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Notre Dame Loses to Duke and Now It Sweats Until Sunday

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Notre Dame is one of the more fascinating teams out there. If you talk to most people, they tell you that Notre Dame should be in the NCAA Tournament. But, we also don’t have a great example of a team getting its best player back right at the end of the season. Typically we are talking about teams losing a top player and what to do seeding wise.

Notre Dame didn’t really do itself a favor tonight losing to Duke 88-70. This game was dominated by Grayson Allen and Marvin Bagley. Grayson started the game 5-for-5 from the 3-point line and really opened up the scoring early. Marvin Bagley continued to be a monster, putting up another 20/10 game.

Now it gets tricky. Is Notre Dame one of the 36 best teams when fully healthy? Probably. But, the resume doesn’t say so. Even at full strength its best wins were neutral over Wichita State and Virginia Tech. That’s great. But, there is also a home loss to Ball State and a neutral court loss to Indiana. That’s not so great.

So now here we are. Notre Dame’s resume is set. It finishes the year 20-14 and becomes the most interesting bubble team out there. This is where you really have to wonder what the committee uses. We scream about resumes year after year. But, now we want to use the eye test? If we do use the eye test do we use it with other teams. Do we remember that Texas Tech played with an injured Keenan Evans? Do we remember Kentucky didn’t have Jarred Vanderbilt? What about UNC and not having Cam Johnson? You can do this with so many teams – granted no one is necessarily as good as Bonzie Colson, but we’re talking about big time names here.

Personally I wouldn’t have Notre Dame in the NCAA Tournament. I’d rather have a team like Oklahoma State in there whether it wins the Big 12 Tournament or not. I honestly hate saying that too. I want Matt Farrell and Bonzie Colson playing in the NCAA Tournament. I want to see Mike Brey with the top button undone coaching in the NCAA Tournament.

But, now we wait.