NCAA tournament bracketology: Now healthy, Notre Dame is suddenly the most complex bubble team

Notre Dame has become one of the most intriguing teams in the country here in championship week based on the return of preseason All-American Bonzie Colson, a national player of the year candidate last season who hasn't missed a beat in his first few games back.

Colson’s almost theatrical late-season return (he came back Feb. 28) doesn’t wipe away the team’s pedestrian credentials — 19-13 record and 8-10 finish in ACC regular-season play to go with a 70 RPI — but the back-to-healthy-form Irish present a much different at-large candidate to the NCAA tournament selection committee, which considers injuries (under unique circumstances) as part of its selection process. Starting point guard Matt Farrell also missed some time this season with an injury.

Notre Dame lost seven games in a row at one point when Colson was out, and in February the Irish’s NCAA tourney chances seemed dire. Yet after Notre Dame’s narrow win over bottom-feeder Pittsburgh in the ACC tournament’s opening round on Tuesday, this team has tournament life all the sudden.

Source: usatoday