WHO: Notre Dame (1-0) vs. Chicago State (0-1)
WHAT: Second of seven consecutive home games for Notre Dame to begin the 2018-19 season.
WHERE: Purcell Pavilion at the Joyce Center (9,149)
WHEN: Thursday, November 8, 2018, 7:00 p.m. ET
TICKETS: Still available at und.com/buytickets
BROADCAST INFORMATION: ACC Network Extra with Juan Jose Rodriguez (play-by-play) and Mike Lightfoot (analysis). Notre Dame Basketball Network with Darin Pritchett (play-by-play) and Zach Hillesland (analysis). Available via network affiliates, und.com and the Notre Dame app.
IRISH STEP OUT OF GOTHAM CLASSIC FOR QUICK TURNAROUND VS. CHICAGO STATE
The University of Notre Dame men’s basketball team (1-0) returns to the court just 48 hours after their season-opening victory over UIC to take on Chicago State (0-1) in Purcell Pavilion on Thursday night. The matchup with the Cougars gives the Irish a break from the 2018 Gotham Classic, but a chance to prepare for the quick turnarounds faced during ACC competition later this season.
CHICAGO STATE QUICK FACTS
- Located in Chicago, Illinois, Chicago State is a member of the Western Athletic Conference (WAC).
- The Cougars finished 3-29 in 2017-18 and 1-13 in the WAC. They suffered a 104-55 loss in their season opener at Indiana on Tuesday, Nov. 6.
- First-year head coach Lance Irvin is a Chicago native with extensive ties into the Chicago basketball scene. Most recently the at Morgan Park High School, Irvin also has 18 years of collegiate experience as an assistant at Southern Ilinois, SMU, Missouri, Texas A&M, Iowa State and Loyola Chicago. He played collegiately at Colorado State and Idaho.
- Former Irish football All-American, College Football Hall of Famer, Lombardi Awardwinner and 1988 National Champion Chris Zorich (’91) is in his first year as the Athletics Director at Chicago State.
NOTRE DAME vs. CHICAGO STATE
- Thursday marks the sixth meeting between Notre Dame and Chicago State and the third consecutive since 2016. The Irish lead the all-time series 5-0.
- Notre Dame is 6-0 all-time against current members of the WAC, five of those victories coming against Chicago State and a single win over Seattle.
- Notre Dame has outscored WAC opponents 572-344 all-time in six meetings.
SEASON/HOME OPENERS
- Notre Dame is 19-0 all-time in season openers during the Mike Brey era (2000-01 to present) including Tuesday’s 84-67 victory over UIC.
- Historically, the Irish are 96-18 (.842) in season openers.
- Under Mike Brey, the Irish are 19-0 in home openers.
- Historically, the Irish are 103-11 (.913) in home openers.
- Notre Dame once won 26 consecutive home openers from 1922-23 through 1947-48.
- Most common home opener opponents in Notre Dame history – Lewis Institute/Armour Institute (which combined to be the Illinois Institute of Technology, 15), Kalamazoo (12), St. Joseph’s (IN) (six) and Valparaiso (five).
SEVEN-GAME HOMESTAND TO BEGIN THE SEASON LONGEST HOME COURT RUN SINCE 1986-87
- Notre Dame begins the 2018-19 season with seven consecutive games at home. The Irish are playing host to the first home exempt tournament in school history during the 2018 Gotham Classic.
- The seven-game run matches the 1986-87 team (5-2) and the 1915-16 team (6-1) for the second-longest in school history.
- In addition to a seven-game homestand to begin 1915-16 at the Fieldhouse, Jesse Harper’s 1914-15 team set the school mark with nine home games to begin the season – finishing the streak with an 8-1 record.
- The seven-game stand to begin the 2018-19 season is the second-longest of the Mike Brey era. The 2013-14 team ended up 5-1 during a six-game run to start that year.
- Notre Dame’s first road game will be for the Jimmy V Classic in Madison Square Garden on December 4, 2018. That marks the latest the Irish will make a road trip in a season since the trip to Providence on December 7, 1996.
- While the seven-game run to start a season is unusual in the Brey era, Notre Dame has utilized its home court early in the year on several different occasions. The Irish will play 10 of their first 13 games in Purcell Pavilion this season and posted similar runs in 2004-05, 2006-07, 2009-10, 2013-14 and 2014-15.
