#3 Notre Dame vs. #1 Kentucky (Elite 8)

[irishfan]

--That was the FSU football game all over again.

--Can't even pretend to be happy with a close loss. We were the better team IMO regardless of their talent. It's not like we played out of this world.

--Great year, but this really really really stings. We bring back 5 of our top 7 guys....hoping that experience can allow us to make another run next season.

Should also add how much I'm going to miss this 2014-2015 team. They were just incredibly fun to watch the whole season. I mean I still vividly remember Connaughton hitting 7 threes against Nova as a freshman and reading all the hype about Grant before his RS FR season. Sucks that those two are gone. Tough to imagine an ND team without those two on it.

 

[FearTheBeard]

Are we gonna have any legit big guy to rotate in with auguste next year?? Bonzie being only 6'5 means auguste is our only big man and even his defense needs alotta work. But damn he played a hell of a game last night

 

[IrishinSyria]

--That was the FSU football game all over again.

--Can't even pretend to be happy with a close loss. We were the better team IMO regardless of their talent. It's not like we played out of this world.

--Great year, but this really really really stings. We bring back 5 of our top 7 guys....hoping that experience can allow us to make another run next season.

This rings true.

 

[GoldenDomer]

Extremely disheartening loss. Not only because our guys outplayed the most talented team in America, because our kids deserve it more than that classless individual John Calapari. The man can't even admit that they faced a team that refused to be intimidated and played his undefeated team shot for shot. Proud to root for a classy program and school, that will not be on probation as soon as our current coach leaves! Go Irish!

 

[aubeirish]

Gutsy performance. No shame in loosing the way they did. Heads held high boys.

 

[Old Man Mike]

To LAX: kudos for defending Mike Brey, a great coach who does as much with his talent as anyone. My brother, who was a basketball coach, used to tell me how excellent Coach Brey was when I wasn't as sure. {my brother is a WVU fan, not as much ND, so he had some objectivity}.

As far as the relentless Brey denigrator that you banned: unbelievable. The West Virginia philosopher Mountain William advises: "He who finds fault in everything, finds himself." I would have been happier if you would have dealt out a longer ban ... criticism is OK, but relentless thread-ruining is just classic trolling.

As to what this is supposed to be about, our team and our coach at the end of a year to be deeply proud of: great season fellas and God bless you for your efforts, talents, and the moments that you gave us. Standing applause.

 

[returnofthemack]

Does anybody have a link for the Showtime special made about ND?

 

[tko]

We desperately needed Keith Tower last night, LOL. Seriously though, it would be nice to have a space eater inside, 6'11 type that can force shot adjustments.

 

[clashmore_mike]

Does anybody have a link for the Showtime special made about ND?

It's available in the showtime app, but you'll need an account that has access to a showtime subscription to be able to watch.

 

[IrishLion]

I wanted ND to beat Kentucky almost as much as I want to see a national championship in football (maybe even a bit more, being surrounded by big blue nation), but waking up this morning my first thought was how bummed I am that we don't get to see this group of guys all play together again. What a fantastic group of players.

The loss doesn't even bother me so much as being sad that the run is over.

 

[Irish2155]

I'm pretty pissed because ND should have won and didn't... I love ND and am so over moral victories or feel good loses, I want to see this school win something that's worth remembering beyond the fan base, this was one of those and they should have had it...

With that said it was a fun ride and I'll remember this group for a while... Fvk being a good sport tho, I hope UK loses by sixty in their next game....

Me too, I'm pissed because ND SHOULD have won last night. And moral victories can be shoved...win it, one time.

 

[Irish2155]

Extremely disheartening loss. Not only because our guys outplayed the most talented team in America, because our kids deserve it more than that classless individual John Calapari. The man can't even admit that they faced a team that refused to be intimidated and played his undefeated team shot for shot. Proud to root for a classy program and school, that will not be on probation as soon as our current coach leaves! Go Irish!

This, and I'll leave it at that. Should have won last night.

 

[Irish2155]

I wanted ND to beat Kentucky almost as much as I want to see a national championship in football (maybe even a bit more, being surrounded by big blue nation), but waking up this morning my first thought was how bummed I am that we don't get to see this group of guys all play together again. What a fantastic group of players.

The loss doesn't even bother me so much as being sad that the run is over.

My first thought this morning was..."ND should have f-cking won last night" "f-cking hate UK".

They lost, great opportunity they didn't grasp.

