Notre Dame has bounced back from a brief period of mediocrity to become a respected women’s basketball power once again. That can be said for the certain as the Irish were voted ninth in the AP preseason poll. It’s quite the jump considering that last year, the Irish were left out of the preseason rankings for the first time since 2006. Now, they’re a top-10 preseason team for the first time since they were coming off their 2018 national championship.
The ACC will be stacked with top teams trying to take the Irish down. At seventh, Louisville is the only conference program ranked ahead of the Irish. Also in the preseason poll are NC State (10th), North Carolina (12th) and Virginia Tech (13th). Miami and Duke received votes but didn’t crack the poll. And then, you have to remember that sixth-ranked UConn is coming to South Bend for a nonconference game in December.
There are plenty of reasons to watch this year’s Irish, and the competition is a major one.
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