The oldest team in our tournament field, the 2005-06 Irish gave fans something to talk about early by jumping out to a 9-2 record with the nonconference schedule. At the beginning of Big East play, Notre Dame nearly took down a then-perfect Pittsburgh team before falling in double overtime. The Irish never recovered from that as they ended up losing eight of their first nine conference games. Amazingly, their record never fell below .500, and despite being one-and-done in the Big East tournament, they earned an NIT spot.
Notre Dame made its mark in the first round of the NIT with a win at home over Vanderbilt. It traveled to Michigan for the second round and lost to the eventual tournament runner-up by three in double overtime. Playing beyond regulation time was not kind to the Irish this season as they dropped all five games that required longer than 40 minutes.
Chris Quinn was the big player on this team as he led the Irish in both scoring (17.7) and assists (6.4). Notre Dame also got double-digit scoring averages from Colin Falls (13.8), Russell Carter (11.5) and Torin Francis (11.6), who also was the team leader in rebounds (9.4). Six players started at least 10 games this season, and seven started at least nine.
Paced by Falls’ 102 field goals from beyond the arc and 70 from Quinn, the Irish were fifth in 3-point field-goal percentage (.403) and sixth in 3-pointers made (288).