Notre Dame Fighting Irish - Official Athletics Website

Irish And Knights Meet In Purcell Pavilion Wednesday Afternoon

NOTRE DAMEGAME DAY INFORMATION
DateWednesday, December 23, 2020
Time12:00 p.m. ET
Site: Purcell Pavilion
• Notre Dame, IN
TV:None


Radio:Notre Dame Basketball Radio Network
• Jack Nolan (play-by-play)
Available worldwide on und.com.

Notre Dame Notes vs. Bellarmine

Bellarmine Notes at Notre Dame

BY THE NUMBERS: IRISH vs. KNIGHTS

1

Bellarmine is in its first year of Division I competition as a member of the Atlantic Sun Conference. The Knights have visited Notre Dame four times previously, including two exhibition games with the Irish last season and in 2006. 

2

The Irish and Knights share two mutual opponents this season. Bellarmine lost 76-54 to Duke in their season opener and defeated Howard 84-63.

5

It took a little more than five hours for Notre Dame to schedule Bellarmine after the first ACC road trip of the season, set for Syracuse on December 22, was postponed due to contact tracing issues between the Orange and their previous opponent, Buffalo. 

9

Notre Dame is 9-13 all-time in games played on December 23 – a date that featured a number of marquee matchups for the Irish through the 1940s, 50s, 60s, and 70s. The Irish are on a four-game win streak on December 23 and are 2-0 under Mike Brey on December 23 – the most recent a 75-68 win over Columbia in 2005.

10

The Irish are 10th in the country in free throw percentage at .818. Trim the national list to teams that have played at least five games and Notre Dame is fifth in the country. The Irish are just head of Virginia (.813) for the ACC lead in free throw percentage.

11

Points scored off the bench by junior Nikola Djogo vs. Purdue last Saturday. Still fighting the effects of a sprained ankle suffered in the season opener at Michigan State, Djogo hit three three-point field goals to hit double figures in a game for the first time since his career-high 21 points at Boston College on Feb. 2, 2019.

12

Notre Dame is 12th in country in three-point field goal percentage at .411 – just ahead of Florida State at .410 for the ACC lead.

14

It will end up to be 14 days between games for Bellarmine, who have had games with Middle Tennessee and Miami (Ohio) canceled recently due to COVID-19 protocol issues. The Knight last played Dec. 9.

21

In his 21st season at Notre Dame (the longest tenure of any ND men’s basketball coach), Mike Brey also has the ninth-longest tenure of any Division I head coach. Brey will face three of the coaches with longer tenures than himself this season (Jim Boeheim, Mike Krzyzewski, Tom Izzo). Greg Kampe, Bob McKillop, Fran O’Hanlon, Mark Few, Mike McConathy and James Jones make up the other coaches who have been at their current school longer than Mike Brey.

23

A recent project by CBSSports.com ranked the ‘Greatest College Basketball Programs Ever’ with Notre Dame placing 23rd on the list and sixth in the ACC. Notre Dame will face eight of the teams ranked above them this year a total of nine times: No. 19 NC State, No. 14 Michigan State (0-1), No. 12 Ohio State (0-1), No. 11 Syracuse, No. 6 Louisville, No. 3 Duke (0-1, twice), No. 2 North Carolina, No. 1 Kentucky (1-0).

27

Junior Trey Wertz, who transferred from Santa Clara during the offseason and was activated by a blanket waiver for all 2020 first-time Division I transfers on December 16, scoring 27 points in his first start for the Irish against Purdue last weekend.

55

Shooting percentage from the field (11-20, .550) and three-point range (6-11, .545) for guard Trey Wertz in his first two games in an Irish uniform.

1906

Total victories in the history of Notre Dame men’s basketball, as the Irish became the eighth program to reach 1,900 victories in 2019-20 (Kentucky, Kansas, North Carolina, Duke, Temple, Syracuse and UCLA have all reached that plateau). The Irish were 12th all-time in college basketball victories when Mike Brey took over the program in 2000-01 –  they have since passed Oregon State, Pennsylvania, St. John’s and Indiana on the all-time wins list into eighth place.

