Debby Wong-USA TODAY Sports
Jack Cooley was arguably one of the best players on the Notre Dame Fighting Irish this past season, but the team could still win an ACC title in the 2013-14 college basketball season without him–their first year in the conference.
That is largely due to the fact that leading scorer Jerian Grant will be back, along with many other players. Grant led the team with 13.3 points per game and he also dished out 5.5 assists per game.
Cooley will be a huge loss to the team, but it always helps when a team has a solid recruiting class coming in, along with most of the players coming back.
Sure, Notre Dame will have problems with teams like Duke, North Carolina and Syracuse–among others–but the Fighting Irish will not be an easy team to beat either.
They are coming off of a 25-win season where they only finished three games back in the Big East.
This is a team that seems to always win 20+ games and that should be the case in the upcoming season. Notre Dame has a very solid basketball program, despite taking a backseat to the football team.
Whether the case, there are plenty of players on this team that will give other ACC opponents a lot of trouble, with Grant being the leader in that category. The Fighting Irish will have to find a replacement for their double-double man, though, because Cooley was easily one of the best players in the Big East.
Still, this team will have enough pieces to not only compete for an ACC title, but take home the trophy.
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