After his team was defeated by Georgia Tech Saturday afternoon at McCamish Pavilion, Notre Dame coach Mike Brey spoke words that are perhaps as sweet to Yellow Jackets fans as they are unbelievable.
“Georgia Tech is a very good team,” he said. “I believe they’re going to be an NCAA tournament team.”
A ludicrous idea no less than two weeks ago, the Yellow Jackets have a worthy tournament résumé, having now beaten three teams in the RPI top 25, North Carolina (No. 8), Florida State (No. 12) and Notre Dame (No. 23). With the 62-60 win over Notre Dame, Tech saw its RPI rise from 71 to 63 following the game, according to warrennolan.com. Typically, a team needs to have its RPI in the 40's or 50's to merit consideration. The Jackets, who were considered one of the weakest power-conference teams in the country at the season's outset, have time to continue to push the ranking higher.
Tech coach Josh Pastner didn’t dispute Brey’s opinion.
“If the tournament is (Saturday), we’re in and there’s no question about it,” Pastner said. “There’s still a lot of games left. The tournament doesn’t (start Saturday). (But) if the tournament was today, we’d be in the NCAA tournament. We’d deserve to be in the NCAA tournament based on our résumé.”
If Tech were to make the tournament, it would be the Jackets’ first appearance since the 2009-10 season.
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