HUBB POSTS 10 CAREER 20-POINT GAMES AGAINST POWER CONFERENCE TEAMS

Junior Prentiss Hubb has logged a team-high 10 20-point games in his career, all of which have come against ‘Power Conference’ opponents. 

Hubb’s career 20-point games:

Date

Opponent

FG

3FG

FT

TR

AST

TO

STL

PTS

11/6/19

at No. 9/11 North Carolina

8-17

5-9

1-2

2

6

1

1

22

12/14/19

UCLA

6-12

5-10

3-5

0

6

1

0

20

1/4/20

at Syracuse

7-16

6-12

2-2

2

9

4

1

22

1/8/20

at NC State

9-14

4-7

2-2

3

2

3

2

24

1/15/20

at Georgia Tech

8-16

3-8

6-8

4

3

2

2

25

1/25/20

at No. 5/6 Florida State

7-16

5-11

5-5

4

1

3

2

24

2/17/20

North Carolina

7-17

2-9

4-5

1

8

3

0

20

3/4/20

No. 7/8 Florida State

8-13

5-9

3-3

1

6

4

1

24

11/28/20

at No. 13/12 Michigan State

7-22

4-11

5-7

6

2

5

0

23

12/8/20

No. 22/20 Ohio State

8-17

5-9

5-5

6

6

3

2

26

DURHAM ALREADY AMONG TOP SHOT BLOCKERS IN NOTRE DAME HISTORY

Blocked shots are one of the youngest official NCAA official statistics, only becoming a part of a game boxscore for the 1985-86 season. With that in mind, it is still noteworthy that graduate student Juwan Durham has already established himself as one of the top shot blockers in Notre Dame history.

In 2018-19, Durham swatted 63 shots which ranks fifth on the Notre Dame single-season blocked shots list, he followed up with 66 as a senior last season.

Durham has pushed his career blocked-shot average to 2.2 and is one of just three Notre Dame players to average over 2.0 blocks per game in their career:

Player

Seasons

Blocks Per Game

Ryan Humphrey

2000-02

2.8

JUWAN DURHAM

2018-current

2.2

LaPhonso Ellis

1988-92

2.1

Durham’s 142 total blocks at Notre Dame currently rank him sixth all-time (see sidebar, page 4). Jordan Cornette is the Notre Dame blocked shots record holder with 201 from 2001-05.

JUNIOR CLASS MAKING THEIR MARK

Notre Dame’s junior class (Dane Goodwin, Prentiss Hubb, Nate Laszewski) is poised to build upon the program’s tradition of a sharp increase in productivity during a student-athlete’s third year in the program. A history of the ‘junior year leap’ is broken down on page 6 of this notes package, but Goodwin, Hubb and Laszewski have seen an increase in points per game, rebounds per game and minutes played through Notre Dame’s first three games of the season:

Player

19-20 ppg

20-21 ppg

+

19-20 rpg

20-21 rpg

+

19-20 mpg

20-21 mpg

+

Dane Goodwin

10.8

14.3

5.5

3.8

5.2

1.4

26.2

37.5

11.3

Prentiss Hubb

12.1

16.2

4.1

2.4

3.8

1.4

35.2

37.4

2.2

Nate Laszewski

7.4

14.3

6.9

4.6

8.5

3.9

21.0

33.6

12.6

IRISH BOAST SOLID RECORD FOR ANNUAL HOME-AND-HOME ACC SERIES

Since joining the ACC for the 2013-14 season, Boston College and Georgia Tech have been designated as the ‘traditional’ yearly rivals for Notre Dame in the league. Each season, the Irish have met the Eagles and Yellow Jackets for home-and-home series. Notre Dame boasts the best record in the league against its designated repeat opponents since 2013-14 (records below are regular-season meetings only):

