Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM OCT. 29, 2022 47 MEN'S BASKETBALL BY PATRICK ENGEL N otre Dame basketball had high in- ternal preseason expectations last season: NCAA Tournament or bust. Everything revolved around seeing the words "Notre Dame" pop on the screen on Selection Sunday for the first time since 2017. The Irish believed it was possible. The outside views, though, weren't as convinced. Notre Dame, coming off an 11-15 season in 2020-21, was tabbed to finish eighth in the ACC in what was widely predicted to be a down year for the league. This year? External views and prog- nostications have higher standards. That's what a second-place finish in the league, two wins during March Madness and a crop of returning fifth-year play- ers will do. Notre Dame was picked to finish sixth in the preseason ACC poll, the confer- ence announced Oct. 18. The 15-team poll was voted on by the media members present at ACC media days earlier in the month. A two-spot jump from last season's preseason prognostications sounds more significant than it reads. The ACC had one team ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 for much of the regular season and sent just five teams to the NCAA Tournament. It would have been four without Virginia Tech — not a pro- jected at-large team — stealing a bid by claiming the ACC Tournament title. This season, though, looks like a deeper and more challenging 15-team field. North Carolina is the preseason No. 1 team in the AP preseason poll. Duke is not far behind at No. 7, and Vir- ginia is at No. 18. The Tar Heels bring back four starters from a team that reached the national title game. The Blue Devils, as they have often done, signed the No. 1 recruiting class, per the On3 Consensus Team Re- cruiting Rankings. Virginia missed the NCAA Tournament but returns all five of its starters. Further down, Virginia Tech has a second-team preseason All-ACC selec- tion back in forward Justyn Mutts, and Miami — which advanced to the Elite Eight last year — brings back reigning third-team all-conference guard Isa- iah Wong. Both found at least one first- team all-conference selection from an- other conference in the transfer portal. Florida State, a disappointment last season in part due to injuries, returns two former five-star recruits and its top two scorers. Then there's Notre Dame, which has six graduate students among its 12 scholarship players. Five of them are in the projected seven-man rotation, along with two freshmen — guard J.J. Starling and forward Ven-Allen Lubin. The former was a five-star prospect. All told, three of the top five scor- ers from last year's team return and are paired with a top-20 recruiting class. The Irish are as old and experienced as any team in the conference. It all means they're thinking big. "I think the potential of this team is to be a Final Four team," graduate student guard Cormac Ryan said earlier this month. "I believe that wholeheartedly." North Carolina was picked to win the ACC and earned 90 of 101 first-place votes. Duke was second, followed by Virginia, Miami, Florida State. Virginia Tech was picked seventh, with Syra- cuse, Wake Forest and North Carolina State rounding out the top 10. Notre Dame did not have any players on the two preseason All-ACC teams. Starling earned two votes for the ACC Preseason Rookie of the Year. Notre Dame's first game is an exhibi- tion Nov. 2 against Xavier University of Louisiana. The Irish open the regular season Nov. 10 at home vs. Radford. Their first ACC game is Dec. 3 vs. Syracuse. ✦ Notre Dame Picked Preseason No. 6 In A Loaded ACC Graduate student guard Dane Goodwin and the Fighting Irish enter 2022-23 with higher external expec- tations after notching two wins in last year's NCAA Tournament. PHOTO COURTESY NOTRE DAME ATHLETICS 2022-23 PRESEASON ACC POLL Rk. School (1st-Place Votes) Points 1. North Carolina (90) 1,504 2. Duke (2) 1,339 3. Virginia (6) 1,310 4. Miami (2) 1,138 5. Florida State 1,064 6. Notre Dame 971 7. Virginia Tech (1) 921 8. Syracuse 700 9. Wake Forest 672 10. NC State 548 11. Clemson 528 12. Louisville 477 13. Boston College 368 14. Pittsburgh 320 15. Georgia Tech 260