This One Hurts
Frank Vitovitch
Thursday, March 9, 2000

New York, NY - It's a testament to how far the basketball program has come that Irish fans all over are all probably hanging there heads right now, because this one hurt.  Notre Dame's NCAA Tournament hopes may have been burst tonight when the Irish fell to the #2 seed Miami Hurricanes for the third time this season. 

The Irish came out firing and took the early lead, but Miami took the lead over midway through the first half and held it for most of the remainder of the game.  The Irish never gave up however and chipped away the entire game but just couldn't come out with the win when all was said and done.

It came down to what could have been a fairy tale ending with Troy Murphy, the Big East Player of the Year, taking a three pointer with seconds remaining that would have given the Irish a two point lead after Miami missed the first end of a one and one with roughly 15 seconds left.  It was not meant to be and Murphy missed.

The game was not over yet however.  Notre Dame failed to foul, but Miami threw an outlet pass and dunked it with 0.8 seconds remaining.   Notre Dame had a slim glimmer of hope, but Harold Swanagan's in bounds pass was blocked and the game ended, possibly crushing Notre Dame's Tournament hopes.  To all ND students - go to the Grotto and LIGHT A CANDLE!!

Notre Dame did not shoot the ball well throughout the game which lead to a Miami lead that reached 9 points many times in the final 10 minutes of the game.  Against Rutgers, Notre Dame hit on 10 of 23 three pointers.  Tonight they hit on only 5 of 24.  I said in an earlier article that Notre Dame would have to shoot well to win tonight which didn't happen.

Troy Murphy had not played well against Miami this season averaging only 14 points a game with 11.5 rebounds.  He did slightly better tonight with 15 points but did have 16 rebounds.  He looked very tired throughout the game since he had played all 40 minutes against Rutgers Wednesday night.

The Irish Tournament hopes rest on the results of the Villanova/St. John's game which will start later tonight.  If Villanova wins, I don't see the NCAA Selection committee picking the Irish over the Wildcats.  With the Notre Dame loss, Seton Hall is in.  If the Irish and Wildcats had both won, there was a chance they could have been left out, but they should be in for sure now.

The game was a microcosm of the season with the never say die mentality.  The Irish never quit and never gave in.  Even when they were down by 4 with 38.6 seconds to go they battled back and Jere Macura hit a three pointer to bring it back to a one point lead.  Macura played very well in the Big East Tournament as he had down the stretch this season.

Notre Dame has a very good case for a Tournament bid, but then again so do a lot of teams.  The losses to Providence , Rutgers, Miami of Ohio, and Pittsburgh hurt their case the most however.  The Irish RPI should go up with Georgetown's win over Syracuse and could go up more if the finals of the Big East Tourney would come down to St. John's and UConn since the Irish beat both during the season.

Say a prayer, light a candle, and cheer cheer for the Red Storm to beat Villanova!!