Mike Brey tried to warn us.
In his first preseason Zoom call with reporters, the Notre Dame basketball head coach dropped a hint about an arduous start to ACC play thrown right into the middle of an already taxing non-conference slate.
“When you see the two league games that will plug in tomorrow,” Brey teased, “you’ll know I’ve lost my mind completely.”
The assumption was they’d be hard games. But not this hard.
Notre Dame’s first ACC game is Dec. 16 at home against none other than Duke, the preseason No. 3 team in the KenPom rankings. Six days later, it travels to Syracuse. After a week-long Christmas break, conference games resume with Virginia Dec. 29, KenPom’s preseason No. 16 team.
Three top-30 KenPom opponents. Two Associated Press top-10 opponents (Virginia fourth and Duke ninth). All thrown into an early season schedule that includes six non-conference games, all but one of them against Power Five teams in the KenPom top 20. Seven of the Irish’s first nine games are against teams in KenPom’s top 20. The Irish have lost six straight meetings with Duke and four in a row against Virginia.
Brey just might have lost his mind. Maybe a month in, he’ll think so too. But right now, he’s as excited as can be. The season is less than three weeks away. And the schedule release, albeit two-plus months later than normal, is the sign that games are finally imminent after an offseason filled with uncertainty.
“You don’t throw these kinds of games on the board non-league unless you think you have a group you can have some fun with,” Brey said. “We wouldn’t schedule like this unless you saw at the end of last year, the second half of last year, the lightbulb go on for some of our young players, especially our junior class.”
Following the home game with Virginia, Notre Dame gets into the full ACC schedule in 2021 with a Jan. 2 road game at Pitt. The Irish will play one non-conference game in the middle of it, a Jan. 18 visit to Howard, which is coached by former Brey player and assistant Kenny Blakeney. Ex-Irish guard Eric Atkins is also an assistant.
The season begins Nov. 28 at Michigan State. Non-league games against Tennessee (home, Dec. 4), Ohio State (home, Dec. 8), Kentucky (road, Dec. 12) and Purdue (neutral, Dec. 19) are the other early challenges.
“My feeling was to really go for it and schedule big, exciting games for our kids because I don’t know what is going to happen the rest of the winter after the first of the year,” Brey said.
What’s notably missing is a buffer or extra week to make up games postponed due to COVID-19. The regular season ends March 6. The ACC Tournament begins March 9 in Washington, D.C. Brey is operating under the assumption there will be games canceled and just hopes to play as many of the 27 as possible.
Tipoff times and television information will be released at a later date. Fan attendance policies at Purcell Pavilion have not been announced. Notre Dame’s fall semester ends Nov. 20. The spring semester starts Feb. 3.
Notre Dame Basketball Schedule
Nov. 28 at Michigan State
Dec. 2 Western Michigan
Dec. 4 Tennessee
Dec. 8 Ohio State
Dec. 12 at Kentucky
Dec. 16 Duke
Dec. 19 vs. Purdue (at Indianapolis)
Dec. 22 at Syracuse
Dec. 29 or 30 Virginia
Jan. 2 at Pitt
Jan. 5 or 6 Georgia Tech
Jan. 10 at Virginia Tech
Jan. 12 or 13 at Virginia
Jan. 16 Boston College
Jan. 18 at Howard
Jan. 25 Miami
Jan. 26 or 27 Virginia Tech
Jan. 30 at North Carolina
Feb. 2 or 3 Wake Forest
Feb. 6 at Georgia Tech
Feb. 9 or 10 at Duke
Feb. 14 at Miami
Feb. 16 or 17 Clemson
Feb. 23 or 24 at Louisville
Feb. 27 at Boston College
March 2-3 North Carolina State
March 6 Florida State
March 9-13 ACC Tournament (at Washington, D.C.)
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