In a perfect world, senior warriors Luke Harangody and Tory Jackson would have ended their collegiate careers on a high. And to rousing cheers.

Instead, to their ever-lasting dismay and disappointment, the Irish duo went out just the opposite. In fact, Harangody and Jackson vacated the scene with a resounding thud.

And while it might be too harsh to say they gagged and choked, it wouldn't be inaccurate to state that the two were ineffective, frustrated to the extreme and borderline bad. 

Sure, there were plenty of fingerprints all over Notre Dame's inexcusable 51-50 loss to Old Dominion in the first round of the NCAA Tournament's South Regional. But when the postmortems were done, the marks that Harangody and Jackson left were the most prominent. The forensics indicated the aforementioned twosome were the main culprits for another Domer postseason flame-out.   

And to see them go out with such abysmal performances was, to say the least, sad and certainly not indicative of their considerable skills. Because it was Harangody and Jackson, who had for so long, been the backbone and sinew of this team. Without them, Notre Dame would have been ordinary, at best, for the past four seasons. As ND coach Mike Brey acknowledged after the Old Dominion fiasco, "when these two guys showed up on our campus, we got a lot better, a lot tougher." 

Much was expected of Harangody and Jackson entering March Madness. They were captains. This was their team. They were the unquestioned leaders and clearly the go-to guys. For the Irish to do something special in the Tournament, by no means a longshot, "Gody" and Tory needed to step up and pave the way.

Alas, they didn't. Not even close! Instead, they fell flat on their faces. Had they just been average by the standards they had established, the Irish would have easily moved on to face Baylor. But the seniors played as if in a daze and that all but doomed the Domers.

Of the two, Jackson's meltdown was probably more surprising since Harangody's efforts have been spotty since his late season return from a knee injury.

When Luke, an amazingly consistent scorer and rebounder, went down, the Irish looked cooked. They were dead meat. So much burnt toast. ND seemed done.

But then something wondrous happened. An inspired Brey implemented a slowdown offensive approach and with Jackson orchestrating things with a maestro's touch, the Irish took off and won six straight games including a pair in the Big East Tournament. Magically, the Domers were reinvented and, as a result, resurrected.

Jackson was the spearhead of this big push at season's end. He was a wizard at penetration, he dished deftly, rebounded much bigger than his 5-11 stature and took on a much heavier scoring load. Though by no means a dead-eye or an accomplished shooter, Jackson nonetheless made some key shots down the stretch, most notably against Connecticut when he singlehandedly willed the Irish to a massive win.

But while Jackson shone brightly late in the year, he wasn't without blemishes. He wasn't always clutch, particularly from 3-point land. He missed a pair a potential game-winning trifectas against St. Johns. Then, in the Big East Tourney semifinals versus West Virginia, Tory again misfired on a late 3-point shot that would have spelled victory. More disturbingly, Jackson ignored a wide-open Tim Abromaitis on that last trip down against the Mountaineers. The cold truth is that Jackson couldn't hold a candle to "Abro" as a long-distance bomber.

So given Jackson's iffy shooting from beyond the arc, it was more than perplexing that Jackson became so 3-pt. happy in the Old Dominion tussle. Predictably, the result was disastrous. Tory was a horrid 1 of 7 from deep and that led to an awful 2 of 11 shooting line. Jackson got away from his strength of piercing the lane and creating off the dribble. His contentment to fire from distance crippled the Irish. Jackson forgot his basketball DNA, forgot who he was and his anemic numbers of 5 points and 4 assists prove how misguided was his mindset.

More than any other player, it was Jackson who had lifted the Irish and carried them to a place of rebirth and redemption. That he would falter so badly in the biggest game of the year was unexpected and stunning.

The Irish could have overcome Jackson's disappearance had Harangody been the force he'd been on so many occasions in the past. Normally, Luke can do a double-double in his sleep. But "Gody" was also struggling mightily.

Hampered by first-half foul trouble and limited to 23 minutes, Harangody never could find a rhythm or flow. He ended his historic Irish career on a major downer. The exasperated Harangody failed on a number of close-in attempts and finished a sorry 2 of 9 from the field. His last hoop as a Domer was nothing but window dressing, coming at the final horn of the defeat to the Monarchs. 

A Big East beast prior to his injury, Harangody was never the same once he came back. He never seemed comfortable or quite right, although he did have a splendid game (20 points, 10 rebounds) versus Seton Hall in the conference tournament. That performance led some to think that the dominant Harangody might resurface. But he never did. The Seton Hall outburst was more mirage than a portent of things to come. 

Unbeknownst at the time, when Harangody suffered his bruised knee, his glory days were behind him. After that, he was still a threat but not the monster he had been. His incredible and lengthy run as a bona fide Irish star was over.

Entering March Madness, the Irish were on a roll and brimming with confidence. They had serious momentum and mojo on their side and a deep run in the NCAA Tournament hardly seemed farfetched. Moreover, they had two seasoned, gifted and gritty seniors in Jackson and Harangody, a pair to draw to if ever there was one. Everything seemed in place for something memorable to happen.

Who'd have thought that on a fateful Thursday afternoon versus Old Dominion, it would all fall apart. That the two players the Irish were counting on the most would shoot blanks and come up empty. Without meaningful contributions from either Jackson or Harangody, the Irish had no chance.

In a perfect world, Tory and Luke warranted a better send-off, a fonder farewell. That their Irish careers ended on such a sour note is unfortunate and seems brutally unfair. But the truth is, they have no one else to blame. They were greatly instrumental in bringing the misery upon themselves.

This was a monumental senior slip up by two talented guys who seemed too good to have one.