 

[House16]

Are we gonna have any legit big guy to rotate in with auguste next year?? Bonzie being only 6'5 means auguste is our only big man and even his defense needs alotta work. But damn he played a hell of a game last night

Gonna need Geben to take a big step forward. Elijah Burns is coming in as a freshman, and while he's certainly not a five star he could develop into a nice player. I've been seeing that we might go after a fifth year transfer PF as well, Tyler Harris from Providence. I'd expect our post play to be a bit, but not that much, better next year than this year.

 

[Bogtrotter07]

To LAX: kudos for defending Mike Brey, a great coach who does as much with his talent as anyone. My brother, who was a basketball coach, used to tell me how excellent Coach Brey was when I wasn't as sure. {my brother is a WVU fan, not as much ND, so he had some objectivity}.

As far as the relentless Brey denigrator that you banned: unbelievable. The West Virginia philosopher Mountain William advises: "He who finds fault in everything, finds himself." I would have been happier if you would have dealt out a longer ban ... criticism is OK, but relentless thread-ruining is just classic trolling.

As to what this is supposed to be about, our team and our coach at the end of a year to be deeply proud of: great season fellas and God bless you for your efforts, talents, and the moments that you gave us. Standing applause.

Word.

 

[blueNDgold44]

Couldn't sleep last night cause everytime I closed my eyes I saw Karl Anthony Towns.

Really sad to see Jerian and Pat leave, they both did so much for this program. I have so much respect for the both of them, they are truly men of Notre Dame.

 

[Ultimate Penn St. Hater]

I am completely crushed. So proud of our Irish though.

 

[Grahambo]

I agree with everything here, it's interesting because per Brey #1 was in part to try to get rid of #2... and it didn't work. He was trying to buy them rest and get them to calm down and run the offense like they had all game instead of playing hero ball.

To number 3, this was a huge tactical error. It was noted after the game that they were instructed to go at like ~10-15 seconds left on shot clock (so 45-50 second on game clock) in order to go 2-for-1 on possession but the Kentucky defense just got to them. Shame.

To number 4, I said this as soon as Kentucky got the ball. Foul their worst free throw shooter as early in the clock as possible was my thought. Gives you a chance to win/tie at the end. I'm not 100% sure this is the right call percentage wise, but I thought it was the prudent choice given that Kentucky hadn't missed a shot in 10+ minutes.

Grant owned up to the last two possessions to the point of wishing he could do it over (obviously) but he did own up to changing the offense.

The 2-for-1 was probably the worst tactical error of the night but its nice to hear that Brey attempted to get the 2-for-1. I almost would've just handed Kentucky the ball in order to get as much time as possible to run your offense. But hey, hindsight's 20/20.

And I also would've fouled Kentucky right away. I believe with the way they were shooting, fouling them early was actually the high percentage play but again, hindsight.

Best college ball game I've ever seen.

 

[JD Irish]

As a sports fan, I have never felt anywhere near as much pain from the result of a game as I did last night.

I just want to say that rooting for and following this team this year has been unbelievable. Truly a great group of people, both players and coaches. They played their best game of the season last night, they were utterly fearless and embraced the moment and delivered a performance for the ages.

Pat Connaughton and Jerian Grant have accomplished so much. They will both go down as true ND legends. Wherever I am in my life, I will make it back to Purcell Pavilion to see them get inducted into the ring of honor. I hope it is sooner than later.

 

[AgentJ]

i honestly believe nd would beat kentucky 6/10 times.

there is something to be said about experience/team vs. athleticism/individual

 

[Bogtrotter07]

I was pretty proud of the mens baller's showing. I have seen a new level of respect from the non-ND fans that I know, after this game. Their season was inspirational. Hopefully the narrative will turn into a recruiting coup.

Here is to ND athletes running around in shorts!

 

[Irish#1]

Great game, tough loss.

Isn't it amazing how good a coach is when he has the horses? Brey like a lot of other coaches showed he knows how to coach. He just needs to recruit a little better, so we have a deeper bench and we always have a couple of studs starting.

