Notre Dame

EA SPORTS Maui Invitational (Nov 24-26)

Key Games:

-       Texas / St. Joseph's winner vs. Indiana / Notre Dame winner

-       UNC vs. Alabama / Oregon winner

-       Championship game

 

Heading into this Saturday it seemed like the Notre Dame Fighting Irish were well on their way to a seventh victory and a berth in either the Gator or Sun Bowl. All they had to do was beat Syracuse, playing for a recently dismissed head coach in Greg Robinson and dead last in the Big East. But while the Orange haven't played particularly well this season, you can't accuse this team of quitting. What ensued was one of the more stunning results of the day, with Syracuse stunning the Irish 24-23 on a late touchdown pass. Where do the Irish go from here?

The 2008-09 Big East season should bring as much excitement as any.  Commonly regarded as the toughest conference in college basketball, it has the potential to put 9+ teams into the NCAA tournament come March.

 

At the backbone of a great team comes a great coach, and the Big East has plenty of great coaches.  But which coaches are the best?  Let's just say that a well-padded résumé is not enough to give a coach top honors in this conference.

 

 

Big East Player Grades

 

 

 

BUST TEAMS

 

Notre Dame Fighting Irish

 

Overall Rank: #9

For all intents and purposes, the majority of front court players in the college game today are power forwards, there are just too few true centers out there. Like the point guard, having a solid big man is extremely important to a team’s success. All four Final Four teams from last season featured at least one NBA caliber big man (Kevin Love, Joey Dorsey, Darrell Arthur, Tyler Hansbrough). Is it any wonder then that each of the players featured on this list will be suiting up for a team primed to make an extended run into March? Probably not.

 

 

This is the second of six annual statistical projections of BCS conference starters. The lineups are based on the Starting Fives series of articles released two weeks ago, along with a couple of changes due to recent developments.