After the then No. 7 Duke Blue Devils dismantled Notre Dame on Saturday afternoon I think most Fighting Irish fans who hadn’t already, began coming to grips that this team is probably headed to the NIT.
Considering the injuries, departures and lack of a bench that’s not a terrible accomplishment. Obviously the goals are stated higher than that but all things considered this has been an impressive team in terms of what they’ve accomplished despite often being over-matched in talent.
One outlet that hasn’t given up on Notre Dame’s NCAA Tournament chances quite yet is the USA TODAY.
The outlet released their latest “Bracketology” on Monday and Notre Dame isn’t even listed on “life support” for their chances yet. They’re still listed in the category “Others considered for at-large bid”.
I’m a little surprised but there is still a lot ahead for Notre Dame. Most importantly that begins in a couple of hours when a poor North Carolina teams comes to town in an absolute must-win for the Fighting Irish.
Following the Tar Heels tonight are dates with Miami, Boston College and Wake Forest which are all very winnable before a tough one on March 4 when Florida State visits South Bend. The regular season concludes March 7 then as the Irish host Virginia Tech.
IF – and I can’t state that enough – IF — Notre Dame has a strong showing of at least 4-2 and more likely 5-1 in these next six, they’ll perhaps finish above .500 in conference play and approach the 20 win mark if not surpass it with an alright showing in the ACC Tournament.
This isn’t a team that’s by any means built to go on a deep tournament run and heck, it’s going to still take a lot of work to get there, but sign me up for even still being seen as having a chance at this point because I didn’t think there was a snowball’s chance in hell of that a few short weeks ago.
Now go beat Carolina.