Notre Dame men’s basketball: Don’t let the bubble pop

Notre Dame has had an up, and often down men’s basketball season. Now, they find themselves 5th in the ACC, and firmly on the NCAA Tournament bubble.

There’s still a path for the Notre Dame men’s basketball team to make the NCAA Tournament. As it stands right now, the Irish are tenuously on the bubble. Any more losing and it may burst.

However, if the Irish win out in the regular season, they’d be in a solid position to make a run in the ACC tournament. A couple of wins in the tournament, plus some outside help, and the Irish could make the NCAA Tournament.

If that doesn’t work out, you can always mess around and win the ACC Tournament. But, if you’re ready to roll the dice on that, then you’re more of a gambler than most.

Since getting embarrassed by Duke, Notre Dame has won three straight games, which should grow to four today against Wake Forest. From there the Irish have a difficult game against 6th ranked Florida State and finish the regular season with another winnable game against Virginia Tech.

That being said, even Florida State should be very winnable, as the Irish only lost to the Seminoles by a point in Tallahassee, and this time they’ll meet in South Bend.

For the sake of probability, let’s assume Notre Dame goes 2-1 in their final three games. That would almost certainly lock them into the ACC’s 5th seed for the tournament. If that were the case, Notre Dame would get the first-round bye and winner of the game between the 12 vs 13 seeds. Currently, that would be a game between Miami and Pittsburgh.

However, if the Irish go 1-2, or a disastrous 0-3 they could fall as far as to the 10th seed for the ACC Tournament, and it would become almost impossible to win.

Again, if the Irish finish the regular season strong, they may not need to win the entire ACC Tournament to make the NCAA Tournament. They’ll need to win a few games, but maybe not the whole thing.

As it stands now, Notre Dame’s RPI is 88th, and their strength of schedule is only 108th in the country. Based on the opponent’s RPI, Notre Dame’s best win is UCLA, followed by Georgia Tech. Unfortunately, that just doesn’t jump off the page at anyone.

Florida State by far would constitute Notre Dame’s best win of the season, as the Seminoles are currently 3rd in RPI. It’s a win that would help their run of the mill resume to pop.

The bubble spot for Notre Dame is precarious. However, it is legitimate, as they need to make a run. Yes, they need some help, but that doesn’t mean that Notre Dame’s bubble chances are dead just yet.