After back-to-back losses in early December to No. 3 Maryland and Boston College, the outlook on the Notre Dame Men's Basketball season was bleak, but an 88-87 road victory over Syracuse on Saturday gave the program its first conference victory and win away from Purcell Pavilion.

Now, the team is riding high as it heads toward the second half of the season.

Just as important, at least in Mike Brey's eyes, the team won the right way by and did well in several key statistical categories. Against Syracuse, the Notre Dame dished out 26 assists, collected 11 total personal fouls and turned the ball over just eight times.

While these numbers are exceptional, they're also indicative of how the team has performed throughout the season, as Notre Dame leads the country in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.96), turnovers per game (9.6) and fouls per game (11.6).

"You have these benchmarks in your program that you're trying to emphasize and teach: Being good with the ball, not turn it over and not fouling," Brey said. "My guys are going to say to me, 'coach, are we doing okay? We're leading the nation in all three. Are we getting the message?'"

When it comes to the team's assist-to-turnover ratio, guard TJ Gibbs leads the way. He is currently averaging 3.19 assists for every one turnover, which is good for No. 11 in the nation.

Forward Rex Pflueger and guard Prentiss Hubb aren't far behind. Pflueger has an assist-to-turnover ratio of 2.48, good for 40th in Men's College Basketball. Meanwhile Hubb, who leads the team in assists with 5.1 per game, has a top-60 assist-to-turnover ratio of 2.25.

While the outside players have handled the ball well this season, Brey says their not the only ones to become better in this area.

"John [Mooney] has really improved with the ball," he said. "Johnny was not great with the ball as a young guy and he's really great with the ball. Juwan [Durham] is under-appreciated with the ball. He almost passes too much sometimes when he's in the low post, so he's good. Nate [Laszewski] needs to improve with the ball, but he's getting a little better."

Handling the ball well also comes in handy on the defensive end.

"When you don't turn it over, we don't have live wall turnovers coming back down on us," Brey said. "We've got control and our defense has been pretty solid when we're set."

Starting power forward John Mooney is averaging a double-double on the season with 15.9 points per game and 13.5 rebounds per game and leading the team in both statistical categories.

On the season, he has 11 double-doubles, which has him tied for the second in the nation with DePaul's Paul Reed and behind William & Mary's Nathan Knight, who has 12.

But Mooney has played 13 games compared to Reed's 15 and Knight's 16, and thus should still be considered the favorite for college basketball's double-double crown, even though he credits much of his success to his teammates.

"It's cool, but at the same time, I'm a team-first guy, so I'm going to just do whatever I can to help my team win," he said. "If you look at the last game, a lot of those rebounds were created because of Juwan. There was one where he shot it, followed his shot and kind of tipped it to me. I came up with it, I got credited for it, but he made the play."

Mooney is averaging 13.5 rebounds per game, which is second in the nation behind Quinnipiac's Kevin Marfo.

Kentucky Head Men's Basketball Coach John Calipari was in attendance for Notre Dame's 110-71 victory over Detriot Mercy on Dec. 10 to watch his son Brad play for the Titans.

To Calipari's amazement, Notre Dame made a season-high 20 three-pointers, an accomplishment Brey tried to downplay after the game.

"I said, 'look, we aren't going to make 20 threes every night," Brey told him. "He said, 'God, if you can just make 11 or 12, you're in every one of them.'"

While this may seem like an obvious statement, Calipari's advice has come to fruition.

In the four games following, only once has Notre Dame failed to make at least 13 three-pointers, a 62-60 loss to Indiana in the Cross Roads Classics. Notre Dame made 15 three-pointers in each of its wins over major conference opponents UCLA and Syracuse.

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