Tag: The Big Dance

Notre Dame in 2022 NCAA Tournament per Joe Lunardi’s Bracketology

Think the Irish can make the next NCAA Tournament?

Yes, it’s way too early to be thinking about the 2022 NCAA Tournament, but that hasn’t stopped college basketball fans from doing so. ESPN’s Joe Lunardi is one of them, and he’s released his latest Bracketology. Notre Dame fans undoubtedly want to forget about the 11-15 season they just experienced, but they’ll be pleased to know that Lunardi has the next iteration of the Irish as one of the last teams to make the tournament without having to play in the First Four. Specifically, he lists the Irish as a No. 10 seed against Indiana, so maybe the Crossroads Classic will serve as a preview for March?

Lunardi has good reason to be bullish about Notre Dame, which will receive a boost from Yale transfer Paul Atkinson and South Bend natives J.R. Konieczny and Blake Wesley. The Irish also will return their top three scorers from the past season as seniors: Prentiss Hubb, Nate Laszewski and Dane Goodwin. This is a program desperate for good things as it hasn’t made the Big Dance since 2017. Fortunately, there’s reason to think that those good things are close ahead.

Notre Dame’s NCAA Tournament streak ends at 24

All good things must come to an end, but that doesn’t make whenever the time comes any easier.

All good things must come to an end, but that doesn’t make whenever the time comes any easier. After 24 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances, Notre Dame was left out of this year’s Big Dance. A 10-10 overall record and 8-7 ACC record was not nearly enough to merit an at-large bid, although this was known already. This streak would have come to an end with last year’s 13-18 squad but for COVID-19 canceling the tournament, and it turned out that only prolonged the inevitable with Muffet McGraw retiring and Niele Ivey taking over.

The Irish will not play in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1995. They also were shut out of the Women’s NIT. You have to go back to 1993 for the last time Notre Dame was completely absent from the women’s basketball postseason. Entire families have been born since then.

Hats off to the Irish on a terrific run. Two national championships, seven title game appearances and nine Final Four berths are nothing to sneeze at. Here’s hoping that dominance will return soon.

Brackets. Are. BACK.

It’s that time again – when dunks, brackets and buzzer-beaters inspire widespread incidents of March Madness. Get the jump on your friends by filling out your selections now!

In between all the games, mobile users can play USA TODAY Sports’ Couchketball virtual hoops challenge – the interactive basketball game where your skills determine the outcome.

Notre Dame searching for success against Louisville

You can’t blame Nate Laszewski for looking mad in the above photo.

You can’t blame Nate Laszewski for looking mad in the above photo. If your program had just lost its fifth straight to Louisville, you wouldn’t be happy either. However, that’s exactly what’s happened with Notre Dame in this series, and this latest matchup won’t be any easier with how far apart these teams are in the ACC standings.

The Irish (9-11, 6-8) can’t exactly rely on their strength of schedule, which is ranked 17th according to KenPom.com, to gain sympathy from people. The reality is it will take an ACC Tournament championship for the Irish to make the Big Dance. Such is the case for a team below .500 at this point in the season. It won’t get any easier with them having to visit the Cardinals (11-5, 6-4).

The Irish also will have to right the ship after suffering a major collapse at Syracuse. In fact, second-half collapses seem to be a recurring theme for them this season. Who knows where the Irish would be right now if they knew how to protect a big lead? They would be a bubble team at the very least, and Jack Nolan could spend his nights a little happier that his last season would include a trip to March Madness.

NCAA makes an important decision on fan attendance for the Big Dance

There was a major announcement regarding fans being in attendance for the NCAA Tournament.

With March Madness quickly approaching the NCAA is finalizing what the tournament will look like this year. They had previously made the decision to host the championship tournament in the state of Indiana only, with the conclusion of the tournament in Indianapolis. We’ll today we found out there will be fans allowed to take in the tournament.

It will be a limited amount of fans however, at 25% capacity of the venues. The majority of tournament spots will have under 5,000 fans allowed but at Lucas Oil Stadium there will be 17,500. The Final Four will be held there as well as some other earlier round games.

This is a stark contrast from last year, when the NCAA Tournament was canceled all together due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Although the Irish are on the outside looking in to make the Big Dance, for many fans it is a great sight to see that the tournament will resume in 2021.