Irish Return To Purcell To Face NC State

Notre Dame (9-13, 6-10) vs. NC State (12-9, 8-8)

📍     Purcell Pavilion, Notre Dame, IN

📅     Wednesday, March 3, 2021

🕕     7:00 p.m. ET

📺     ACC Network with Jay Alter and Malcolm Huckaby

📻     Notre Dame Radio Network with Jack Nolan

🗒.  Notre Dame Game Notes vs. NC State

BY THE NUMBERS: IRISH vs. WOLFPACK

CHALLENGES OF A COVID-19 SCHEDULE

College basketball teams across the country have been challenged to face schedule uncertainty all season as safety protocols have forced the cancellation or postponement of games. The Irish have had eight games this season affected one way or another by a COVID-19 safety issue from the opposing team. That has led to an unbalanced schedule in some respects:

• Notre Dame’s scheduled home games this week against NC State (March 3) and Florida State (March 6) are the first time the Irish will host back-to-back ACC home games this season. It also is the first time the Irish have seen back-to-back home games since the Bellarmine (Dec. 23) and Virginia (Dec. 30) combination.
• Notre Dame is the final school in the ACC to host back-to-back home games and joins Louisville and North Carolina as the only ACC teams to host just one back-to-back league game series in 2020-21.
• The Irish just completed a three-game road swing in league play (at Syracuse, Louisville and Boston College) and join Wake Forest as the only other ACC team to face multiple three-game road trips in league play. The Irish played earlier this season at North Carolina, Virginia and Virginia Tech consecutively.
• Notre Dame has faced three multiple game ACC road trips this season, joining Duke, Miami, Syracuse and Wake Forest as the only ACC teams facing such a challenge in 2020-21.

HUBB CLOSING IN ON SCHOOL ACC SINGLE-SEASON ASSIST MARK

With 112 assists and counting in ACC play this season, Prentiss Hubb is approaching Jerian Grant’s Notre Dame record of 125 assists in league play from the 2015 season.

Since the 1996-97 season, an ACC player has reached 100 assists in conference play 40 times.

NOTRE DAME SINGLE SEASON ACC ONLY ASSISTS

HUBB AMONG IRISH ASSIST LEADERS

Junior Prentiss Hubb has given out 137 assists so far this season, becoming the 13th Irish player to reach 400 career assists. In 2020-21, Hubb is averaging 6.2 assists per game which would place him 10th on the Irish single-season list.

Hubb’s 4.9 career assists-per-game average would be ninth on the all-time career list at Notre Dame.

LASZEWSKI THREE POINT FIELD GOAL PERCENTAGE ON PACE FOR A SPOT ON SINGLE-SEASON CHARTS

Junior Nate Laszewski is currently shooting 46% (.459) from behind the arch, a mark that would rank him fifth on the Notre Dame single-season list.

NOTRE DAME SINGLE SEASON THREE POINT PERCENTAGE

DURHAM CAREER FIELD GOAL PERCENTAGE HIGH ON IRISH CAREER CHARTS

Graduate forward Juwan Durham boasts a .584 career field goal percentage at Notre Dame, a mark that would rank him third among Irish players with 200 or more FGM since 1996-97:

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. On the Irish roster currently, junior Prentiss Hubb is closing in on 1,000 points with 971 as of March 1, 2021.

HUBB REACHING 1,000 POINTS QUICKLY

Needing 29 more points this season to reach 1,000 points in a career, Prentiss Hubb could become just the fifth Irish player to reach that plateau in his third season playing for Mike Brey.

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

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.

2019-20 IVY LEAGUE PLAYER OF THE YEAR PAUL ATKINSON JR. TO JOIN IRISH IN 2021-22

The University of Notre Dame men’s basketball program has announced the addition of Paul Atkinson Jr. as a graduate transfer from Yale who will join the Fighting Irish roster for the 2021-22 season. The 2019-20 Ivy League Player of the Year, Atkinson Jr. was unable to play his senior season at Yale due to the Ivy League’s shut down throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I am excited to join the Notre Dame family and get to play alongside a group of really talented guys as well as being able to learn under a great coaching staff that will help me further my game,” Atkinson Jr. said.

Owning a career field goal percentage of .661 and 16 20-point scoring performances, Atkinson Jr. will step into a front court in transition next season due to the departure of fifth-year seniors Juwan Durham and Nikola Djogo at the end of the 2020-21 campaign. In a February 3, 2021, ranking from ESPN+, Atkinson Jr. was selected as the fourth-ranked transfer prospect in college basketball.

