Here's a painful but all too true observation about the Notre Dame sports scene.
Sad to say but it seems as if the Irish have developed an aversion to the postseason. When it matters the most, the Domers have shown themselves to be seriously wanting.
And this has hardly been an isolated condition. It has spread like an out of control virus throughout what I consider to be the four major men's athletic programs.
Over the last year, ND has generally taken it in the shorts when it came to performing when the lights were the brightest. By and large, the Irish have become postseason pushovers.
Sure, it's nice and commendable to perform with distinction during the regular season but the real payoff comes in the postseason. If you fail there, so much of what you accomplished beforehand is minimized and devalued. Lengthy postseason runs are essential to validate how successful your efforts were during a given campaign.
If you come a cropper in the postseason, it puts a damper on your achievements. It's almost impossible to feel good about yourself if your team should suffer through an early exit once the postseason bell rings.
And as of late, none of the Irish teams have walked away feeling satisfied about how their season ended.
How's this for a tale of woe.
The Irish football team, demeaned by many who considered them to be BCS imposters, gets steamrolled in the Sugar Bowl by an aroused LSU contingent. The final count is a shameful 41-14.
Severely parched because of a 12-year drought in which they hadn't won a Bowl game, you'd have thought that ND would have come out with guns blazing and been determined to fight to the finish.
Instead, primarily because of a leaky and embarrassingly vulnerable defense, the Domers never show up for the second-half and get blitzed.
Thus, having suffered an NCAA record ninth consecutive Bowl loss, a 10-3 season feels like a letdown with very few redeeming qualities to boast about.
Next, we focus in on Mike Brey's hoop team. Thought to be among the dregs of the Big East, Brey and company enjoy a renaissance of a year en route to a 24 and 7 record.
Because of a splendid mix of seasoned vets ( Colin Falls and Russell Carter ) and young turks ( Luke Harangody, Tory Jackson and Zack Hillesland), ND stuns the prognosticators and has one of the greatest turnaround seasons in school history.
Brey raves about his team's chemistry, its' competitiveness and its' ability to put points on the board.
Seemingly primed and confident, the Irish make their first NCAA Tournament appearance in four years against a worthy but hardly overwhelming opponent in Winthrop. Time to turn it up a notch and make some noise in the Big Dance, right?
So what happens? The Domers go absolutely mute with an awful shooting performance, particularly from 3-pt territory and the free-throw line and get taken out 74-64. Stone-cold doesn't begin to describe how miserably the Irish shot the rock on that forgettable day.
As a result, a splendid season is tainted and ND walks off the court for the last time with a mighty bitter taste in its' mouth.
The Irish baseball squad of 2006 was also gangbusters during the regular season, great in the Big East Tourney but a shocking bust in the NCAAs. Having set a school record of 23 consecutive wins earlier in the year, you'd have thought that this Irish aggregation had the wherewithal to do some serious postseason damage.
Ah, not quite. After staking ace Jeff Samardzija to an early lead in the NCAA opener, the ND offense goes completely flat and eventually the Domers fall 5 to 4 in a 16-inning marathon. The next day, the Irish put in a dull effort versus Kentucky, lose decisively 10-4 and are eliminated.
And all the notable work they'd done before that becomes almost immaterial. What you remember most is that the season ended abruptly and with profound disappointment.
Even the one Irish team among the major four that enjoyed at least a bit of success in the postseason, comes off as an underachiever.
Jeff Jackson's hockey club, a number 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament and a pick by some to win it all, fails to make the Final err Frozen Four.
Now, we'll cut the pucksters a little slack because they came so far, so fast. Their turnaround in '06-'07 that saw them up their victory total from a pedestrian 13 to an amazing 32, was as dramatic and breathtaking as any in the nation involving any sport.
And the fact is that they had to battle through a grinding, double-overtime win in their NCAA opener that left them weary and vulnerable against a Michigan State team that took full advantage of that fatigue and dispatched the Irish 2-1 in the Midwest Regional Championship.
So yes, there were some mitigating circumstances to explain why Jackson and crew didn't make it to the promise land but that doesn't excuse their inability to get there.
This team was beautifully positioned to do some special things yet it couldn't find a way to ultimately get it done. Ask the Domers to a man and everyone of them will admit they missed a golden opportunity. When they think back on the season just finished, it will be with just as much remorse and regret as with any sense of satisfaction. In their minds, they didn't go nearly far enough.
Hopefully, this trend of stubbing their toes in the postseason will come to a swift and immediate end for ND's foremost programs. It's simply a pattern that can't continue if the Irish want to be thought of as a big-time player in the world of college athletics.
Getting it done in the postseason is where you earn the respect and admiration of others but currently the Domers aren't doing much to merit consideration of any kind. And until they do, little praise or acknowledgement will be forthcoming.
It's time the Irish begin delivering in the postseason and stop flaming out. It's time to quit being pushovers and start being contenders.
As the Irish have already learned, having a splendid regular season is all well and good but excelling in the postseason is what separates the men from the boys.
And right now, the Irish qualify as nothing more than adolescents.