most likely), Farrell, Ryan, Pflueger, and Gibbs. Add in some of the bench players this year that should be ready for playing time and Notre Dame should be a Sweet 16 team minimum next season.
The administration can clearly do much more for the basketball program, but Brey has built a pretty good program as next year should be better than what was predicted to be a "down" year.
Princeton was an open three away from beating ND. I am not knocking the program but just stating the real fact that we are between a 20-40 team in the rankings. I am happy now that we are not losing out of conference games against central Michigan but we will always have a tough time beating the true elite teams. Last year the team was lucky in their draws to get to the elite 8. I thought our best win in the tourney was Wichita State a few years ago. We have zero inside presence and teams get uncontested shots in the paint year after year because they cannot find a big man.
Next year is going to be rough unless the guards can shoot and handle the ball . Rex and Gibbs need serious work on their game.Wildcard is if Bonzie declares for the draft.
Great win by the lacrosse team at UVA yesterday. That is one sport we excel at.
Women play Purdue tonight around 9 pm. This is considered to be a down year for the squad because of inconsistent play and yet we are ranked number 2 in the country. The men can only dream to be in this position.
Recruiting has started to pick up since the recent run of success and Brey has built the program to consistently be at least a Sweet 16 caliber team. At this point, that should be considered the barometer of success and not the "ceiling". Anything less than the Sweet 16 should be considered a disappointment - as this run was.
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