RECORD VS. ACC ANNUAL HOME-AND-HOME OPPONENTS SINCE 2013-14

Team

Opponent

Opponent

Record

NOTRE DAME

Boston College

Georgia Tech

22-6

Duke

North Carolina

Wake Forest

20-8

Florida State

Miami

Clemson

18-10

Syracuse

Boston College

Pittsburgh

20-8

North Carolina

Duke

NC State

18-10

Virginia

Virginia Tech

Louisville

19-9*

* – Virginia repeated with Maryland in 2013-14

PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT HIGHLIGHTED BY 1,000 POINT SCORERS

Notre Dame has produced 64 1,000 point scorers throughout the history of the program with 23 of those players reaching that statistical milestone during the Mike Brey era (2000-01 – current). Of the 85 players who have suited up for Notre Dame under Mike Brey, 36 of them were recruited by the staff and exhausted their eligibility with the Irish – 20 of those players have scored more than 1,000 points in a career.

Since 2000-01, Notre Dame leads all ACC teams in 1,000 point scorers (23) and is second in the country over that time frame to Villanova.

School

All-Time 1,000 Point Scorers

1,000 Point Scorers since 2000-01

North Carolina

77

20

Louisville

69

18

Duke

67

20

NOTRE DAME

64

23

Villanova

64

24

Syracuse

62

19

Kansas

61

19

A DECADE OF ‘NO FOUL’ CONTINUES

One of the mantras of Notre Dame basketball under Mike Brey has been to keep the amount of opponent foul shots down. Defend without fouling is a way of life for Irish basketball and the statistics bear out that trend.

In the last 11 years, Notre Dame has failed to finish among the top 10 in least amount of personal fouls committed just twice. They have also led the country in least amount of personal fouls three times.

The NCAA has been tracking the least amount of fouls committed in a season since 1993. Notre Dame is the only team since 1993 to lead the country in least amount of fouls more than twice (four times) and could be on pace to make it six times this season.

NOTRE DAME FOULS PER GAME NATIONAL/CONFERENCE FINAL RANKING

Year

Fouls Per Game

NCAA Raking

Conference Ranking

2009-10

15.1

10

2

2010-11

15.2

11

1

2011-12

13.8

1

1

2012-13

14.1

8

1

2013-14

16.2

15

5

2014-15

15.1

6

1

2015-16

15.1

1

1

2016-17

14.9

4

1

2017-18

13.1

1

1

2018-19

13.8

1

1

2019-20

12.4

1

1

2020-21

13.2

7

1

FOUR VETERANS NAMED TEAM CAPTAINS FOR 2020-21

Glenn and Stacey Head Men’s Basketball Coach Mike Brey has announced four student-athletes to serve as team captains for the University of Notre Dame men’s basketball team.

Graduate students Nikola Djogo and Juwan Durham, along with juniors Prentiss Hubb and Cormac Ryan, will make up a four-player group of captains in 2020-21.

All four Irish players will be serving as team captains for the first time in their careers.

IRISH RECEIVE COMMITMENTS FROM TWO AREA PROSPECTS

Rising high school seniors J.R. Konieczny (Ko-nez-nee) and Blake Wesley, both from South Bend, Indiana, have signed National Letters of Intent to play basketball at the University of Notre Dame.

Rated among the top 150 high school players in the 2020-21 class, Konieczy (Kah-nez-nee) is a four-star recruit according to ESPN.com and earned third-team all-state honors as a junior in 2019-20. He averaged over 24 points a game last season, including a 42-point outburst in the 2020 sectional semifinal – a performance that earned him the Indiana Basketball Coaches Association Player of the Week honors.

A consensus four-star recruit, Wesley is ranked 96th nationally by Rivals and 113th by 247Sports. An honorable mention all-state selection as a junior in 2019-20, Wesley led all local area players with a 26.0 points-per-game average last season.