SOUTH BEND – Everything about what this season can be and what Notre Dame basketball can and should be starts at the end of last season.
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For 18 years as a member of the Big East, and then the first 12 in the Atlantic Coast Conference, Notre Dame basketball could count on a week in the league championship as a time to start over or throw in the NCAA Tournament.
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Midtown Manhattan. On the street of tobacco. In the nation’s capital. The league competition used to give Irish people a second life. Wins and losses usually meant nothing more than just getting to spend another week together. Then it happened last season. Last March it happened. The regular season finale for the Boston College repeat league tournament took place.
The final roar had not finished being heard in the Conte Forum when it was discovered that for the first time in the history of the program, for the first time since those dark days as an independent, there would be no league competition.
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Notre Dame wasn’t good enough. Thus, a season that saw them go 13-18 overall and 4-14 in the ACC is over. That didn’t sit well in the Irish dressing room or on the flight home. Even if the season is not going well, no one wants it to end too soon. Finish it that it’s early.
For a program that had Bonzie Colson sprained his ankle winning his second ACC Championship in three years, even a decade ago, that’s unacceptable.
“It wasn’t easy,” senior pitcher Brady Koehler said. “Losing that game, immediately you know, it’s over.”
“It’s a bad feeling,” senior guard Braeden Shrewsberry said. “That was embarrassing, you never want to feel that way again in your life, it was a bad feeling, but it also motivated you to get back to being a guy and be better and be better as a team.
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“We will not allow that again.”
On Wednesday, July 8, after a preseason conditioning session that included jabbing and uppercuts in the boxing ring across from the Joyce Center, the rest of that team discussed for the first time about missing the ACC Tournament for the first time.
If they have anything to say about this season, it’s the last one. This year, like last year, the top three teams in the league – number 16, 17, and 18 in the standings after 18 league games – will not be invited back to Greensboro in early March.
There’s your motto for 2026-27 – Just get to Greensboro. Put it in the locker room, in the team room, on the practice field wall in Rolfs Hall. In the coaches meeting room. All over.
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Go to Greensboro.
Don’t expect Notre Dame to be one of those forgotten three, no matter what many preseason predictions will predict. Like all Division I teams, Notre Dame has a specific set of goals planned for 2026-27. It wants to do this. It believes it could be that.
Somewhere, no matter how high or deep the Irish roster, one goal should be – to get back to the ACC Tournament, where they won their opening game in the last two league tournaments.
“You can lose every ACC game (in the past), but it’s a new season when you get to the ACC Tournament,” senior guard Logan Imes said. “When it ended, it didn’t feel right.”
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What made it worse then was that it was spring break. As soon as Notre Dame returned to campus, it was closed. Imes is available elsewhere. No one around? There is no chance to stay. He left and reconnected with friends elsewhere.
“How often do you get a week off?” Imes said.
Many believe Notre Dame will be in the same spot next spring – too much time on their hands and no games to come. Don’t believe in the Irish? Don’t trust the Irish? That’s right. They know they didn’t do much last season to earn their confidence this season. But the new year brings new hope. You know those proverbial chips on players’ shoulders, veteran players?
Those chips, those shoulders, those veterans, are everywhere around Rolfs Hall these days. That’s good. That is necessary.
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Whether anyone on the outside wants to admit it or not, there is a unique vibe about Notre Dame basketball. The Irish have grown up. They are driven. They believe in themselves and what they can do, even if very few believe in it. To them.
“That hunger can take you a long way,” Shrewsberry said. “It’s not always about talent or athleticism, but it’s about who you want the most, we have a lot of guys who want to prove themselves and win badly.”
“It’s a different feeling here, for sure.”
Which should be past the second week of March.
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Follow South Bend Tribune and NDInsider columnist Tom Noie on X (formerly Twitter): @tnoieNDI. Contact Noie at tnoie@sbtinfo.com
This article originally appeared in the South Bend Tribune: How last season ended will never happen again for Notre Dame basketball.
