Irish Begin Three-Game Road Swing At Clemson

NOTRE DAME AT CLEMSON

The University of Notre Dame men’s basketball team (14-8, 5-6), coming off a sweep of a three-game home stand, returns to the road in the Atlantic Coast Conference against Clemson (11-11, 5-7) on Sunday evening (6 p.m. ET, ACC Network).

• The contest at Clemson begins a challenging three-game road swing for Notre Dame, facing Clemson (Sunday), Virginia (Tuesday) and Duke (Saturday) before a Big Monday home match up with North Carolina. The Irish are the only ACC team scheduled for three away games over the course of seven days in the league this season.
• Notre Dame leads the all-time series with Clemson 5-2, with all of those meetings coming as regular-season ACC contests. After a five-game win streak to start the series, Clemson has won the last two meetings between the two teams.
• Sunday will mark Notre Dame’s third visit to Littlejohn Coliseum and second since its renovation. The Irish are 1-1 in the building.

Notre Dame MBB Game Notes at Clemson (PDF)

BY THE NUMBERS: IRISH AT TIGERS

HUBB IMPRESSIVE ON THE ROAD IN THE ACC

Notre Dame is 2-3 on the road in ACC play this season, earning victories at Syracuse and Georgia Tech while dropping hard-fought contests at No. 5/5 Florida State (-1), NC State (-5) and North Carolina (-11). One constant in those five games has been Prentiss Hubb – who has scored 20 points in each of those five ACC road games. Here is a game-by-game breakdown of Hubb on the road in the ACC this season:

IRISH TO FACE CHALLENGING ACC ROAD SWING

After a 3-0 sweep of a three-game home stand, the Irish will face a three-game road trip at Clemson, Virginia and Duke over a seven-day span. The Irish are the only team in the ACC to face three conference road contests in a seven-day window this season.

Notre Dame joins Duke as the only team in the ACC required to play a game after one day of rest after a three-game road swing (Duke’s three-game road trip covers eight days).

ACC THREE-GAME ROAD TRIPS

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.

MOONEY SECOND IN THE COUNTRY IN REBOUNDING

Senior forward John Mooney is second in the nation in rebounds per game with a 13.0 average. Mooney is the only Division I player in the country averaging 16-plus points and 13-plus rebounds per game (as of February 7, 2020).

NATIONAL REBOUNDING LEADERS:

MOONEY CLIMBING THE BREY-ERA CAREER REBOUND CHART

Passing 800 career rebounds against Pittsburgh, John Mooney became the sixth Mike Brey-era (2000-01- current) player to collect 800 or more rebounds. The see sidebar on page 5 for the all-time rebounding chart (Mooney currently ranks 15th).

BREY ERA REBOUNDING TOTALS

MOONEY GRABS 200 REBOUNDS IN JUST 15 GAMES

John Mooney reached the 200 rebound plateau in just his 15th game played against Louisville on Jan. 11. That matches Blake Griffin (2008-09) for the fastest to 200 rebounds in a season since Tim Duncan did it in 14 games during the 1996-97 season.

FEWEST GAMES TO 200 REBOUNDS, SINCE 1996-97, MAJOR CONFERENCES

FEWEST GAMES TO 200 REBOUNDS, SINCE 1996-97, ALL DIVISION I

MOONEY SETS CONSECUTIVE DOUBLE-DOUBLES MARK

With 12 consecutive double-doubles this season, a streak that ended on Saturday at No. 5/6 Florida State, senior John Mooney set the school record for consecutive games with a double-double. Luke Harangody previously held the mark with 11 straight in 2008-09. Mooney is the only Notre Dame player to ever record two double-double streaks over eight games in a career.

MOONEY POSTING DOUBLE-DOUBLES IN 64 PERCENT OF HIS CAREER STARTS

Up to 38 career double-doubles (ninth all-time at Notre Dame), John Mooney has posted nearly all of his career double-doubles in the past two seasons. He has earned a double-double in 39 of 61 starts – a .639 percentage that has not been seen since game starts became an official stat in the 1978-79 season. Expand to just games played against some of the top double-double performers in school history and the .633 percentage remains on the top of the charts.

* – career game starts unavailable, total games played statistic used

MOONEY BECOMES 10TH IRISH PLAYER WITH OVER 600 REBOUNDS IN FINAL TWO SEASONS

Currently the 15th leading rebounder in Notre Dame history, John Mooney has posted much of that production over the past two seasons. In fact, Mooney has pulled down 644 rebounds since the start of the 2018-19 season. Only nine other Notre Dame players have posted over 600 rebounds throughout their final two seasons in an Irish uniform:

600 REBOUNDS – FINAL TWO SEASONS AT NOTRE DAME

IRISH TRADITIONALLY AMONG BEST IN THE COUNTRY AT TAKING CARE OF THE BALL

Notre Dame finished third in the NCAA last season in turnovers per game – posting the fifth consecutive season of ranking in the nation’s top-10 for least amount of turnovers in a game. The Irish are also perennially one of the top teams in the country in assist to turnover ratio.

