Even though the football season is still very young with lots of exciting potential (for both success and soul-sucking failure), any fan of hoops or Notre Dame should be absolutely thrilled for the upcoming Fighting Irish basketball season.  After piecing together mos of the schedule these past few months, the final rundown has been released, and it is a doozy.

In addition to the Big East schedule which includes home and homes with UConn (who brings everybody back) and Louisville (probable preseason number two), the Irish travel to UCLA, have a neutal site game against Ohio State in the beautiful new Colts venue and are attending the Maui Invitational, where they will have the chance to take on Indiana, Texas and North Carolina.  So just to recap, they're playing in the toughest conference in the nation by a mile, then adding on a team that's been to three straight Final Fours, the national runner-up from two years ago and have the potential to play teams that made the Elite Eight and Final Four last year, including the Tar Heels, who will be a unanimous preseason number one because holy sh*t they are loaded.

After the embarrassingly soft non-conference last year, this is a great step in the right direction for Mike Brey and company.  If this is a championship-caliber team, then it is important for them to measure themselves against the best in the country all season long so it's not some sort of surprise come the rigors of March.  There will certainly be setbacks (there's a Vince McMahon-like "No Chance In Hell" the Irish sweep all of their big games), but as long as the season doesn't implode, I'm looking forward to some absolutely fantastic hoops from November into April.