* Andy Katz is reporting that Luke Harangody will be coming off the bench for the remainder of his Notre Dame career, per a conversation with Mike Brey last night.  This is a really smart decision, as you get the cohesion of the current Jackson/Hansbrough/Abro/Scott/Nash combination to start, with the added bonus of bringing in a former Big East Player of the Year against the opponent's reserve big men.  All signs seem to point to Harangody being one hundred percent fine with a diminished role to keep the current roll of success going, which speaks to his qualities as a basketball player and person.

* Not all of the bracket services have their projections up, but it seems like Notre Dame is extremely close to being a lock.  Joe Lunardi, who has been extremely bearish on the Irish, has them as the fifth team in, just behind Illinois and Florida (more on this in a moment).  Bracketology101 seems to think the Irish are next to a lock after the Marquette win, and SBNations' resident bracketologist is yet to update today.

Katz also has the Irish in, while Doug Gottlieb is banging the drum that if the Irish fall to Seton Hall or Providence, they're out.  I don't think Gottlieb's past history with Notre Dame has anything to do with his less-than-enthusastic perspective, as he expressed the same doubts about Louisville.  Instead, Gottlieb just is dealing with a logical fallacy.  He is comparing bubble teams to some ideal standard of what one should like, or even to previous year's discussions.  The fact is that this year's crop does not cause a lot of enthusiasm, and by accruing three top 25 wins and a strong finish, Notre Dame is a great candidate even with the poor power numbers. 

Lunardi still has Georgia Tech in the bracket as the eighth team in, which is remarkable consider they're 7-9 in the disappointing and constantly overrated ACC.  Notre Dame just has to look better than some Conference USA teams (Memphis and UAB), the Mississippi schools, some A-10 stragglers (Dayton and Rhode Island) and a couple of PAC-10 hopefuls (Arizona State and Washington) and they're in.  You never know who is going to make a run, and you'd much prefer a win on Wednesday night to seal the deal, but Irish fans should feel pretty comfortable.

* But not totally comfortable, which is why haters gotta hate.  A lot of games to follow today to increase the margin for error.  Get out your pom-poms and root for the following teams:

Kentucky (over Florida)

Wisconsin (over Illinois)

Old Dominion (over VCU)

Portland (over St. Mary's)

Gonzaga (over Loyola Marymount)

Clemson (over Wake Forest)

Siena (over Rider)

(Yes, we are all on our way to the dark side.  Fear of not making the tournament leads to hate of innocent teams, when then leads to suffering next Sunday when Notre Dame doesn't appear in the bracket and we're all depressed.  Master Yoda warned us about this, but wouldn't it be sweet to have a double-bladed lightsaber?)