 

[RDU Irish]

Wow, this one was so hard to stomach. We had those paid non-student athletes dead to rights. As said previously, the mistake of going ISO instead of running the actual offense that got us there was really the play of the game IMO. Much rather rely on a good shot by our worst player on the court over a shot contested by three seven foot NBA pros falling away by our best player. With 30 seconds left, I was screaming to foul. Seemed obvious, whether they made the previous 10 or missed them all. Plus, Grant is not our best shooter, he is best at creating for others. Down two or less with 30 seconds to run our offense that has been shredding them all night with four 40% three point shooters? It really is too bad that coach has to sleep on that one for the rest of his life, I am sure he wants it back. I hate to arm chair QB this one because those plays are really the antithesis of our season and it drives me nuts that we all had to go down like that.

Brey is an extraordinary developmental coach and pre-game planner. This year he has done better than ever putting our guys in a position to succeed. His passion was more evident than it ever has been. He was amped up and embracing the pressure on the biggest stages. He out coached a bus load of hall of fame coaches.

I hope he has learned that a team is only as strong as its weakest link. With 5 offensively proficient players on the court and a selfless team you can accomplish anything. Brey stacked this team with more talent than ever and continues to bring it in. A showing like this pays huge dividends in basketball, a sport in which it only takes a few to be inspired by your play and want to take it to the next level. The kind of kids that want to create a legacy instead of ride on the coattails of others.

 

[Monk]

Some thoughts:

-Great game. ND should hold their heads high.
-Refs were bad in the first half and fine in the second.
-Kentucky won the game (meaning it's not ND's/Brey's fault or the refs).
-The blocking foul call was the correct call
-Calipari is a douche

 

[IrishLion]

I HATE LIVING IN KENTUCKY.

First thing my boss says to me this morning, echoing Calipari's douchey sentiments in his halftime and postgame interviews:

"Boy. It just shows that any team can beat any other team on any given day."

NO. What it showed was that ND was a damn good team that took a nearly unbeatable team to the brink.

Most fans now realize how good ND was; UK fans remain tone-def.

 

[Woneone]

Does anyone not think that Wisconsin beats Kentucky this weekend? They aren't as efficient offensively as us, but they're probably pretty close.

More importantly, they don't have to decide what they're willing to give up on defense, as they're big enough to rotate bodies on Towns (and I'm guessing he doesn't go all Villanova on them).

This may sound blasphemous to the media, but I really feel that this Kentucky team is pretty poorly coached. From a fundamentals stand-point, they aren't good defensively. They make a bunch of mistakes that are cleaned up by just being so big and athletic. Same with rebounding. Go back and watch the game, count how many times a Kentucky player boxed-out. Over/Under is probably around 5.

Probably my favorite part of the whole game is, I believe it was after the Vasturia 3, they moved to a shot of Calipari. He was asking his assistants if he should call a timeout. Over and over again. He didn't know if he should. He looked almost scared.

I wonder if all those names he's held in high regard with, Coach K, Izzo, Pitino, if they have to ask their assistants if they need a timeout.

I'll take the +5.5 in a heartbeat, and I'm not sure it's very close.

 

[RDU Irish]

I want Kentucky to win by 20 over WI and 50 over Duke. Make the games incredibly boring so people lose interest and wish ND had been matched up in a different bracket to make the Final Four interesting.

I agree 100% that Kentucky is poorly coached. Might be a function of killing time until the NBA draft.

 

[connor_in]

I HATE LIVING IN KENTUCKY.

First thing my boss says to me this morning, echoing Calipari's douchey sentiments in his halftime and postgame interviews:

"Boy. It just shows that any team can beat any other team on any given day."

NO. What it showed was that ND was a damn good team that took a nearly unbeatable team to the brink.

Most fans now realize how good ND was; UK fans remain tone-def.

other breaking news...
water is wet
the sky is blue

that is all

 

[IrishLax]

I HATE LIVING IN KENTUCKY.

First thing my boss says to me this morning, echoing Calipari's douchey sentiments in his halftime and postgame interviews:

"Boy. It just shows that any team can beat any other team on any given day."

NO. What it showed was that ND was a damn good team that took a nearly unbeatable team to the brink.

Most fans now realize how good ND was; UK fans remain tone-def.

Swear to god one of the most underrated perks of my job is the lack of SEC people. The only SEC person we have in my office is Vandy undergrad (almost ironically, she was an SEC athlete of the year or something from what I've heard) + Stanford masters who is nothing close to your typical ESS-EEE-SEE circle-jerker.

I have taken zero crap today from anyone... and instead just gotten condolences on how ND came up just short.

 

[ACamp1900]

I've worked for two schools in the last few years, one has no SEC peps, the other was full of them... LAX is right, the shit you hear from SEC people just drives you crazy...