Not to worry Irish Fans, ND loves to be underdog

By Justin Albers
basketballss132002@yahoo.com
INDIANAPOLIS- Notre Dame is not where everybody in the country expected them to be at the start of the year. That is they are not #1 in the preseason rankings, or even #2 for that matter. Notre Dame starts in a tie for 3rd with USC, but that is just the motivation that they need. Notre Dame started last season unranked and had much of the country guessing what they could do. Under new head coach Charlie Weis the Irish exceeded anybodys expectations except for those of Weis. Weis now has a sign up in the Notre Dame weight room that says "9-3 is not good enough."
Now if the Irish were ranked #1 in the country it would be easy to become overconfident and not give it everything they have. Since they are ranked #3 there is some work that needs to be done before they earn that #1 spot. Notre Dame has always worked better as the underdog, and that won't change this year. Even if the team that they are playing isn't ranked higher then they are, they will know that most of the people in the country do not think they will win the national title. That doubt makes them an underdog, so they have to work their butts off to prove those people wrong.
The part of Notre Dame's team that people question is their defense. It was a defense that struggled dearly a year ago, and people tend to question if they can improve enough this year to make a run at a national title. i believe the defense will improve since this is Weis' second year with the team. Last year his prime concern was offense. Even though that is probably still his prime concern, he has seen all of the teams once so he can make some adjustments to his defense to help them to perform better. You better wake up the echos because here come the Irish.