And if you're an Irish fan who entertained thoughts of glory, then your hopes are buried.

In what is becoming an all too common theme, another Notre Dame hoop season lies cold in its grave, the victim of yet another premature death. Once again, the Irish reside in a coffin without having shown much signs of life in the month of March.

For coach Mike Brey and his listless Irish, the season of 2010-11 expired late Sunday night when they suffered a 71-57 beat down at the hands of 10th seeded Florida State at Chicago's United Center in the third round of the NCAA Tournament.

Rest in peace Domers. Even a corpse would have put up a better fight against the Seminoles than did the crew from South Bend. ND was literally dead on arrival. The Irish sleepwalked their way through the game as if it were a meaningless morning scrimmage instead of a season defining contest.

With so much at stake, with a deep run in the Tournament beckoning, the expectation was that the seasoned Irish would seize the moment and validate their remarkable second place finish in the Big East Conference.

Instead, the Domers tanked. And if claiming they choked sounds too harsh, they, at the very least, spit the bit. The Irish offered no real resistance and demonstrated little passion or backbone. Notre Dame yielded, caved and then finally, capitulated. The Irish gave every appearance of a team that had little stomach for the battle.

What was worse was the fact that Florida State, more celebrated for its defensive prowess, beat Notre Dame at its own game. Thought of as gunslingers because of their reputation for stroking it from just about anywhere, it was the Irish who shot blanks while the team from Tallahassee, hardly renown for their accuracy, displayed an uncanny eye. The Seminoles connected on 7 of 12 (58.3%) from the 3-pt. line in the first half when the game's outcome was truly decided.

Having Florida State embarrass ND on the shooting range was tantamount to watching some clumsy sodbuster get the better of Wild Bill Hickok in a showdown. Under most every circumstance, it just ain't gonna happen.

But with their aim so erratic and their hands so shaky, the Irish (30.6 % from the field, 23.3% from the 3) were misfiring all over the place. On this forgettable night, the Domers couldn't have hit a cow's tit with a tin cup.

Yet, what was even more surprising than ND's shooting woes was its totally uninspired effort from the outset. The Irish came out flatter than two-week old roadkill. They were virtually comatose from the start, almost as if in a trance.

They stagnated on offense with very little movement and on the defensive end, cardboard cutouts would have offered more resistance. At least, cutouts can slide laterally a bit. The Domers seemed stuck to the floor and couldn't move their feet to challenge FSU's shooters. It was a joke the way the Seminoles continually got position in low which resulted in ridiculously easy buckets.

Hence, less than 12 minutes into the game, the Irish were saddled with a double-digit deficit. By the time the margin expanded to 23 relatively early in the second half, it was time to call in the dogs and whiz on the fire because this hunt was over.

The Irish finally did showed a faint pulse when an 11-0 run enabled them to cut the margin to 52-40 with 8:37 remaining. But all that amounted to was meaningless window dressing and a cosmetic touch-up. It simply made their beating seem slightly less unsightly. At no time in the final 20 minutes did anyone ever sense Notre Dame could mount a legitimate comeback and make a game of it.

Notre Dame's failure to show up represented the colossal wasting of a tailor made opportunity. First of all, the Irish were playing less than 100 miles from their campus before a pro-Irish crowd. In essence, this was a de facto home game.

Moreover, they had been given an advantageous No. 2 seed and were a team loaded with experience, with a starting lineup comprised of nothing but seniors.

Even though ND was sluggish in their second round game against Akron, the Irish took care of business and were just one win away from moving onto the Sweet Sixteen. That would have meant redemption for a team that bombed in the Big Dance last year, stumbling right out of the gate in a brutal loss to Old Dominion.

But this version of the Irish proved to be little better than its predecessor. When challenged by the Seminole defense and asked to find creative ways to score, compete and endure, Brey's club had no answers. It was as if they had flatlined and were running on empty. Sadly, they left whatever grit they possessed somewhere along the way between South Bend and Chi-town.

To not even be competitive in a game of this magnitude was inexcusable. To their fans, the Irish were lowdown because they never showed up. They gave in at the first sign of travail. In one inept evening, much of the luster of their heretofore memorable season was rubbed off.

And with this most demoralizing of defeats, Mike Brey's rep as a postseason flop was further enhanced.

Now, let's get something straight before we proceed any further. Basically, this writer thinks very highly of the Irish coach. In so many ways, Brey is the perfect fit at ND. He's smart, articulate, solid at the X's and O's, runs a clean program and his rapport with his charges is undeniable. And you don't win three Big East coach of the year awards without having lots of savvy and plenty on the ball.

He also does a fair amount of winning between November and February.

But Brey's fundamental shortcoming and it's a substantial one, is that he can't make any headway in March. Mike's great at the run-ups and the preliminaries, specifically the regular season, but getting beyond that gets him stuck in the mud. Making extended runs when it matters most has Brey completely baffled.

With the debacle to FSU, Brey's NCAA Tournament record at ND now stands at a poor 6 and 7. His efforts in the Big East Conference Tournament have been even more feeble. And all this with teams that were equipped to do considerably better. Something is clearly amiss, some component is seriously out of whack. Whatever Brey is doing in the postseason, it just ain't working.

Brey needs to do some critical self-analysis and figure out why his teams crumble so easily come Tournament time. It's becoming systemic and it's beginning to bring the program down. Having splendid regular season is all well and good but that's not where the payoff resides.

Continual postseason failure is leading to the belief that perhaps Brey can't deliver the goods when things really count. Nowadays, Brey is often negating the good he does with his March slipups.

Brey has a real crisis on his hands. A crisis of confidence in his ability to ever turn Notre Dame into a postseason force. Brey's repeated meltdowns in March have many people legitimately questioning whether he'll ever get it right.

We now know for sure that Brey won't be making any sort of statement in 2011. The Irish are again done before their time. ND's six feet under, buried by a mound of underachievement, disappointment, heartache and unmet expectations. FSU may have helped dig the grave but the reality is it was the Irish who put themselves in the pine box they now occupy.

So another season of bright promise has gone up in smoke. Notre Dame's hoop season has been shot all to hell.

But let's be real here. Should we have anticipated anything different? Because under Mike Brey, truncated and unsatisfying finishes have become as certain as death and taxes.