Mike Brey’s Notre Dame teams are always interesting. Last year he had a very experienced group, added one-and-done freshman Blake Wesley, and Bob’s your uncle, that was a really dangerous group.
Notre Dame finished the regular season 22-10 overall and 15-5 in the ACC with wins over Kentucky and UNC as highlights although UNC was struggling at the time and no one thought they would make the Final Four much less play on Monday night.
Even so, when invites went out, the Irish only got a First Four bid. They made the most of it, beating Rutgers in a double OT thriller, then handling Alabama with surprising ease before finally losing to Texas Tech, a superb defensive team that would go on to lose to Duke in the West Regional semifinals the next weekend.