Your Daily Bracket...and a couple other notes

ESPN updated its bracketology Wednesday -- and Notre Dame is still around. The Irish are a No. 9 seed in a first-round rematch of last year's first-round NIT game with Vanderbilt. The Irish knocked off Vandy, but lost to Michigan in the second round. A Notre Dame win in the first round of this matchup would likely receive North Carolina in Winston-Salem, N.C. Not easy. As for the bracketologist Joe Lunardi, an interesting story about how he got started. The Drive to 65 also denotes that Notre Dame needs to win 10 Big East games to feel safe. We agree.

The Bracket Project knocked Notre Dame to a No. 10 seed along with Vandy, Missouri State and Alabama (one of Notre Dame's big non-conference wins), which collapsed at Florida after being up big early.

And regarding Notre Dame's game Thursday against Providence, Notre Dame coach Mike Brey said today that senior guard Russell Carter is a game-time decision to start against the Friars because he's still recovering from a right hip flexor injury. Maybe that's why he was muttering and grimacing during the DePaul game. As for the game, the Providence Journal's Kevin McNamara writes how the game is big for both teams and how similar they are.

And admittedly off-topic, but after watching a couple Iowa games this year, we enjoyed this "topic for the day" story on Big Ten leading scorer Adam Haluska.

And at the men's swimming and diving championships in the hometown of East Meadow, N.Y. -- wonder if they'll pick up Figarelly's Deli while they are there. If you go, get the "Big Guy" breakfast -- Notre Dame's men's team set two school records and leads after the first day of competition. Freshman Andrew Hoffman, a Homestead grad, was part of the record-setting 800-yard freestyle relay team.

-By Michael Rothstein of The Journal Gazette