Men's Basketball: Tourney appearance lands Irish back on map
By: ANDREW SOUKUP
Sports Writer
The year started with a question. It ended with a statement. And as a charter plane flew a basketball team that fell in the second round of the NCAA Tournament back to Notre Dame, the Irish basketball team definitively told the nation it was back on the map.
Nobody thought that after former Irish All-American Troy Murphy declared for the NBA draft, skipping his final year of college, that the Irish would return to the NCAA Tournament. And this was a team that, before head coach Mike Brey arrived two years ago, hadn't been to the NCAA Tournament since 1990.
"I think the theme since last spring has been, `Is there life after Troy?'" Brey said a few days before the Irish started practice. "We really feel there is."
Brey and the Irish might have been the only ones who felt that way. National publications left the Irish out of their preseason tournament projections. Coaches picked Notre Dame to finish third in the Big East. And fans across the country thought Notre Dame's one-year resurgence was a fluke and that Murphy had carried the Irish.
But those so-called experts couldn't sit in on Irish practices and watch seniors Ryan Humphrey, David Graves and Harold Swanagan and junior Matt Carroll more than replace Murphy's leadership. With Murphy, the Irish deferred to their All-American. Without him, they challenged themselves to produce on their own.
The Murphy-less Irish were a different team, indeed.
Part of the reason they were so successful was the emergence of highly touted freshman Chris Thomas. Thomas arrived at Notre Dame with the highest expectations on his shoulders. At times, it seemed he wasn't asked to replace departed point guard Martin Inglesby, but Murphy.
But if anyone buckles under pressure, it's not Thomas. The flashy freshman easily surpassed every prediction and every expectation. In his first college game, Thomas merely recorded the first triple-double in Notre Dame history. By the end of the season, Thomas earned multiple Freshman of the Year honors.
"I think what helped Chris Thomas was those four guys up front," Brey often said during the season. "He's playing with four men."
Thomas and the Irish started out red-hot. They won nine of their first 10 games and appeared poised to break into the Top 25.
Then, the Irish started struggling. They dropped five of their next eight games, including embarrassing defeats against Syracuse, Kentucky and Georgetown. Brey even shuffled the starting lineup around, replacing Graves with Torrian Jones.
The switch worked. Brey always keys his teams to make a strong run in February, and the Irish won eight of their final 11 games of the regular season, including a marathon four-overtime victory over Georgetown.
Thomas made the Irish flashy and quick. He energized the offense and played inspired defense. But Thomas couldn't do it all, and Graves, Humphrey, Swanagan and Carroll helped him realize that. By the end of the year, Thomas was winning games not with his shot but with his decision-making skills.
The Irish finished second in Big East West Division and easily handled St. John's in the quarterfinals of the Big East Tournament. But they fell to Connecticut in the semi-finals and anxiously awaited news about whether or not they would be back in the NCAA Tournament.
Players were disappointed with the No. 8 seed in the South Region that the Irish received, matching them up against Charlotte in the first round in Duke in the second round. All season long, the Irish had claimed they were underrated.
But they didn't dwell on the low seed or feel sorry for themselves. The Irish blew out Charlotte in the first round and turned in a scrappy performance against the top-seeded Blue Devils — even leading by seven points late in the second half — before falling for the second-straight year in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
One of the goals the Irish established for the season was to put themselves "back on the map." More than anything else, Notre Dame's strong showing against Duke laid the foundation for a surging basketball program and showed how much the Irish had improved from the day Graves and Swanagan first arrived on campus as freshmen.
"This is pride," Graves said, pointing to the word `Irish' on his uniform minutes after Notre Dame lost to Duke. "This means something now. It didn't before."
All Sports Stories for Friday, May 17, 2002
