Irish Round-Ballers Need a Parachute

OC Domer readers know that I'm pretty one dimensional as a blogger, generally sticking to football-related topics. There are a few reasons for this. One reason is that when I blog on other topics, like politics, I catch a bunch of grief from uninformed readers telling me that I should stick to football. Another reason is that when I branch out to post about other topics, like Irish basketball, bad things can happen. Let me explain.

On January 13th, at the tail end of a post about the importance of John Latina being afforded the chance to "pursue other opportunities," I gave a shout out to the Notre Dame basketball teams and wrote:

Irish Basketball rocks. If you haven't been following Irish hoops, you should. The Big East is dominating the rankings, and the Notre Dame men's team is hovering just outside the Top 10 right now. They already have several quality wins, and really for the first time in a long time there is no question of them making the NCAA tournament. Not to be outdone the women's team is ranked in the Top 10 with an overall record of 41-1 (3-0 Big East) heading into tonight's game against Marquette.

It is now time for me to personally apologize to the Notre Dame men's basketball team, the University, and Irish fans everywhere. Clearly my January 13th post jinxed the program and sent them into a free-fall that does not appear likely to end in a soft landing.

Prior to my post, the Irish were 12-4, just coming off a tough overtime loss to Louisville. Since my post, Notre Dame has lost six in a row (Syracuse, U-Conn, Marquette, Pitt, Cincy, UCLA). The worst loss was of course last Saturday on National T.V. against UCLA 89-63. Sadly, the game was not even as close as the final score indicated. There aren't many cupcakes on the remaining schedule, so Irish chances of making the NCAA tournament likely depend on either a very strong finish in league play or a deep run in the the Big East Tournament (at Madison Square Garden, a venue where the Irish have not had great success).

I hope the basketball team and the wider world of Notre Dame fandom will accept my apology. I promise, no more basketball posts. For now. Hopefully this will clear the air of any bad basketball karma or voo-doo or fate and allow the Irish to get back to business and snap this nasty 7-game losing streak.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled football blogging, free of any snarky blog comments about the stock market free-fall since President Obama took office, or the pork-filled-delayed-spending-stimulus bill that will nationalize America's health care system by stealth, or the multitudes of tax cheats and lobbyists in the "most ethical administration in history," or Obama's full-scale adoption of Bush-era security policies that were inhumane and unconscionable two months ago but which don't look so bad now.