It's Monday...So Brackets and Rankings

Notre Dame had a good week last week -- sweeping rivals DePaul and Marquette and re-emerging as a player in the Big East race and the NCAA Tournament. Barring an unexpected loss at Rutgers, the Irish will have a bye on the first day of the Big East Tournament. This is critical because Notre Dame would then only need to win three games in three days to win the BET instead of the Syracuse Special (4-in-4) from last season.
And as far as the NCAAs go, the Irish are rising up the brackets -- including one guy -- the aptly named Mr. Bracket -- having the Irish as a No. 4 seed.

As for rankings, Notre Dame jumped up six spots to No. 17 in the ESPN/USA Today coaches' poll and moved back into the Associated Press media poll at No. 22, one slot ahead of football rival USC. CBS Sportsline's Gary Parrish has Notre Dame at No. 20 in his Top 26.

In bracketland, ESPN has Notre Dame as a lock for the first time in over a month and Joe Lunardi has the Irish as a No. 6 seed playing No. 11 Illinois in Sacramento.  And Insights friend and Orlando Sentinel Florida beat writer Dave Curtis has Notre Dame as a No. 7 seed in New Orleans in his latest mockup, including a first-round game against football rival Boston College and a potential second-round game against Florida. Talk about your storylines.

Also, freshman point guard Tory Jackson was named Big East rookie of the week and freshman forward Luke Harangody ended up on the weekly honor roll.
-By Michael Rothstein of The Journal Gazette

Comments

[Matt Jenks]

A well-deserved honor for Jackson. He was on a different plane during the DePaul game. Unfortunately, the local broadcast blacked out the Marquette game (we got to see Harangody foul out and the technical free throws down here and the subsequent minute or so of action).

All in all, a very good week for the Irish basketball team. In a year where no one seems to want to keep their high seeds, Notre Dame finally stepped up and turned some heads.

Now, just don't let everyone down at Rutgers!