On all fronts, the 2006-07 basketball season has been a surprise success so far, with the Irish winning 13 of their first 14 games, including back-to-back victories over top 25 Maryland and top 5 Alabama in December.

But Notre Dame's 102-87 loss at Villanova's jam-packed, boisterous 6,500-seat Pavilion Wednesday night showed for the second straight time on the road that the Irish youth is still going to be an impediment along the way as they try to break of a string of three straight absences from the NCAA tournament.

To be sure, going on the road in any conference is a very difficult endeavor. Only the elite teams in the country can go on the road and with win with any consistency.

Maybe the best example that comes to mind so far this season is mid-major upstart Butler University from the Horizon League, which proved early in the campaign that it could play with the big boys from the major conferences. Yet the Bulldogs have two losses this season-at Indiana State and at Illinois-Chicago.

The road in college basketball is filled with pitfalls.

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