Irish NIT Run Sneak Preview to 2000
Frank Vitovitch
March 31, 2000

New York, NY - Even though the Fighting Irish lost in the finals to the Wake Forest Demon Deacons, the Notre Dame basketball team gave college basketball fans a little sneak preview of what to expect for next season when the Irish try to match a season in which they won 22 games.

Notre Dame was considered by many people a football only school when it came to athletics.  The basketball teams, both Men's and Women's, showed those thinkers that Notre Dame basketball is one the rise.  Coming into this season, Notre Dame's men's team had never had a winning record in Big East action and had never won a Big East Tournament game.  Both of these droughts ended this season.

One year ago from yesterday, Notre Dame started the rebuilding project when they hired Matt Doherty to be its next head coach.  Doherty, the former North Carolina teammate of Michael Jordan and assistant coach at Kansas, was hired to resurrect a program that had not been to the NCAA Tournament in nearly 10 years.  

Well, Doherty had the Irish a couple wins away from getting into the Big Dance, but they had to settle for the NIT.  In the NIT, Doherty lead his team to the championship game before falling to Wake Forest 71-61 Thursday night.   The turn around however was a remarkable improvement.

Doherty inherited some great talent in Troy Murphy, David Graves, Harold Swanagan, and Matt Carroll, but it was more than just the talent on the team that got the team motivated this season.  Doherty had the team believing that they could win every game they played, and for intents and purposes they could have.   There may have been teams that beat the Irish handily, but Notre Dame proved they could play with and beat anyone they played with five wins over top 25 teams.

With four returning starters and one incoming impact player, Ryan Humphrey,  who will team up with Troy Murphy and Harold Swanagan to give the Irish a a great front court, this was just a sign of things to come for the basketball team.

Notre Dame will benefit from the extra month of practice it received by making it to the NIT Championship game, and it will do the younger players a ton of good.  Matt Carroll, Jere Macura, Mike Monserez, and Ivan Kartelo all benefited from the extra time playing in the NIT, and you could see how far each had come since the beginning of the season.

The problem now for the Irish will be trying to live up to what are going to be high expectations next season.  It is very likely the Irish will receive a top 25 preseason ranking next season and after getting so close this year, most fans will not be happy with anything less than a NCAA Tournament bid.

Many people under estimate what Ryan Humphrey is going to give this team.  First off, he will be one of, if not the most athletic person on the team.  Notre Dame had trouble keeping up with teams at times this year as they did against Wake Forest last night.  Humprhey will give them some much needed athleticism.   He will also force other teams to guard him and not double down on Murphy.  If they still double down on Murphy, the outside will be open for Notre Dame's sharp shooters David Graves and Matt Carroll. 

With a starting lineup with David Graves, Matt Carroll, Troy Murphy, Ryan Humphrey, and Harold Swanagan, the Irish have the ability and talent to be a major player in the Big East next season. It make take a little time for Murphy and Humphrey to gel together at first, but once they do LOOK OUT!!!!

Of course the team will need to work on a few things before they can be legitimate contenders in the Big East, but the talent it there to be an impact team next season.  First off the number of turnovers is going to have to be cut down tremendously.  Notre Dame averaged 17 turnovers a game this season which is not good at all.  They will also have to work on creating shots.  When Wake was playing tough defense and Murphy wasn't hitting his shots, the Irish were cold from the outside but weren't able to penetrate the defense.  They will have to drive to the basket more next season in order to open the outside up more.  There are more things that need to be worked on too, but these are two of the bigger ones, and we will have the whole offseason to talk about what needs to be improved for next season.

Irish fans should get used to watching meaningful games in late February and watching the basketball team play into March because next year's team is going to be even better!