Notre Dame hasn’t had many lean seasons since Mike Brey took over, but as far as badness, the 2018-19 Irish take the cake. That’s not to say they didn’t have the talent to compete, at least at the start of the season. The team was ravaged by injuries, particularly a torn ACL for Rex Pflueger, and that made it impossible for them to compete in a top-heavy ACC.
As is typical for them, the Irish had a good nonconference showing at 10-3. But with their depth suddenly thin, once conference play began, they never got anything going. Losing streaks of five and seven gave them an ACC record of 3-15, their worst conference showing since going 4-14 in their inaugural Big East campaign in 1995-96. They salvaged a win in the conference tournament over Georgia Tech before Louisville ended their season in the next round and brought their final overall record to 14-19, their worst since going 14-16 in John MacLeod’s last season in 1998-99.
In spite of the team’s troubles, John Mooney averaged a double-double with 14.1 points and 11.2 rebounds a game. T.J. Gibbs averaged 13.4 points a game, and D.J. Harvey had a scoring average of 10.7 in his final season with Notre Dame before transferring to Vanderbilt. In Pflueger’s absence, the Irish went through a revolving door for the fifth player in their starting lineup, which was consistent otherwise.
The Irish committed the fewest fouls in the country (455) and the third-fewest turnovers (306). Opponents realized they were facing a team that wasn’t going to beat itself, but they mostly won anyway.