Irish Cap Home Stand Against Pittsburgh

NOTRE DAME VS PITTSBURGH

The University of Notre Dame men’s basketball team (13-8, 4-6) caps a three-game home stand against Pittsburgh (14-8, 5-6) in Purcell Pavilion Wednesday night (6:30 p.m. ET, ACC Network).

• Notre Dame and Pittsburgh will be meeting for the 66th time on Wednesday evening with the Irish leading the series 34-31. Notre Dame is 18-11 all-time at home against Pitt, 12-6 in Purcell Pavilion and 2-4 against the Panthers in ACC regular-season competition.
• Six of Notre Dame’s seven meetings with Pittsburgh as ACC members have been decided by two possessions or less. Only the 17-point victory by the Irish over Pitt in 2018 saw a final winning margin larger than four points.
• Both former members of the BIG EAST Conference, Notre Dame was 14-10 against the Panthers as BIG EAST members.
• The seventh-most prolific series in school history for Notre Dame, the Irish – Panthers series dates back to a 33-17 Notre Dame victory in The Fieldhouse in 1927.

Notre Dame MBB Notes vs. Pittsburgh (PDF)

BY THE NUMBERS: IRISH VS. PANTHERS

MOONEY SECOND IN THE COUNTRY IN REBOUNDING

Senior forward John Mooney is second in the nation in rebounds per game with a 13.2 average. Mooney is the only Division I player in the country averaging 16-plus points and 13-plus rebounds per game (as of February 3, 2020).

NATIONAL REBOUNDING LEADERS:

MOONEY CLIMBING THE BREY-ERA CAREER REBOUND CHART

Passing 700 career rebounds against Syracuse, John Mooney became the seventh Mike Brey-era (2000-01- current) player to collect 700 or more rebounds. The see sidebar on page 5 for the all-time rebounding chart, on which 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 consecutive double-double streaks over eight games in a career.

MOONEY POSTING DOUBLE-DOUBLES IN 63 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 38 of 60 starts – a .633 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 ONE OF JUST SEVEN MAJOR CONFERENCE PLAYERS TO AVERAGE A DOUBLE-DOUBLE

Senior forward John Mooney is the only player in the country averaging over 16 points and 13 rebounds per game and one of only seven major conference players to average a double-double this season.

MAJOR CONFERENCE PLAYERS TO AVERAGE A DOUBLE-DOUBLE IN 2019-20

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

Currently the 16th 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 624 rebounds since the start of the 2018-19 season. Only eight Notre Dame players have posted over 600 rebounds in 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 TO FACE UNIQUE ACC ROAD SWING

Upon completion of Notre Dame’s three-game home stand against Pittsburgh, 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.

ACC THREE-GAME ROAD TRIPS

GIBBS SETS NOTRE DAME CAREER ACC SCORING MARK

Senior T.J. Gibbs set the ACC career scoring mark on Wednesday night 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 780 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.

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, NC State and North Carolina. 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 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 have swept Georgia Tech and suffered a loss to Boston College in December. 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

Each season since 2013-14, ACC teams have faced their designated home-and-home opponents each year, two other league opponents on a rotating home-and-home basis, five opponents on the road only and five opponents at home only.

STATISTICAL MILESTONES

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

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 111 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.