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Irish Power Into Big East Play Notre Dame finishes non-conference slate with 10 straight wins By Wes Morgan For the third time in head coach Mike Brey's tenure, Notre Dame is riding a 10-game winning streak. photo by joe raymond With the men's college basketball season transitioning from non-conference play to league action over the holidays, the top-25 rankings feature a wide swath of conference affiliations, with 10 different leagues represented. The top 10 is comprised of one Atlantic Coast Conference program, four Big Ten schools, one Pac-12 team, two Big East members, one Big 12 squad and one West Coast Conference participant. Duke remains the No. 1-ranked squad with a 13-0 record, followed by No. 2 Michigan (13-0), No. 3 Arizona (12‑0), No. 4 Louisville (13-1), No. 5 Indiana (13‑1), No. 6 Kansas (11-1), No. 7 Syracuse (13-1), No. 8 Ohio State (11‑2), No. 9 Minnesota (13-1) and No. 10 Gonzaga (13-1). Notre Dame weighs in at No. 21 after completing its non-league schedule with a 12-1 mark. In all, six Big East members rank among the nation's top 25, including No. 14 Cincinnati (13-1), No. 15 Georgetown (10-1) and No. 24 Pittsburgh (12-2). Louisville, with three starters back from a squad that won the conference tournament title and reached the Final Four last season, was the unanimous Big East preseason favorite. Syracuse was voted second and Notre Dame came in third ahead of Cincinnati. Georgetown rounded out the top five, edging out Pitt and Marquette. Now it's about playing things out on the court rather than on paper. The Irish begin Big East play Saturday against visiting Seton Hall after a two-week break. Notre Dame is riding a 10-game winning streak — the longest since the ✦ Page 14 2007‑08 season and the third such streak in head coach Mike Brey's tenure. Though it hasn't exactly been a murderers' row prior to league play for the Irish, Brey said it isn't prudent to overschedule before embarking on the beat-you-black-and-blue Big East. "Since the Big East went to 18 league games, those are 18 power games," he said. "The ACC will be an 18-game [schedule]. We've talked about playing four power games in our non-league segment of games. That's kind of what we do. I think that's a smart philosophy for us. I don't think that will change moving forward." Best Of The Big East Syracuse tops the league list with a scoring average of 82 points per game, followed by Louisville (78.1), Cincinnati (77.3) and Notre Dame (76.4). Pitt has been the stingiest of all Big East teams through non-conference play, allowing just 52.5 points per game. Georgetown, Louisville, Cincinnati, Providence, Syracuse and Notre Dame have all surrendered fewer than 60 points per outing. Pittsburgh has shot 51.3 percent from the field to pace the league, with Notre Dame a close second at 51.0 percent. The Irish have made the third-most three-pointers (92) behind Seton Hall (112) and Cincinnati (102), but head coach Mike Brey's team has the highest percentage (38.7) from behind the arc. Notre Dame is 11th in the conference when it comes to defending the deep ball, having given up 75 triples. The Irish lead the way with 19.5 as-