Notre Dame Basketball Notebook: Jan. 20
A peek at the ACC standings at the start of this week might leave a feeling of unease among Notre Dame faithful.
In the 15-team league, the Fighting Irish (11-6 overall) are 12th with a 2-4 league mark, just ahead of Miami and Wake Forest at 2-5 apiece — with traditional Final Four superpower North Carolina dead last at 1-5.
The “1” for the Tar Heels also happened to come at home versus Notre Dame in the Nov. 6 opener, when freshman phenom Cole Anthony was still healthy.
Since then, each of the next five league games have come down to the final 20 or so seconds, if not last possession: A 73-72 loss at home to Boston College (Dec. 7), the 88-87 win at Syracuse (Jan. 4), the 73-68 defeat at North Carolina State (Jan. 8) and 67-64 setback at home to Louisville (Jan. 11), and finally last week’s 78-74 victory at Georgia Tech.
Get used to more of the same in the remaining 14 regular season contests.
No. 5 Florida State and No. 6 Louisville have gained separation at the top with 6-1 marks, while No. 8 Duke — which lost its last two league contests to Clemson (79-72) and Louisville (79-73) — is now at 5-2.
Next up nationally in the ACC poll is Virginia, the reigning national champ at No. 37. The Cavaliers, Virginia Tech, NC State and Syracuse are all at 4-3 — with the Orange having won three straight since losing to Notre Dame.
Clemson, Boston College and Pitt are all 3-4, while Georgia Tech is 3-5.
“You have Louisville, Duke and Florida State — then the rest of us are in a total search-for-it mode,” said Irish head coach Mike Brey prior to Monday’s practice for the Wednesday game versus Syracuse. “There’s only three of them up there that have kind of said, ‘Look at us. We’re for real.’ There’s not five of them, there’s not seven of them.
“You win two in a row, you could be in fifth place.”
The next five games will especially be pivotal because four of them are at home, where it will be imperative to hold serve.
Notre Dame will look for the sweep against Syracuse on Wednesday (ESPN2, 7 p.m.), and then have three in a row at home versus Wake Forest (Jan. 29), Georgia Tech (Feb. 1) and Pitt (Feb. 5) — all games where it should be favored and needs to assert itself with victories.
In between is at No. 5 Florida State this Saturday, but getting on a 5-1 type of role could put the Irish right back into NCAA Tournament conversation.
“It would be really powerful to sweep (Syracuse), and they’re playing really well,” Brey said. “Can we take that next step and tag a couple together?
“There’s always time in this league, but this would be a great time for us to take another step forward maturity-wise.”
Starting senior guard T.J. Gibbs was at Monday's practice but did not suit up while recovering from a touch of the flu. He is expected to be full go for the Orange.
The Irish also will be practicing on their home floor the two days prior to the game rather than in the practice facility.
THINKING SMALLER
In both the 67-64 loss to Louisville on Jan. 11 and then in the 78-74 win at Georgia Tech on Jan. 15, Brey downshifted to a smaller lineup in the second half that proved highly effective, as it has in the past.
The four-guard look with Gibbs, Prentiss Hubb, Rex Pflueger and Dane Goodwin has opened up the floor much better, which also had made it a little easier for John Mooney to post up or navigate inside.
The starting lineup will remain the same with 6-11 Juwan Durham against Syracuse, especially given how effective Mooney and Durham were inside the 2-3 Syracuse zone during the victory at the Carrier Dome earlier this month. Mooney had 28 points and 14 rebounds (six on offense) while Durham had several easy baskets inside to go with 10 rebounds (four on offense) in only 21 minutes.
“It’s a lineup we keep coming back to at key times, and if it’s going well you ride it,” Brey said. “Rex was having to guard a four man, a power forward. We’re going to live with that because we feel we’re going to get our dividends on the offensive end with those matchups and hold our own more often than not on the defensive end.”
In particular, it has facilitated both Hubb and Gibbs to drive more — and effectively — getting into the lane and produce in transition.
CORMAC RYAN UPDATE
The sophomore guard/transfer from Stanford was going to receive a medical redshirt anyway this year after undergoing off-season hernia surgery.
However, during Notre Dame’s bye last Saturday, his hunger to return to the game next season with three years of eligibility remaining showed itself.
“He was crushing everybody,” Brey said. “Everybody’s like, ‘Okay it’s a scrimmage.’ And Cormac’s like, ‘Well, it’s my only game of the month.’ He must have had 30 (points). There was a glance ahead there for about an hour on Saturday.”
The skill set of the former top-100 recruit might be evident on the floor, but his leadership will be an especially vital ingredient in years to come. An example was during Christmas break when the team was staying in hotels, he would chauffer the eligible players on return trips from road games.
“He’s really a team guy,” Brey said. “He talks the whole practice. He’s unbelievable on the bench, he’s great in the locker room with the guys. That part of it is awesome.
“You never know what you’re going to get when a guy’s sitting out, but he has really tried to help.”
BY THE NUMBERS
Notre Dame or a Fighting Irish player is represented in three different categories where the team or an individual ranks No. 1 nationally.
• The Irish commit the least amount of fouls committed per game (12.1), which is especially important minus great depth.
• They lead the country in assist-to-turnover ratio at 1.80, dishing out 300 assists compared to 167 turnovers in 17 games played. The 9.8 turnovers per game are the second fewest, behind Virginia Tech’s 9.5.
• Mooney leads the nation in rebounds per game with a 13.9 average. He has produced 11 consecutive double-doubles with scoring and rebounding and is the lone Division I player averaging at least 15 points and 13 rebounds per contest.
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