We will make this brief and somewhat painless.
You’re getting double horse whipped this week. Not only did the Notre Dame Fighting Irish lose on the road to the Clemson Tigers, but you have to suffer through this article with me rather than one of the normal hoops crew members.
Embrace the pain.
I’ll be brief but to the point. We did learn some things in this loss - and mostly it was that our nightmares are a reality. Let us begin...
SEEK ALTERNATE AUDIO FOR ESPN BROADCASTS
This might fall into the category of DUH, but the broadcast was just awful from top to bottom and was enhanced by a really bad duo of Bob Wischusen and Dick Vitale. I offer you these tweets to support the horseshit that accompanied this game. (FYI this hoops game has Pat on the OFD Twitter Machine).
That's a heck of a split-screen infomercial for Dabo Swinney and Clemson football that somebody must have brokered with ESPN - right in the middle of a pretty good basketball game. Ridiculous. @TimBourret
— Tom Noie (@tnoieNDI) January 20, 2018
LOL at ESPN taking too long showing the replay of Geben getting blocked for us to see his dunk on the inbound
— One Foot Down (@OneFootDown) January 20, 2018
To recap - we get #ESPN announcers asking the Clemson football coach to make a recruiting pitch to a potential basketball recruit in the middle of a one-possession #ACC basketball game. Well done..... https://t.co/mOss8anVGj
— Tom Noie (@tnoieNDI) January 20, 2018
This is the worst broadcast of all-time. They're not even watching the game
— One Foot Down (@OneFootDown) January 20, 2018
And that was only the tip of the iceberg.
BONZIE COLSON IS THE COLLEGE BASKETBALL MVP
Maybe Colson isn’t the best player in the country, but it’s hard to argue that any player means more to their team than the Bonz. Notre Dame’s offense has been brutal, and these long scoring droughts at the end of the game are the difference in winning and losing - and they’ve been losing. While the return of Matt Farrell is nice, it just hasn’t impacted the offensive output as much as Colson would be able to do.
Martinas Geben has been a god lately, but Notre Dame won’t be able to win as it relies on Rex Pflueger jumpshots.
NOTRE DAME IS NOT GOING TO MAKE THE NCAA TOURNAMENT
And that’s a damn shame. There were such high hopes for this season, and a run at an ACC Championship followed by a run at the Final Four seemed like a very reasonable goal. This latest loss pretty much put the nail in that coffin.
It’s not just the loss that makes that statement. It’s knowing what is ahead in conference play, and trying to find two or three wins that are likely losses. From what we’ve seen so far, the Irish just don’t have that kind of upset ability in them at this point in the season.
THAT WAS BLEAK
None of that was very good, but I beg you to keep watching and cheering on the Irish basketball team. They are still a fun (and frustrating) team to watch, and Geben dunks just make the soul sing with joy. I leave you with a little bit of Pat’s wisdom:
Don't wanna give up on this season just yet, but we should talk about how exciting next season is gonna be. Gibbs, Pflueger, Harvey, Mooney, and Djogo will be bringing legit experience to the table to combine with the talent of Durham, Laszewski, Hubb, etc.
— One Foot Down (@OneFootDown) January 20, 2018
It's gonna be fun.
