#4 seed. We get Marquette at home

Only team heading into tourney....

with a 2 game losing streak. Marquette will be a tough 1st round opponent.

Hopkins would like a word with you. *

My bad - wouldn't bet on Hop to get far either! *

No worries. As you can tell I'm a Hopkins alum my

two favorite college teams are Hopkins Lax and ND football. Needless to say the last decade (or longer for ND football) hasn't exactly been awesome.

They won't go far either. Goaltending is awful and defense isn't much better. Their SSDMs are shrimps and get pushed around by physical middies.

Marquette just won the Big East. *

Also not very good *

We are capable of beating, or losing to, just about anyone

...in this tournament. I say just about because I'm pretty sure we wouldn't lose to Monmouth or Bryant.

If we were completely healthy, I'd like our chances to go deep. But we're not and Marquette is hot, so I'm worried. But "we're not very good" is a bit harsh.

About the worst draw we could've received

We will play Sunday at noon ET. Full schedule (all games on ESPNU, all times Eastern):

Saturday, May 13
No. 7 Penn State vs. Towson, 12 p.m.
No. 6 Johns Hopkins vs. Duke, 2:30 p.m.
No. 5 Denver vs. Air Force, 5 p.m.
No. 8 Albany vs. North Carolina, 7:30 p.m.

Sunday, May 14
No. 4 Notre Dame vs. Marquette, 12 p.m.
No. 1 Maryland vs. Bryant/Monmouth, 2:30 p.m.
No. 3 Ohio State vs. Loyola (Md.), 5 p.m.
No. 2 Syracuse vs. Yale, 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, May 20 at Hempstead, NY (ESPNU, noon/2:30)
ND-Marquette winner vs. Denver-AFA winner
Ohio St-Loyola winner vs. Hopkins-Duke winner

Sunday, May 21 at Newark, DE (ESPN2, noon/2:30)
Maryland-Bryant/Monmouth winner vs. Albany-UNC winner
Syracuse-Yale winner vs. PSU-Towson winner

Don't know if there is a good or bad draw - too much balance

FWIW, the talking heads thought we got a good draw.
We have shown over the course of the year that we can beat anyone ...... or lose to anyone. We are 5-4 against teams in the NCAA tourney field.

Of our 5 losses on the season, 3 were by 1 goal. And the other 2 teams that beat ND by more than 1 goal (Duke & NC), we also beat them.

Of course, that's not factoring in the injuries. We are 1-2 without Perc and Garnsey at full strength and we don't know at what capacity they'll be able to play in the tourney.

As I understood it, the talking heads were talking

Only about first-round matchups. In that regard, they pointed out that Ohio State (the #3 seed) drew Loyola in the first round, whereas ND drew Marquette and Denver drew Air Force. On the basis of RPI, they're correct that Loyola is the toughest first-round draw of the three. But I'll take it, if only for the reason that the first round is geographically based, and we've gotten a rough draw a few times in the past for that same reason.

With that said, matchups are potentially crucial in any single-elimination tournament. Marquette seems to match up very well with us (not sure how well Loyola would match up), and Joe Amplo is an outstanding coach.

In any event, not to speak for ShermanOaksND (who certainly doesn't need anyone else to speak for him), but I think he was referring to the potential second-round matchup with Denver, which the talking heads never mentioned that I heard. Denver is one of those teams that just seems to have our number.

Given the ultimate goal we have

I'm not annoyed. We've done everything you can do other than win a title. We're going to have to beat top teams to win a title. We can either play great and make this the year or not.

Last year I was sort of 'expecting' a title. I thought we had all the pieces. At this point all we can do is continue making the tourney and hope it works out at some point.

I think I feel the same way

I definitely thought last year would be the year. Heck, had come out of OT against Denver in '15, there's no doubt in my mind we would have one. This year, I didn't know what to expect and now that we're dealing with injuries, who knows what will happen?

Only two teams have made the tournament the last 12 years. Us, and Maryland. I'll take that kind if consistency.

Also

We've advanced at least to the quarterfinal round in each of the last 7 years. That's the longest active streak by far. Next longest is Maryland, who has been to the quarterfinals in each of the last 3 seasons.

That kind of consistency is outstanding. But we still don't have a brass ring. I'm with you -- I had a good feeling about winning the tournament each of the last two years, but it didn't happen. I don't have a good feeling about winning this year's tournament, due to the injuries as well as the increased parity in the field. We're capable of beating any team in the field, but we're also capable of losing to most of the teams in the field. Everything considered, I just don't have a good feeling about the likelihood of stringing four wins in a row together. But stranger things have happened.

Have to improve faceoff capability to win a NC....

I'm surprised that faceoffs remain an on-going concern annually.

And performance in man up situations *

Not sure I agree entirely

I was afraid the Selection Committee would swap out first round opponents between us and Ohio State and we'd wind up with Loyola instead. I do agree that the potential quarterfinal matchup with Denver is not good for us.