- In 2004-05, Notre Dame played 10 of its first 13 games at home, compiling a 10-3 overall record and 8-2 mark in Purcell.
- The 2006-07 campaign saw Notre Dame play 13 of its first 16 at home, going 14-2 with a perfect 13-0 record in Purcell.
- The 2009-10 team competed at home for 12 of its first 14 games, going 12-2 and 11-1 in Purcell.
- Notre Dame begain its first season of ACC play in 2013-14 with 12 of 15 games at home, going 10-5.
- The 2006-07, 2009-10 and 2014-15 teams advanced to play in the NCAA tournament.
- And Mike Brey’s most successful team, the 2014-15 ACC Champions began the year with 14 of its first 17 games at home – compiling a 15-2 record and 13-1 mark in the Joyce Center.
NOTRE DAME vs. CHICAGO STATE – BY THE NUMBERS
|
1 |
Notre Dame is 1-0 for the 19th consecutive season under Mike Brey – the Irish have never lost a home opener or season opener since Brey assumed control of the program in 2000-01. |
|
2 |
Returning starters for the Irish in 2017-18 (Rex Pflueger, T.J. Gibbs), matching the 2002-03 and 2009-10 seasons for the lowest in the Mike Brey era (2000-01 – present). |
|
3 |
Junior guard T.J. Gibbs logged 1,348 minutes in 2017-18, third-most in Notre Dame basketball history and the 10th-most in the NCAA for the 2017-18 season. His 704 minutes in ACC play also marked the second-most for an ND player. |
|
4 |
Under Mike Brey, the Irish have earned four in-season tournament titles, the 2001 Hawaii-Pacific Thanksgiving Classic, the 2010 Old Spice Classic, the 2016 Legends Classic and the 2017 Maui Invitational. |
|
6 |
Junior Juwan Durham, in his first action in an Irish uniform after sitting out his transfer season in 2017-18, blocked six shots against UIC. That is the most for an Irish player since the 2012-13 season and is tied with six other for the sixth-best single-game performance in the Brey era. |
|
7 |
Notre Dame begins the 2018-19 season with a seven-game homestand – the longest to begin a season since 1986. It is the second-longest of the Mike Brey era, as the Irish played six straight at home to begin the 2013-14 season. |
|
9 |
The Irish will be putting a school-record-matching nine-game in-season tournament win streak on the line when the Gotham Classic continues on Wednesday, Nov. 14 vs. Radford. Notre Dame won the 2016 Legends Classic, sweeping four games in the event and also posted four wins in the 2017 Maui Invitational (three on the island) to claim the program’s first Maui title. |
|
10 |
The freshman class of Robby Carmody, Dane Goodwin, Prentiss Hubb, Nate Laszewski and Chris Doherty was ranked 10th in the nation by ESPN – the highest recruting class rating of the Brey era. |
|
23 |
Notre Dame connected on 23-of-24 free throws in the first half against UIC in season opener, the most FTM in the first half during the Mike Brey era. |
|
36 |
Notre Dame connected on 36 of 38 free throws in the season opener with UIC. That is the second-best single-game free throw total of the Brey era (39 vs. DePaul in 2002-03). |
|
39 |
The players off the Notre Dame bench combined to score 39 of the team’s 84 points in the victory over UIC. That includes a game-high 12 points from freshman Nate Laszewski. |
|
76 |
Notre Dame shot .758 from the free throw line in 2017-18, leading the ACC in team free throw shooting percentage for the second consecutive season. The Irish led the ACC and the NCAA in free throw shooting in 2016-17 (.800). Notre Dame began the season with an incredible showing at the free throw line vs. UIC, going 36 of 38 at the line (.947). |
|
95 |
Notre Dame finished 36-38 at the FT line vs. UIC (.947). That marked the best FT shooting performance by a team with 35 or more attempts since Arizona went 39-40 against Washington on Jan. 27, 2005. |
|
503 |
With 503 career wins, Mike Brey is the 11th active coach to reach that career milestone coaching at just one or two institutions. |
|
2002 |
Or to be more precise, the 2002-03 season. Robby Carmody became the first Notre Dame true freshman to start the first game of the season since Torin Francis against Belmont on Nov. 17, 2002. |