Notre Dame draws 7 seed in the West Region

Though many think the Irish were deserving of a 6 seed, Mike Brey and company have earned the 7th seed in the West Region. They will begin tournament play on Friday (time TBD) in Dayton, OH against Fred "The Mayor" Hoiberg and his Iowa State Cyclones.

My preliminary reaction is fairly middle-of-the-road. There is really no justification for Butler or Memphis being named a 6 seed and Notre Dame dropping to a 7, but I can't be that outraged that a team with one of the worst non-conference schedules of all major conference teams might be a seed lower than they should. I also wouldn't want to trade places with Arizona (who is the 6 seed in the west), who has to play Belmont in the first round, although I would much rather play New Mexico than Ohio State in a potential second (er, third) round game.

I am a little upset that a) Iowa State is the opponent and Temple, who somehow got a 9 seed, is not in their place and b) the Irish drew easily the best of the 10 seeds. That said, the Irish are plain and simple a better team and should win, especially with the way they played in MSG.

I'll be back tomorrow with much more on Notre Dame's draw (I might even do some research!) and what their path to the Final Four looks like, including a preliminary look at the first round match up with Iowa State.