Old Dominion Upsets The Irish, And Harangody Finishes With A Whimper

Not everyone gets to be Cinderella in March. And after a season that saw his team thrive in his absence, Luke Harangody's disappointing finish is crueler than most. Harangody came into his senior season having averaged 20 ppg in each of the past two seasons. And despite marginal pro prospects, he was unquestionably Notre Dame's best player, an All-American candidate and one of the leading candidates for player of the year.

Except, it wasn't until Harangody went down with an injury in mid-February that Notre Dame truly begin to excel. That's a tough situation, as Harangody explains here:

“It’s hard when you’re a senior when you’ve had the career that I’ve had at Notre Dame and all of a sudden people are throwing you under the bus,” Harangody said. “It’s hard at the same time because the guys on the court are playing so well and you’re so proud of them.”

And today, Harangody's story didn't get much better. It took him 39 minutes to score his first points against 11-seed Old Dominion, and when the buzzer sounded and he chipped in a meaningless layup as Old Dominion celebrated, that summed it up perfectly. In the last game of a pretty remarkable career, Harangody was irrelevant.

What can you say? It's always fun to make of a lumbering big man like Harangody, but you can't help but feel a little sympathy. Man. What a terrible way to close out your career.