The Notre Dame women’s basketball team has a lot of incentive to win its first two games in the NCAA Tournament.

The undefeated Irish, if they do so, will get a chance to play back on their home court.

No. 2 Notre Dame, which has reached the Final Four each of the last three years, begins March Madness Saturday. The No. 1 seeded Irish, who sport a 32-0 record, face No. 16 seed Robert Morris (21-11).

The Irish tourney opener tips-off at 1:30 p.m. and will be televised by ESPN.

Notre Dame, a No. 1 seed in the tourney for the third straight year, will host the Regional in South Bend on March 29 and 31. The four favorites to advance there include the Irish, along with instate rival Purdue, Kentucky and Baylor.

Notre Dame has won 26 in a row in the Purcell Pavilion. The Irish rank fifth in attendance rankings this season with an average home crowd of 8,683 in their 9,149-seat home facility.

The deep and high-scoring Irish have put together the first undefeated regular season in program history. The Irish Senior Class of star Kayla McBride, center Natalie Achonwa and reserve Ariel Braker are now a program best 133-14 during their collegiate careers.

The Irish, who won their lone national title in 2001 with a 68-66 victory over Purdue, are just one of two undefeated teams in the country. No. 1 UConn is 34-0. The Huskies defeated the Irish in the Final Four of last year’s NCAA tourney and went on to claim the program’s eighth national championship. Notre Dame and UConn, former bitter rivals in the Big East Conference before the Irish joined the ACC this year, would not meet until the national title game on April 8 in Nashville.

Notre Dame is led by its amazing backcourt tandem of McBride and Jewell Loyd. McBride earned ACC Player of the Year honors after guiding the Irish to the regular-season and conference tournament championships. She averages 17.5 points-per-game. Sophomore Loyd, who was the ACC Tournament MVP, leads the Irish in scoring at 18.5 ppg.  Achonwa, the vastly-improved 6-3 center for the Irish, scores at a 14.1 ppg. clip.

The Irish have dominated their foes all season long, not missing a beat since the departure of All-American Skylar Diggins. The former South Bend Washington High School star and owner of numerous Notre Dame career records is now playing for the Tulsa Shock in the WNBA.

Notre Dame averages 86.6 points-per-game, including five games of 100 or more points, and has an average winning margin of 25.6 ppg. this season. The Irish are lethal from distance, shooting just over 40 percent as a team on 3-pointers. They also lead the nation in field goal percentage at .511 as a team.

The Notre Dame-Robert Morris winner advances to play either Vanderbilt or Arizona State in the second round on Monday at 6:30 p.m., also at Savage Arena in Toledo.