2010 Seton Hall Pirates Basketball: Seton Hall vs UConn

It's not as though the Notre Dame Fighting Irish were playing Syracuse or Villanova or West Virginia or Georgetown. All the boys from South Bend, Ind., had to do on Thursday night was to hold off a pesky but inconsistent pack of Pirates from Seton Hall. Yet, another road game produced another failure for a team that's now staring at another ticket to the NIT.

It's really rather unfortunate: Luke Harangody, the Big East's leading scorer and one of the finest players in Notre Dame's rich basketball history over the past 40 years, deserves the stage of the NCAA Tournament. However, he and his teammates have just not been able to deliver the kind of defense that can get the Irish over the hump and into the Big Dance. Another agonizing loss by an undeniably soft defensive team has Coach Mike Brey in deep trouble. For yet another season, a collection of considerable talent and shotmaking skill is likely to miss the field of 65 because it can't bring a blue-collar mentality to the brawny and bare-knuckle world of Big East basketball.

John Gasaway, a college basketball guru and a writer for Basketball Prospectus magazine, noted on his Twitter feed Thursday night that Notre Dame is averaging 1.13 points per possession... on both offense and defense. An average of more than a point per possession is generally considered a good thing on offense; such a statistic means that a team is getting value and production on every trip. However, the flip side is that a 1.13 per-possession average is terrible on defense, and that reality was evinced at the Prudential Center - aka, "The Rock" - on this lamentable weeknight in Newark, N.J.

Notre Dame entered this contest at 6-5 in the Big East, but with only one road win on its resume (a Jan. 5 win at South Florida). The Irish had to beef up their portfolio and prove that they could knock off a so-so opponent away from the Joyce Athletic and Convocation Center. Teams worthy of the NCAAs have to do at least some work on the road, so this was a defining moment for a program that seems to live right on the bubble each and every February.

Needless to say, the Irish were defined in a negative way after more nonexistent defense against the hot-shooting Hall.

The Pirates, who took the court Thursday night with a 3-7 Big East mark, nudged their way north in the conference standings by scoring consistently for most of the evening, and then saving a final burst for the home stretch. Coach Bobby Gonzalez saw his team ring up 49 points in the first half and tally 81 points in the first 33 minutes and 35 seconds of this contest. With 6:25 remaining in regulation, the Pirates - endowed with an 81-72 cushion - were on pace to hit 97 points. It was only then that Notre Dame finally dug in its heels on defense, as the Irish held SHU to just one bucket over the next five minutes. Due to the wonders of a little elbow grease, the visitors from Indiana pulled within a point (83-82) with just under 90 seconds to go.

But that's when the Pirates summoned forth one last injection of turbo-boosted basketball. A seven-point spurt in 42 seconds - originating with a Jeremy Hazell triple (Hazell finished with a game-high 35 points on 12-of-16 shooting) and concluding with two free throws by Eugene Harvey - gave the home team a 90-85 lead with 42 ticks left on the clock.

It proved to be enough... but just barely.

The Irish got a layup to pull within three points of a tie, and then all hell broke loose in the final 30 seconds. Seton Hall twice missed the front end of a one-and-one to give Notre Dame two looks at a possible overtime period. After the second missed front end, the Irish watched two golden (Dome) opportunities come and go without the result they wanted. Notre Dame sniper Tim Abromaitis had a wide-open 3-pointer bounce off the rim with seven seconds left, and when Seton Hall's Keon Lawrence cradled the rebound near the left baseline, the game appeared to be over. However, Lawrence - who was not ball-strong on the play - drifted in the air and allowed himself to be stripped of the orange by Notre Dame guard Ben Hansbrough. Tyler Hansbrough's younger brother was able to save the ball as he flew out of bounds and throw the pill underneath the basket to a teammate, who in turn spotted Notre Dame's Carleton Scott on the left wing for a wide-open trey with two seconds left. Scott's high-quality look hit the inside of the right rim, but it didn't drop, and Seton Hall held on despite a horrible endgame combination of missed foul shots, deficient rebounding, and shaky ballhandling.

Notre Dame did outplay Seton Hall in the final 30 seconds, but when you lag on defense for 33-plus minutes and allow 90 points, there's only so much you can say. The Irish are on the wrong side of the NCAA Tournament bubble once again. They have to bring more defense to the party, or else they'll be missing out on college basketball's biggest Dance for yet another season.

Seton Hall vs Notre Dame Basketball Recap