Luc Fox

Norte Dame’s Chances of Winning the ACC and NCAA Tournaments Are Slim, Can the Big Players Play Big?

Norte Dame looks to take a run to win the university’s second ACC Men’s Basketball Championship as they head to the Barclays Center in New York. Norte Dame has only registered six losses in conference play and an overall total of eight loses. With all their conference losses to top six teams except for the loss to Georgia Tech. Norte Dame will have good chance of making it past the quarterfinals but they will have to bring all they have to win in the semifinals.

Norte Dame will play either the sixth seed Virginia (0-1), eleventh seed Georgia Tech (1-1), or fourteenth seed Pittsburgh (1-0). Norte Dame has beaten each team besides Virginia.

Bonzie Colson a Junior from New Bedford, Massachusetts will need to continue to put up 20 point nights to help carry his team. The same goes for V.J. Beachem who has put up almost 30 points in a few games, he needs to push himself a little bit more to get his team into the semifinals. Norte Dame’s top players have been around for a while as they are Seniors and Juniors.

Top players have proven that they can put up 20 plus points in games but they have been struggling to be consistent. Some of the top best players can come to play in big games but players like Bonzie Colson and V.J. Beachem have struggled to put up big numbers against teams they have lost to. They can be pushed to play well when the team needs points but the mindset is to get enough points not get points to win the game. These players have proven they can play good enough to put up huge numbers but they will they be able to be consistent during the post season.

Norte Dame might have what it takes to go all the way to the Championship but right now their stats show otherwise. They have a solid record but they have lost big games to big teams and that will affect them when it comes to trying to move on to the next round. Most of their losses this season have been by around ten points, Norte Dame’s top players have to produce more points and get the offense going if they want to win a Championship.

Last season Norte Dame finished in a similar position in the standings and they made it to the semifinals, they fell short to the power house North Carolina. They also lost one more game last year ending with an 11-7 record in ACC compared to this year’s 12-6. They weren’t the same team they were last year, they have improved a bit but is that improvement enough to win?

Now for the NCAA tournament it’s a different conversation as the Fighting Irish are sitting in fifth place. As of right now they will be playing twelfth place UNC Wilmington. Wilmington has the benefit of playing in two more games as their record is 28-5 (overall), this is compared to Norte Dame’s 23-8 (overall). Although UNC Wilmington has played Clemson and took an 87-73 loss, Wilmington hasn’t played any other teams that Norte Dame has played. Norte Dame beat Clemson 75-70 in a close game. The same goes for the NCAA tournament as for the ACC, the team will most likely move on to the next round but it depends on how well the big players come to play.

Once Norte Dame takes down UNC Wilmington, how are they going to do against Florida or Bucknell? If Norte Dame is to take on Florida it will be a very close game, it will all come down to how well the Norte Dame offense can perform against the higher seeded Florida team. Bucknell seems to be on the rise and can prove as a threat to Norte Dame. The Fighting Irish will not make a Championship run, they will only win a game or two when it comes to the ACC and NCAA. The team can have good potential to make it past the first and maybe even the second but they will have no match when it comes to playing top teams.