Notre Dame Basketball Sets Two Home Games As Part Of Legends Classic
Notre Dame has two opponents set as part of the 2020 Legends Classic.
The Fighting Irish will host home games against Eastern Washington Nov. 17 and Liberty Nov. 20 as part of the event, the program announced Wednesday.
The championship rounds at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., are set for Nov. 23-24, and matchups for those games will be announced at a later date. Notre Dame will play two of USC, Vanderbilt and Connecticut.
Eight of Notre Dame’s 11 non-conference slots are filled with events or opponents.
Eastern Washington went 23-8 in 2019-20 and won the regular-season Big Sky title. The Eagles finished No. 124 in the KenPom.com rankings were the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament, but it was not played due to COVID-19 concerns. They lost leading scorer and senior Jacob Davidson, but are slated to return six other players who averaged at least 10 minutes per game.
Liberty, meanwhile, won the Atlantic Sun regular-season and conference tournament titles for the second straight year. The Flames were 30-4 overall and 15-3 in league play, and ended the year No. 79 in the KenPom.com rankings. In 2018-19, they were a No. 12 seed in the NCAA Tournament and pulled a first-round upset of Mississippi State. Head coach Ritchie McKay’s team lost four seniors from this year’s team that averaged at least 7.0 points per game.
Here are Notre Dame’s known non-conference games or events for the 2020-21 season:
• Home versus Army, date TBA (reported by Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports)
• Nov. 17 vs. Eastern Washington
• Nov. 20 vs. Liberty
• Nov. 23 vs. Connecticut, Vanderbilt or USC in the Legends Classic at Brooklyn, N.Y.
• Nov. 24 vs. Connecticut, Vanderbilt or USC in the Legends Classic at Brooklyn, N.Y.
• ACC/Big Ten Challenge home game in late November or early December
• Dec. 12 at Howard
• Dec. 19 vs. Purdue in Indianapolis
Notre Dame was last in the Legends Classic in 2016, when it defeated Northwestern in the championship game.
Notre Dame is still looking for games, head coach Mike Brey said earlier this month. It is possible Notre Dame schedules another game against a high-major team as part of a home-and-home series as a cost-saving measure, though Brey has not committed to it.
“It’s a philosophy we’re examining,” Brey said. “You have to have an open mind for everything for your budget and do everything you can to help your athletic department.”
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