Notre Dame's Blueprint for a Deep Run in the 2015 NCAA Tournament

Perhaps you have never taken Notre Dame basketball seriously. You know Mike Brey is a solid coach, and he is capable of getting the most out of his players. But when it comes to competing with the best teams in the nation, Notre Dame simply is not in the same category.

That may have been true in the past, but it's not anymore. If you needed proof, check out the team's semifinal and final results in the ACC tournament. The Fighting Irish spanked Duke (74-64) and North Carolina (90-82)—college basketball royalty—in back-to-back games.

The Irish (29-5) are talented, deep and dangerous. Now that the brackets have been released, Notre Dame has its road map to the top of the college basketball world. Here are the reasons the Fighting Irish have a chance to get there.

Jerian Grant: Leader of the Pack

A year ago, Notre Dame was in deep trouble. Star guard Jerian Grant was suspended from the team due to academic issues, and the Irish floundered throughout much of the season.

Grant could have moved on from Notre Dame and transferred to another institution that did not have the same kind of challenging academic requirements. Instead, Grant stayed at Notre Dame, got his grades in order and became the team's dominant player.

Grant is averaging a team-high 16.8 points per game, and he is shooting 48.6 percent from the field. He can't be defined as an inside player or an outside player because he can be a game-breaker no matter where he plays on the court.

Grant is an excellent passer and one of the most underrated defensive players in the nation. Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim gushed to LaMond Pope of the Chicago Tribune about him:

"

He's really good on defense, that's overlooked probably. But he's a tremendous, complete player. He can play inside, outside. He shoots threes. He penetrates and gets people shots. He makes plays. He gets rebounds if he has to. He's one of the best all-around guards that I've seen in this league and that I've seen, period.

"

Grant is capable of taking the Irish a long way in the tournament.

Balanced Scoring

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Pat Connaughton

When it comes to crunch time, most top college basketball teams are going to look to their superstars when it comes to production.

That can make a team predictable, and a top defensive coach can put together a strategy that can stifle that superstar. The Irish are in no such danger.

They have excellent scoring depth, and the shooters to carry the team when Grant is drawing extra attention from opponents. Pat Connaughton was the team's second-leading scorer as he averages 12.8 points per game and shoots 47.0 percent from the field, while Demetrius Jackson is scoring 12.5 ppg. Powerful Zach Auguste, a 6'10", 240-pound forward, is averaging 12.4 ppg and shooting an eye-catching 60.7 percent.

This gives Brey plenty of comfort that if his team goes through any cold-shooting spells, they are not going to last long. The Irish can nearly always find the open man, and they do as good a job of taking advantage of that as nearly any team in the nation.

Momentum and Confidence

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Notre Dame goes into the NCAA tournament with as much momentum as any Irish team has had in recent memory. While the last two victories over Duke and North Carolina are defining and special, there is a lot more to the story.

The Irish are simply an amazing road basketball team. While they were not technically "away" games, winning three games in the ACC tournament on Tobacco Road shows that they can play well in unfamiliar and unfriendly surroundings. However, since the start of 2015, the Irish were 10-2 away from home with the only losses coming at Pittsburgh and Duke. 

After the ACC title game win over North Carolina, Demetrius Jackson told Tom Noie of Notre Dame Insider that the team has confidence on the road. 

“It’s crazy,” Jackson said. “But we play best on the road. Guys stepped up and made huge plays like they always do.”

Explosiveness

Gerry Broome/Associated Press

It's one thing for a team to put on a spurt, but it's quite another to go on a run that turns a nearly hopeless deficit into an all but guaranteed victory.

That's just what happened for Notre Dame in the ACC championship game. The Irish were down 64-56 with less than 10 minutes to play in the second half. North Carolina was doing whatever it wanted on offense, and time was running out.

But the Irish players knew they still had a chance, and they had full belief in themselves—even if this was the ACC tournament and the opponent was the Tar Heels.

“We looked at the clock, we knew we had to go right away,” Grant explained to Tim Prister of Irish Illustrated, “and we didn’t want to lose.”

The Irish went on a 15-0 run that turned into a 24-2 devastation. North Carolina managed to make a few shots after the streak ended, but it never got back in the game. And Notre Dame came away with an eight-point victory.

If the Irish can put together that kind of explosive run against North Carolina, they have the ability to do that against nearly any team in the tournament.

Shooting Skill

Gerry Broome/Associated Press

Notre Dame can attack in any number of ways, but there are few teams that can match the Irish when it comes to shooting the basketball.

Notre Dame connected on 945 of 1,853 shots, which works out to a pristine percentage of .510. The Irish are a dependable three-point shooting team, connecting on 281 of 716 shots from beyond the arc, which is a robust .392 percentage. Additionally, the Irish connected on 509 of 688 free throws for a .740 percentage.

All that means is that when Notre Dame faces its most crucial moments, the team can shoot the ball successfully. That's a huge part of putting a winning tournament streak together.

Fundamentally Sound

Bob Leverone/Associated Press

Zach Auguste

Notre Dame plays the game the right way. The Irish protect the ball and don't turn it over. They play hounding defense on every possession. They are a tough bunch of fighters, and the numbers bear this out.

Notre Dame averages 15.1 assists per game, and that's a plus-2.6 advantage over its opponents. The Irish turn the ball over 9.4 times per game, but opponents give the ball away 11.3 times per outing. Notre Dame comes up with 6.9 steals per game, and that's an advantage of 1.7 steals per outing.

The Irish have one weakness, and that's their lack of size. Despite that problem, Notre Dame outrebounded its opponents by a slim margin.

Notre Dame excels at the fundamentals, and that will work in its favor throughout the tournament.