Al Maguire famously said, in response to a question how one wins the NCAA, that you have to be lucky, and the last shot has to go in.
That applies to each game in the tourney. Last year, ND was lucky (both because the higher seeds got beat, and the last shot went in against Stephen A. Austin-- a major College hoops powerhouse, dontcha know). This year ND was lucky when the wide open last shot by Princeton -- another hoops factory where players don't have to go to class -- did NOT go in. That's college hoops. They were lucky to get by the first round, and predictably lost to a much better team. No shame there.
ND was certainly better this year than I expected. Brey did a better job than I can recall getting his team to play defense. Bonzie Colson was unbelievably good -- never better than against WVU. And Farrell was way better than I thought. They are not, in my view a Top 16 team.
With Colson back, if Gibbs matures and Farrell is as good or better, they should have a similar season next year -- beat the teams it should, beat some it shouldn't and lose the majority of games against ranked teams. BTW, the Tourney seems to show that the ACC was not the super-conference we all believed it to be.
Looking forward to watching the Muffettes tonight.