Nobody knows just how dominant Notre Dame would be if it was fully healthy. All we can judge the Irish on is how good they currently are. And in the eyes of various college hoops experts, they’re not good enough to host the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament.
In the latest Bracketology updates for ESPN, CBS Sports, College Sports Madness and Her Hoop Stats, the Irish are in a fifth seed for each and every one. Only the top four seeds in each quadrant are selected as first- and second-round hosts. So in this particular case, the Irish currently are on the outside looking in.
Don’t despair yet though. ESPN chooses to highlight the Irish in its latest update as a team that can move up the seedings. As it currently stands, they don’t have a lot of big wins on their resume except for UConn. Whether that resume can improve depends on how the Irish fare against the ACC gauntlet over the next two weeks, beginning Thursday at Louisville.
[autotag]Niele Ivey[/autotag] admitted after the Irish’s win over Pittsburgh that February is going to be a tough month for her team, and she wasn’t lying. While the Irish are a lock for the tournament barring a complete collapse over the next month, they’ll need to dig even deeper if they want March Madness to come to South Bend. We soon will find out if them doing so leads to optimal results.
Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.
Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89