The Notre Dame Fighting Irish tore through the ACC Tournament with dominating victories over Duke and North Carolina to catapult the team into a No. 3 seed in the Midwest Region bracket. The Fighting Irish played inspired basketball throughout the conference tournament and received a huge 24-point performance from their senior guard Jerian Grant during the ACC Championship Game and put the matchup out of reach with a 26-3 second-half run.

Notre Dame has not recorded an NCAA Tournament victory since 2011 and was not even invited to last year's festivities. Overall, the program owns one Final Four appearance in the school's history and has not seen any amount of tournament success since 2003 when Notre Dame made a Sweet 16 run but fell short against Arizona. After Notre Dame's surprising ACC title win, however, Coach Mike Brey believes his squad can make a national title run this year.

2015 Notre Dame National Title Odds Bracket Storylines

Notre Dame is probably sitting in the toughest bracket in the nation simply because No. 1 overall seed Kentucky is standing at the top. The Fighting Irish are set for a Round of 64 clash against No. 14 Northeastern and then would have to face Butler and Kansas, if no major upsets happen, before facing the undefeated Wildcats in the Elite Eight. Notre Dame will have its work cut out for themselves and will not face an "easy" matchup once the Round of 32 begins.

The Fighting Irish are probably used to playing big games this season and managed to face Duke three times over the last month and a half and ended up participating in eight matchups against ranked opponents during the year. Notre Dame enters the tournament with the second-highest field goal shooting percentage in the nation to go along with four double-digit scorers and a fifth player that averages just a hair below 10 points per game.

2015 Notre Dame National Title Odds and ATS Trends

Notre Dame National Title Odds: +2500

Notre Dame -13 against Northeastern

Notre Dame will be entering the tournament with +2500 national title odds at Sportsbook.ag and opened as a 13-point favorite for its first matchup against Northeastern. Overall the squad produced a 15-11 ATS record and 13-11 totals mark while going "under" the posted total in six of its last 10 games. Notre Dame has covered in five straight matchups and during eight of its last 10 games. The team is ranked second in field goal percentage, 18th in 3-point percentage and 29 in free-throw percentage.

2015 Notre Dame National Title Odds and Predictions

Notre Dame has a tough bracket to navigate and could easily lose to No. 6 Butler during the Round of 32. If the squad were to run though the Midwest bracket it would probably be considered the favorite to win the title by the time it reach the Final Four because getting there would mean they knocked off Kentucky. The Fighting Irish are one of the hottest teams heading into the tournament, but they simply have too difficult of a road to make betting on them a realistic option. Notre can cover a few spreads, but expect the team to fall short of its second Final Four appearance.

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