A look at Notre Dame WBB’s NCAA Tournament outlook (Feb. 15)

Jockeying for NCAA Tournament position does not cease until conference tournaments are finished. Notre Dame could improve its current projection — or worsen it — depending on what happens in the final four regular season games and in Greensboro, N.C., in the first few days of March.

As it stands on Feb. 15, Notre Dame is on the No. 3 seed line according to ESPN analyst Charlie Creme’s latest bracketology reveal. The Fighting Irish would play No. 14 seed Drexel in the first round, hosted at Purcell Pavilion in South Bend. The other teams in the pod are No. 6 seed Arizona and No. 11 seeds Georgia or Marquette.

The opponents are inconsequential at the moment. They’re bound to change come selection Sunday (March 12). But the number next to Notre Dame’s name is important. It rose as high as No. 1 when the Irish (20-4, 11-3 ACC) were on a roll and at the top of the ACC standings. They’ve since slipped behind Duke (22-3, 12-2 ACC) with a loss to the Blue Devils on Feb. 5.

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Two of the Irish’s final four games are against Louisville (19-8, 10-4 ACC). The Cardinals are just one game back of Notre Dame in the conference standings. Two losses to the Cards, who the Irish have not beaten since 2019, a stretch that includes six straight defeats, would be detrimental to Notre Dame’s conference tournament seeding and postseason outlook as a whole.

The Irish’s first shot at snapping the losing streak to Louisville comes at Purcell Pavilion on Thursday at 7 p.m. ET. The game will be televised on ESPN.

Notre Dame PG Olivia Miles named to another watch list

Irish sophomore Olivia Miles’ stellar season is being noticed by the masses. The Notre Dame point guard landed on the Dawn Staley Award Late Season Watch List on Tuesday.

Named in honor of current South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley, a two-time ACC and Naismith College Player of the Year winner as a player at Virginia (1988-92), the award was inaugurated in 2013 and is given annually to the best guard in women’s college basketball.

Miles leads Notre Dame in points (14.9), rebounds (7.1), assists (7.2) and steals (2.1) per game. She’s one of two players in the country averaging 14, 7 and 7 in those first two categories. Iowa’s Caitlin Clark (27.4, 8.3 and 7.6) is the other.