Notre Dame Basketball: Wrapping Up the 2010-11 Irish Season

This year's Notre Dame basketball team far exceeded expectations.

Notre Dame finished second in the extremely competitive Big East Conference. In the preseason, Notre Dame was picked to finish seventh.

In the last AP poll, Notre Dame was ranked fifth in the country. At the beginning of the season, Notre Dame didn't even receive a vote.

So with that perspective in mind, it's hard to call this season a disappointment.

But it was...

The Regular Season

Notre Dame started the season off on fire with eight straight wins and the Old Spice Classic championship in hand; its win over Wisconsin was particularly impressive. Everyone knows that the Irish have no problem scoring the ball, but in that game they held a talented Wisconsin team to just 51 points. That's the point where I sat up and realized that this season could be different for Notre Dame.

They lost to a top-25 Kentucky team that is still running in the NCAA tournament, so there's no shame in that loss. They won four more games at home before losing to Syracuse in the Carrier Dome. Perhaps the most important thing about that loss to Syracuse was the loss of Carleton Scott to an injury. Notre Dame lost two of its next four games without Scott.

After the return of Scott, the Irish went on a tear, finishing off the regular season by winning 11 out of 12 games. Ben Hansbrough was selected Big East Player of the Year and Mike Brey was picked as Big East Coach of the Year. Notre Dame was ranked in the top 10 and had a chance at a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. Expectations were sky-high going into the postseason.

Big East Tournament

Notre Dame clinched the critical double bye in the Big East tournament. The team should have been well rested and poised to make a run at the championship.

It certainly seemed that way after Notre Dame dismantled Cincinnati 89-51 in the quarterfinals—but it wasn't meant to be.

The Irish failed to bring their A-game against a tough Louisville team that tested Notre Dame in the regular season. Notre Dame played a great first half, but got sloppy in the second. Ben Hansbrough, in particular, tried to do too much. He forced too many passes and took some ill-advised shots. That game brought to mind Coach Brey's quote about Hansbrough earlier in the year: "Ben's edge can either heat the building or burn it down."

In this case, he burnt it down.

Despite a disappointing showing in the Big East tournament, Notre Dame was in a good position to make a deep run in the NCAA tournament, having been awarded a No. 2 seed.

NCAA Tournament

In the first (or should I say second?) round Notre Dame pulled off a solid victory against Akron, 69-56. Akron proved to be very resilient, hanging in tough and never letting ND pull away. It may not have been the runaway victory that many were expecting, but a win is a win.

Then came the next round with the Florida State Seminoles...

The Seminoles entered with the best scoring defense in the NCAA. Their defense certainly lived up to its billing against the Irish. Notre Dame struggled all night shooting the ball and couldn't get anything going offensively. Florida State exposed Notre Dame and its dependency on the three-point shot. To be fair, FSU shot ridiculously well for them. It didn't shoot anywhere near as well when it played VCU in the Sweet 16.

It was a disappointing end to a great season. Hopefully the team will rebound next year.