Bracketology

I'll preview the first real game of the season tomorrow, so hopefully this will be the last filler post for a while. It will be great to have some real ND basketball underway.

The Big East received 8 bids in Joe Lunardi's first Bracketology of the year, with the Irish sliding in as an 11 seed from the South Region. Obviously anywhere in the bracket would be an improvement over last year, but I hope the boys can play themselves into a much better seed by Selection Sunday. Villanova picked up the highest seed of the conference, as the top second-seeded team. West Virginia is a three-seed.

Ok, let's get rolling with an easy win on Saturday. Show us some good, balanced scoring and more tenacity on defense guys.

Post Exhibition Notes

Nice write-up in the South Bend Tribune about the two exhibition games. Interesting information about a possible future pre-season scrimage (great idea) and quotes about Harangody spreading the ball around more in the second contest. That's what we need from Luke.

The only troubling aspect from the article is how Tom Noie reinforces the idea that the freshmen will be brought along a similar path as previous underclassmen, no significant minutes until the more seasoned players graduate. We have a SEVEN man rotation as it is. This is simply not going to cut it in the long haul of the Big East season. With eight solid veterans, maybe, but seven players (including no legitimate backup post presence) simply will not do.

Around the Country

A pair of interesting articles on ESPN.com for you to check out today.

Well, the first really isn't an article, per se, but the power rankings are interesting to peruse. Kansas holds the top spot in most balloting, with Jay Bilas ranking Tom Izzo's squad at #1. Villanova and West Virginia are each ranked in the top 10, a few spots above a very interesting Butler team. Here's to Brad Stevens getting his Bulldogs deep into the tournament this year.

Dick Vitale provides his always interesting analysis, as well. It's a little less annoying in print (I kid, of course, I'm a fan of his). The most interesting tidbit is his choice for National Player of the Year.

Update on Former Players

Slightly dated news, but I'm still struggling a bit to find solid news stories before the season officially starts. Rob Kurz, the Cavaliers' final cut of the summer, will start his second professional season trying out for the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, an NBDL squad that has also invited Kyle McAlarney and Rob Kurz to training camp. The final roster should be ten men out of the seventeen in camp. Good luck to all three making the squad.

Chris Quinn is still in the NBA, but has yet to play a game this year for the Heat following a sprained ankle in the preseason.

Adios Charlie

After the football team's second loss to Navy in three years, I think we can start to look forward to basketball returning again. What a sad state Notre Dame fans live in.