Notre Dame Basketball: Five reasons why the Irish can make a deep run in March

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Jan 21, 2017; South Bend, IN, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish forward V.J. Beachem (3) stands with fans and teammates for the Notre Dame Alma Mater after Notre Dame defeated the Syracuse Orange 84-66 at the Purcell Pavilion. Mandatory Credit: Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports /

Notre Dame basketball may not be talked about as the best team in the country, but they have the tools to make a deep NCAA Tournament run.

Notre Dame is 17-5 and ranked 14th in the country. Think about that for a second. Notre Dame, a self-proclaimed “football school” is ranked 14th and tied for third in the extremely competitive ACC. It could honestly be argued that Notre Dame is better at basketball than they are at football. The statement isn’t as crazy as you might think, especially in the last two seasons and so far this year.

None of this should be any surprise to anyone as the Irish are coming off of back-to-back Elite Eight appearances. We should expect another great season from the Irish because that’s what they seem to do now year in and year out.

Despite Notre Dame’s recent success, and despite their consistency as a top program year in and year out, no one expected this year’s team to be anything special. Notre Dame was picked to finish 7th in the ACC and had zero players on any preseason All-ACC team of any kind.

The Irish were merely an after thought. Despite this, the Irish are once again playing fantastic basketball and are seeing themselves spoken about in a tone of surprise by the college basketball talking heads.

Notre Dame is experienced, well coached, and could make a deep NCAA Tournament run. When it happens, don’t be surprised. In the meantime, here are five reasons why the Fighting Irish are poised and ready to make it three straight Elite Eight appearances.

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