DAYTON, Ohio — That’s four straight seasons of postseason underachievement for Notre Dame.
Last night the Fighting Irish were bounced in their NCAA Tournament opener for the second straight year and for the third time in the last four seasons. And the one year they didn’t lose their first game, they were knocked out, naturally, in their second one — as a No. 2-seed.
Last night coach Mike Brey’s seventh-seeded crew was drilled by Iowa State, getting pummeled 76-58 at University of Dayton Arena. The 10th-seeded Cyclones will face No. 2 Ohio State tomorrow.
“I really would think it’s the next step for our program,” Brey said. “We’ve been so consistent in the regular season and we haven’t been able to do much here. That’s what keeps me up at night, and keeps me trying to figure out how we can be better at it.”
The Big East finished up the first two days of the tournament with a pitiful performance. Of the eight teams from the conference that made the field of 64, five were eliminated — Georgetown, Notre Dame, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and Villanova. The only remaining Big East schools are Louisville, Syracuse and Marquette.
The Irish trailed by 12 at halftime, but the deficit soared in the second half, with the Cyclones pushing the lead to 27. Notre Dame committed 14 turnovers in the first half, and finished with 17 for the night.
“It hurts,” guard Jerian Grant said. “All season, I felt like we had the team this year to have a deep run in March. I really believed that.”
Last year Notre Dame was also a 7-seed and fell to 10th-seeded Xavier in its opener. Two years ago as the 2-seed, the Irish lost in the Round of 32 to 10th-seeded Florida State. In 2010, the sixth-seeded Irish dropped their opener to 11th-seeded Old Dominion.
Iowa State was led by forwards Georges Niang (19 points) and Melvin Ejim (17).