Notre Dame headed to NCAA Tournament, will play Rutgers in First Four
Notre Dame is headed to the NCAA Tournament.
The Irish are a No. 11 seed in the West Region and will play in the First Four Wednesday vs. fellow No. 11 Rutgers (18-13, 12-8 Big Ten). The winner advances to a meeting with No. 6 seed Alabama Friday in San Diego.
It’s their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2017, when they earned a No. 5 seed and went to the round of 32. They have not played in the First Four since it was created in 2011.
Notre Dame went 22-10 and 15-5 in the ACC, finishing in second place. It made the field despite a 2-8 Quadrant 1 record and 4-9 mark in the first two quadrants. No at-large team had fewer Quadrant 1 wins or a worse Quadrant 1 or 2 win percentage, which capped the Irish’s seed upside. The Irish’s No. 53 NET ranking didn’t help either.
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One of those two Quadrant 1 victories, though, was a defeat of No. 2 seed Kentucky. Another was a road win at Miami, which is also in the tournament field as a No. 10 seed. Notre Dame’s other résumé highlight is its No. 25 non-conference strength of schedule.
Most bracket projections had Notre Dame in the First Four as of Sunday morning. By Sunday afternoon, though, they were the first team out of the tournament on BracketMatrix.com, a compilation of more than 130 predicted fields. BracketMatrix had the Irish in Sunday morning. The likely trigger for the change was Richmond pilfering a bid by winning the Atlantic 10 tournament Sunday.
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(UPDATE): Notre Dame nearly had its bid stolen, though. The Irish were the last at-large team in the field and the No. 47 overall seed on the 1-through-68 list. Dayton was the first team out of the field and had its bid taken. All told, Notre Dame is one of five ACC teams to make the field. The others are No. 2 Duke, No. 8 North Carolina, No. 10 Miami and No. 11 Virginia Tech. The five teams are the league’s fewest since 2013.
Notre Dame and Rutgers were Big East members from 1995-2013. They last met in 2013, a 69-61 Irish win on March 13.
This is the Irish 37th all-time NCAA Tournament appearance and 13th in head coach Mike Brey’s 22 seasons. It’s the first for everyone on the roster except for forward Paul Atkinson Jr., who played in the 2019 tournament for Yale.
