When you go into a game against an opponent who is extremely different from you in some way - whether that be style of play, size, whatever - you have to be prepared to compensate for that in some way.  Washington State was the seventh slowest team in all the nation, and Notre Dame was apparently more than happy to just play the game at their pace.  Whether or not the coaching staff thought the Cougars would magically decide they wanted to start running after a season of not even approaching a brisk walk, I'm not sure, but there certainly wasn't any effort to impose the Fighting Irish's will onto Tony Bennett's charges.

Washington State played a great game.  They were beyond fundamentally sound on defense, staying in front of the Irish and rotating beautifully when double-teaming Luke Harangody down in the post without resorting to Ben Howland-esque clutching, grabbing and banging.  Still, the one brief period where Notre Dame started to push the pace - pressing, quick outlets, probing with a primary and secondary break - Washington State seemed uncomfortable, and the Irish snapped off a 7-0 run to slice the deficit in half.  Against a team with leaders like Low and Weaver to come through on offense and a defense that makes every shot overwhelmingly difficult, all while playing at a snail's pace, you can't expect to come back against a fourteen-point halftime deficit.

Playing in a four vs. five game, your odds of winning are 50-50, and when you go into that game attempting to play the opposition's game - especially when it's in such a stark contrast to your own - you're already putting yourself in quite a hole.  The Irish perhaps didn't believe in their usual style of play, and that lack of faith cost them dearly.  Washington State wouldn't have been caught dead in an all-out end-to-end game, but the Irish certainly could have tried to make them even slightly uncomfortable.  As John Wooden says, you can be quick but not hurrying, and that's the mantra Notre Dame should have taken into the game.  Every defensive rebound should have been fired down the floor and the transition defense of the Cougars tested, even if Jackson or McAlarney immediately pulled it back out and set up the half-court offense if nothing was there.

We'll discuss the season as a whole in the coming weeks, and while it certainly was a success compared to preseason projections with a lot of high notes and a bunch of fun, meaningful games, one can't help but feel a slightly bitter taste in their mouth.  The second round game wasn't going to be an easy one, but I'd like to know what it would have looked like if the Irish had come out running instead of playing crawl ball.  

Still, everyone but Kurz is back next season and the two games in Denver can certainly be chalked up as a major learning experience.  A few more bullets from Saturday evening's debacle:

*    You have to love the effort from Luke Harangody, hauling in 36 boards in Notre Dame's two tournament games.  Against Washington State, he was pressing like everyone else on offense, but he had the added bonus of getting double-teamed every time he caught the ball down in the post.  You'd like to see better than 3-for-17 shooting, but he did not go out with a whimper, grabbing seven offensive boards in an attempt to keep the Irish in the game.

*    That inconsistent, not-so-hot bench play that bothered the Irish most of the season?  Two - count `em, two - points registered by the reserves, courtesy of two Jonathan Peoples free throws.  They also pitched in a whopping two rebounds, had two turnovers and went 0-for-6 from the field.  It's not like anyone played great, but talk about the postseason manifesting the problems of the regular season to an absurdly high degree.

*    Can we just blame Seth Davis for this loss since he talked the Irish up so much in the pregame?

*    The Irish defense was pretty solid for the second straight game, although I think Washington State just missed a lot of open shots that let Notre Dame hang around a little longer than they would have against a more prolific offensive squad.  That being said, any time they needed a bucket, Weaver or Low was there to knock down a tough jumper or find a wide open big man for an easy score.  Here's hoping K-Mac and Tory are doing that next year.

*    While it's never, ever a good thing to lose when you do it by twenty points, it ends your season, keeps you one game short of the Sweet Sixteen and puts your whole fanbase into a mini-depression, holy f*ck is North Carolina mowing people down.  If you want to see how a team speeds Washington State up and makes them uncomfortable, I'm thinking you might get a peak of that on Thursday night.  Hopefully Hansbrough sticks around for his senior year and we can see him take on Harangody.

As I said, full season retrospective in the coming weeks, but the March Madness opening weekend review will be up soon as well.  It will feature, among many other things:

The least surprising no-call of the weekend!

The least surprising second round "upset" of the weekend!

The least surprising "6 point, 1 rebound" performance of the weekend!

And of course, tributes to Stephen Curry, the Lopez twins, Memphis' foul shooting, Butler and Drake leaving us far too early, Doug Gottlieb, Bobby Knight, Gus Johnson, DirecTV Mega March Madness and so much more.