After a big win over former Duke Blue Devil Mark Mitchell and his Missouri Tigers, Notre Dame gets a nice road test at TCU.
Jamie Dixon has never been our favorite coach but he has TCU at 5-2. The losses are to New Orleans (78-74 and inexplicable) and to Michigan, 67-63 and admirable, given how well Michigan has played.
TCU also has wins against Florida (84-80) and Wisconsin (74-63).
Traditionally, Jamie Dixon has made laughable schedules but this is pretty good and clearly, TCU is capable of playing very well.
Is Notre Dame up for it? Well, maybe.
The Irish barely lost to Ohio State and fell to Kansas 71-61 and to Houston 66-56.
The Ohio State game was a road test and while we don’t know anything about TCU’s home crowd, our guess is that Ohio State has a better atmosphere, but we really don’t know and it doesn’t matter.
This is a big game for Notre Dame. If they can put together two solid wins, they have a chance at running off four wins before starting conference play and their opening slate isn’t too bad: the Irish make the West Coast swing, then play Clemson, Miami, Virginia Tech, UNC and Boston College. They should get their fair share.
That’s the only game on Friday but Saturday will be busy. The highlight games should be Duke at Michigan State, an irritated Louisville at Indiana, and perhaps Wake Forest at West Virginia. Florida State is playing at Houston and while we aren’t expecting much given the recent reality checks, things could always get interesting. You never know.