“Paul brings a great combination of academic and athletic ability to our basketball program and he will work toward an accelerated graduate degree next year,” Glenn and Stacey Murphy Head Men’s Basketball Coach Mike Brey said.

“The timing with his arrival and our roster turnover for next season works out and we are excited to add his skill set and experience to our team.”

JACK NOLAN, VOICE OF IRISH ATHLETICS, ANNOUNCES HIS RETIREMENT

Jack Nolan, a fixture of Notre Dame athletics broadcasts for 39 years, has announced his retirement at the conclusion of the 2020-21 men’s basketball season.

“I have been truly blessed to have been associated with the Notre Dame Athletics Department for 39 seasons,” Nolan said.

“I will be forever grateful to all the athletes, coaches, colleagues and fans who have been so wonderful to me over the years. However, the time has come for my wife Rhonda (Brown) and I to live a more normal life.

“We want to get off the road and off the nights, weekends and holidays work schedule we have both navigated for so long. We hope to indulge our passion for travel, our desire to be warm during Michiana winters and be able to spend much more time with family and friends.”

A jack of all trades, Nolan has been a staple around Notre Dame football and men’s basketball games for close to 40 years. He’s taken home many awards as both a news and sports anchor, served as master of ceremonies for innumerable Irish special events and established himself as one of the most recognizable faces of Notre Dame athletics.

“Jack Nolan has been with us since I started at Notre Dame and it is hard to think about our broadcasts without him,” Glenn and Stacey Murphy Head Men’s Basketball Coach Mike Brey said. “His professionalism has made my job easier and his broadcast calls are as much a part of our basketball legacy as ‘The Burn’ or the three-point shot. I will miss having him around the program, but if anyone deserves the ability to enjoy a long and happy retirement it is Jack and Rhonda.”

Nolan joined the South Bend community in 1982 after spending a year at upstart cable news network CNN after graduation from Missouri in 1981. The opportunity to call play-by-play of Notre Dame football games was the catalyst for him to take the job at WNDU, the local NBC affiliate.

At the time of his arrival at WNDU, the station was owned by the University and broadcast Irish football games that were not selected to be on national television. Nolan had an immediate award-winning impact on the football broadcast crew, taking home Associated Press play-by-play awards in 1983, 1987 and 1989.

Nolan also anchored the WNDU sports desk throughout the 1980s and ‘90s, while adding in weekend news anchor duties in 1993. He met his future wife, Rhonda Brown, while working together and the couple co-anchored WNDU’s NewsCenter 16 Sunday Morning from 1996 through 2002.

His long run with Notre Dame men’s basketball began in 1982 on both radio and television, eventually becoming the regular radio analyst with Jack Lorri and then assuming the play-by-play duties for Irish hoops after Lorri’s retirement in 2006.

Also in 2006, Nolan left WNDU to become a full-time employee on campus as part of Notre Dame Sports Properties, who handled the radio broadcasting rights for Irish athletics and helped lead Notre Dame through its first steps of online video productions. Nolan soon became synonymous with Irish athletics both over the air and online, hosting the Brian Kelly and Mike Brey television and radio shows, checking in from Irish football practices and calling numerous Notre Dame olympic sport events.

Nolan’s radio talents were not just limited to play-by-play or analyst duties. From 1982 through 1999 he co-hosted WNDU’s popular SportsTalk show with the late Jeff Jeffers and was the host of the Official Notre Dame Football Post Game Show for over 25 seasons.

In addition to Lorri and Jeffers as notable long-time colleagues of Nolan, Reggie Brooks and the late Mirko Jurkovic spent several seasons both on radio and und.com as part of his broadcast crew. It was also with Nolan on Notre Dame men’s basketball radio crew that ESPN’s LaPhonso Ellis and Jordan Cornette began their broadcast careers.

“The time Jack, Mirko and I spent on the air together was a great professional memory for me,” said Brooks, a former Notre Dame All-American and current Assistant Athletics Director at the University.  “Jack was a great guy to work with and we will all miss him being around campus.”

Nolan’s tireless work with Notre Dame Sports Properties and Fighting Irish Media was honored in November 2015 when he won the Outstanding Crafts Achievement Emmy for On-Camera Talent-Sports awarded by the Chicago Midwest Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

A native of Winchester, Massachusetts, Nolan was awarded an Honorary Monogram by the University in 2013.