The Irish have not averaged over 10.0 turnovers per game since a 10.3 mark in 2013-14 (which was still good enough for 26th nationally).

NOTRE DAME TURNOVERS PER GAME, LAST FIVE SEASONS

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 10 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.

NOTRE DAME FOULS PER GAME NATIONAL/CONFERENCE FINAL RANKING

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

Notre Dame faced its traditional ACC rivals – Boston College and Georgia Tech – three times so far this season. The Irish swept Georgia Tech and suffered a loss to Boston College in December (ND and BC will meet again in Chestnut Hill on Feb. 26). Notre Dame boasts a 21-6 record against these two opponents in league play since joining the ACC in 2013-14. That mark is the best in the conference against a team’s dedicated home-and-home opponents.

RECORD VS. ACC ANNUAL HOME-AND-HOME OPPONENTS

* – Virginia repeated with Maryland in 2013-14

STATISTICAL MILESTONES

Notre Dame’s veteran players are approaching, or have reached, some noteworthy statistical milestones:

GOODWIN LEADS MAJOR CONFERENCE PLAYERS FOR PPG OFF THE BENCH

Sophomore Dane Goodwin has made just one start this season in place of graduate student Rex Pflueger who missed the NC State game (Jan. 8, 2019) with knee pain. Among major conference players who have appeared in 15 or more games this season and made less than five starts Goodwin leads the nation in points off the bench with a 12.0 average.

Among all Division I players, Goodwin’s ppg off the bench ranks sixth (15 games played, less than five starts).

GIBBS SETS NOTRE DAME CAREER ACC SCORING MARK

Senior T.J. Gibbs set the ACC career scoring mark on February 2, 2020, with a game-high 23 points against Wake Forest, surpassing the mark held by Steve Vasturia (72 games, 739 points).

In terms of all conference action for the Irish, Gibbs ranks 11th on the scoring list with 801 points. Luke Harangody (1,329) and Chris Thomas (1,099) pace the Irish record books in terms of all-time point totals in conference play.

GIBBS AMONG THE NATION’S TOP CAREER CONFERENCE SCORERS

Senior T.J. Gibbs has surpassed 800 points in regular season ACC play in his career – the 11th active Division I major conference player to reach that plateau.

HUBB REACHES 200 CAREER ASSISTS… QUICKLY

Sophomore Prentiss Hubb led the Irish with nine assists in the victory at Syracuse on January 4, 2020, reaching 203 career assists in his 47th game in an Irish uniform. Since 1996-97, that is the fifth-quickest for any player at Notre Dame.

DURHAM POSTS TWO NOTEWORTHY DOUBLE-DOUBLES

Senior Juwan Durham responded to the loss of John Mooney (illness) on the front line against Presbyterian with 11 points, 15 rebounds and four blocked shots to record his second career double-double. He followed up with 12 points, 11 rebounds and four more blocks against Fairleigh Dickinson. It was just the seventh and eighth time a Mike Brey era player has recorded 10+ points, 10+ rebounds and 4+ blocks – and the first time since John Mooney did it at North Carolina last season.

Others who have accomplished such a double-double include current Irish assistant coach Ryan Humphrey (2001), Torin Francis twice (2003, 2004), Luke Harangody (2008) and Bonzie Colson (2017).

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 the game boxscore for the 1985-86 season. With that in mind, it is still noteworthy that senior Juwan Durham (who still retains a year of eligibility after 2019-20) has already established himself as one of the top shot blockers in Notre Dame history.

In his first full season at Notre Dame in 2018-19, Durham swatted 63 shots which ranks fifth on the Notre Dame single-season blocked shots list.

This season, Durham pushed his career blocked-shot average to 2.3 and is one of just three Notre Dame players to average over 2.0 blocks per game in their career:

Durham’s 114 total blocks at Notre Dame currently rank him ninth all-time (see sidebar, page 7). Jordan Cornette is the Notre Dame blocked shots record holder with 201 from 2001-05.

PFLUEGER APPROACHING NOTEWORTHY CAREER MILESTONE COMBINATION

Graduate student Rex Pflueger is approaching a combination of career statistical totals that would make him one of just four Irish players to ever reach a unique combination of statistical marks.

Pflueger is approaching 700 points, 400 rebounds, 300 assists and 150 steals in his Notre Dame career – only Chris Thomas (2002-05), David Graves (1999-02) and Tory Jackson (2007-10) have reached those plateaus in combination.