On Feb. 17, Notre Dame ascended to No. 1 in the Associated Press Top 25 for the first time since 2018. Since then, the Irish have dropped three of their last five games, eliminating their chances for an outright ACC regular-season title and a second straight conference tournament crown.
The latest defeat came in a particularly dispiriting fashion, as Notre Dame’s offense fell apart in a 61-56 defeat to Duke in the ACC semifinals. The Blue Devils used a 9-0 run spanning the third and fourth quarters to take control after neither team had led by more than five to that point. Despite having more turnovers than made field goals, Duke limited the Irish to 37.5 percent shooting and only three made 3s from the team that leads the country in 3-point percentage. Notre Dame never even had the ball with a chance to tie the score in the final period.
The Blue Devils will play in the conference championship for the first time since 2017, while the Irish are left to wonder what has gone wrong and how they can regroup for the Big Dance.
How Notre Dame got here
Notre Dame lost its first two games of the season in a Thanksgiving tournament in the Cayman Islands but proceeded to reel off a 19-game win streak, including victories over Texas, UConn, UNC and Duke. The Irish welcomed back frontcourt…
