Notre Dame was the surprise team of the Big East, almost winning the regular season title after being picked ninth.

It wasn’t a matter of the coaches who made the preseason selection being wrong, it was just that no one could have imagined how much Big East Player of the Year Luke Harangody would improve between his freshman and sophomore season and how big an impact guard Kyle McAlarney would have as the top 3-point shooter in the conference.

The Irish put things together offensively like no one imagined and wound up winning 14 games before being knocked off in the Big East Tournament by Marquette.

That was good enough to get them a No. 5 seed in the East Regional, where they will play Colonial Tournament champion George Mason, a team that played in the 2006 Final Four.

Notre Dame plays a very different brand of basketball than Mason sees in the CAA and that could be a problem for the underdog but GMU is a team that is capable of scoring points if it gets in a shootout while, at the same time, it can win a low scoring game off its defense