Tag: Connor Groel

Notre Dame projected as No. 4 seed or better in all bracketologies

The Irish might not be done playing at home yet this year.

In beating both Virginia Tech and Louisville last week, Notre Dame did what it needed to do to move up bracketologists’ projections. Every available bracketology now projects the Irish to host the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament. ESPN, CBS Sports and Her Hoop Stats all have the Irish as a No. 4 seed in their latest updates. College Sports Madness projects them as a No. 3.

Connor Groel, the women’s bracketologist for CBS Sports, wrote the following about the Irish in his latest update:

“It’s been a terrific close to the season from Notre Dame, who now have a chance to perhaps even jump to a No. 3 seed, equaling last season’s result despite [autotag]Olivia Miles[/autotag] having missed the entire year. [autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag] exceeded all expectations and was named both ACC Rookie of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year while [autotag]Sonia Citron[/autotag] is playing some of her best basketball as of late.”

With the Irish one of the four ACC Tournament semifinalists, they have another chance to make their case. Hopefully, they won’t need to with the case possibly already having been made.

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Louisville loss drops Notre Dame to No. 6 seed in CBS bracketology

For one bracketologist, the Louisville loss was too much.

The hope after Notre Dame’s loss to Louisville was that the bracketologists would be a little forgiving. After all, the Irish had just played a tough team that is undefeated at home this season. While most bracketologists indeed looked past the defeat, one did not.

ESPN and Her Hoops Stats both updated their bracketologies Friday and kept the Irish as a No. 5 seed as they had previously. But Connor Groel of CBS Sports was not so charitable. He dropped the Irish to a No. 6 seed, only citing their No. 10 NET Ranking and No. 48 NET SOS. Both numbers are changes from No. 8 and No. 56 respectively from the previous bracketology updates.

Basically, what Groel is saying is that since the Irish’s SOS improved and their NET Ranking, it was time to give the Irish a lower seed. That means the Irish might already are falling further away from a top-four seed that would give them home-court advantage in the first two rounds of an NCAA Tournament. Plus, the margin for error has decreased, so the Irish might need to get it together sooner than they had hoped.

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