Whatever we thought Notre Dame basketball might be when the new head coach arrived full of promise and potential two years ago this month, that certainly wasn’t it Wednesday in the second round of the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament in Charlotte.
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Notre Dame basketball isn’t finishing with six assists while passing and moving and cutting and shot making and any rhythm on offense remained too difficult to do.
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Notre Dame basketball isn’t placing one player in double figures for points over a 40-minute game. You know what that means? It means that you don’t have the horses, no matter who might be on the bench in a sweatsuit.
Notre Dame basketball isn’t taking 23 layups — the easiest shot in basketball – but making only 10 while often looking like a squad that was too fragile to finish against even average athleticism. Twenty-three layup attempts and zero dunks. In that league? Please.
Notre Dame basketball isn’t being so indifferent to defense that the other team was on pace five minutes into a one-sided contest to score 68 points. In the first half. Notre Dame basketball in 2025 was supposed to be built on defense.
For a reason that still doesn’t deliver, head coach Micah Shrewsberry ran from defense last summer. Ran toward offense. Ran from an identity.
“I didn’t feel like I did a very good job defensively with this group,” Shrewsberry said. “We spent a lot of the offseason trying to be better offensively, and, at times, we lost that grittiness.
“We lost that toughness that we needed.”
Notre Dame basketball isn’t what we watched for most of this season, which ended Wednesday with a 76-56 loss to North Carolina. It was over early. Like second media timeout in the first half early. It was the latest example of a Notre Dame team being overmatched and underqualified to do what it once did with regularity in the ACC.
Win. A lot. Win games against North Carolina. Win games in North Carolina. More importantly, matter. In the league. In college basketball. In March.
After this one ended, the moderator of the post-game press conference could be heard on open mic asking — begging — someone to ask Notre Dame a question. Otherwise, Shrewsberry and sophomore guard Markus Burton and graduate student Matt Allocco would just sit there and look silly.
More post-game silliness in a season that saw its share.
Burton was asked one question. Allocco never answered for anything as his one-year Irish career quietly came to a close. That left Shrewsberry to speak on how two years in, this program seemingly isn’t any better than when he arrived.
What’s wrong with Notre Dame?
What’s wrong with the ACC?
The second question was the one asked more of Shrewsberry, now 28-38 overall and 15-25 in the ACC in his two seasons in South Bend. His Irish teams have been competitive at some points during league play, non-competitive in others. Wednesday was one of those non-compete days.
Notre Dame never led, trailed by as many as 24 points and looked like a team on the back end of a four-game stretch over eight days.
That North Carolina put a period on this paragraph that was this season for Notre Dame was fitting.
Ten years ago Friday in that same state, Notre Dame beat North Carolina to win the league tournament championship. That moment, that Irish program, seem so far away from where Notre Dame is now. Stumblingly. Staggering. Searching.
Forget the decade look back. Go back to early January. Go back to South Bend.
North Carolina in town. The first sellout in Shrewsberry’s tenure in the Purcell Pavilion stands. Notre Dame at 1-0 in league play with a chance to capture the attention of a fan base that by the end had seen and had had enough. Up by three points with five seconds remaining, it looked like a turning point.
For Shrewsberry. For the program. For the season.
You know what happened. North Carolina 3-pointer. Good. Irish foul. Bad. Free throw and a 73-70 lead becomes a 74-73 loss. Everything about this season turned on that day. Notre Dame won seven of its last 18 league games after that one. Notre Dame never played in front of a home crowd that size and often, played in front of home crowds half that size.
The care factor about Notre Dame basketball cratered that day.
That day, like Wednesday, underscored how far from relevance everything feels. That too few had questions for Shrewsberry, that maybe no media chose to work the Irish open locker room underscores where this program is two years into his tenure.
Just another team. Just another program. Just another group of guys in a massive 18-team league. No different than Georgia Tech. No different than Boston College. No different than newcomers Cal and Stanford.
Nowhere near the standard it should be near.
Shrewsberry had to sit up there and answer questions about the league, about the NCAA Tournament, about everything besides what he’s there to answer questions about – his program. He wasn’t about to speak for the league, but he did speak for his program.
“We’ve got to get better, and we are going to get better,” Shrewsberry said. “I’m going to get Notre Dame right.”
Maybe it happens next year when that coveted recruiting class arrives. Maybe it takes another year to get going. Maybe it takes two. Maybe Burton comes back. Maybe he doesn’t. Two years in, that’s all we have. Maybes and promises that await to be fulfilled or be forever left empty.
That’s not Notre Dame basketball.
Follow South Bend Tribune and NDInsider columnist Tom Noie on X (formerly Twitter): @tnoieNDI. Contact Noie at tnoie@sbtinfo.com
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: It’s been a rough go for Notre Dame through the ACC the last two seasons
