Aug. 7, 2013
NOTRE DAME, Ind. — Atlantic Coast Conference men’s basketball will be featured on ESPN during the upcoming 2013-14 campaign. For the first time in history, the ACC will be part of ESPN’s Big Monday telecast and Notre Dame figures prominently into those plans with two Fighting Irish games on the docket.
Notre Dame, no stranger to the primetime broadcast slot, will be have its matchups at Syracuse on Feb. 3, 2014 and at North Carolina on March 3, 2014 showcased on ESPN’s Big Monday. North Carolina and Virginia will have three Big Monday showdowns, while the Irish, Duke, Maryland and Syracuse each are slated for two appearances.
A total of eight ACC games will be broadcast on consecutive Mondays between Jan. 13 and March 3 with each game set for a 7:00 p.m. (EST) tipoff.
“ESPN Big Monday provides a terrific window to further showcase ACC Basketball,” ACC Commissioner John Swofford says. “This opportunity provides our players, coaches and fans with unprecedented appointment viewing, and it will be exciting to watch all 15 member schools compete throughout the season.”
The complete 2013-14 ACC basketball schedule, with dates, starting times and television broadcast information, will be released later this month.
The ACC “Big Monday” lineup is as follows:
January 13 – Virginia at Duke (ESPN), 7 p.m.
January 20 – North Carolina at Virginia (ESPN), 7 p.m.
January 27 – Duke at Pitt (ESPN), 7 p.m.
February 3 – Notre Dame at Syracuse (ESPN), 7 p.m.
February 10 – Maryland at Virginia (ESPN), 7 p.m.
February 17 – North Carolina at Florida State (ESPN), 7 p.m.
February 24 – Syracuse at Maryland (ESPN), 7 p.m.
March 3 – Notre Dame at North Carolina (ESPN), 7 p.m.
NOTING THE ACC ON ESPN’S “BIG MONDAY”
– Each of the ACC’s three newest members – Notre Dame, Pitt and Syracuse – has at least one game scheduled as part of the ESPN Big Monday package. That includes Pitt’s home game against Duke on Jan. 27 and a head-to-head meeting between Notre Dame and Syracuse on Feb. 3.
– North Carolina and Virginia lead ACC teams with three Big Monday appearances each. Duke, Maryland, Notre Dame and Syracuse are each scheduled to appear twice.
– Five of the ACC teams scheduled to appear on Big Mondays have been rated among the nation’s Preseason Top 25 by at least one analyst, including Top 10 selections Duke, North Carolina and Syracuse.
– Duke and Pitt will renew a competitive series when the Blue Devils travel to face the Panthers on Jan. 27. The teams have split their 12 previous meetings, the most recent being Pitt’s 65-64 win in overtime on Dec. 20, 2007. The Blue Devils will be making their fifth trip to Pittsburgh and their first since a 78-69 win on Jan. 26, 1980.
– The Feb. 24 game matching Maryland and Syracuse will be their eighth head-to head meeting, four of which have come in postseason. The Orange will visit College Park for the third time and for the first time since Dec. 29, 1976.
– Notre Dame’s visit to North Carolina on March 3 will mark the first meeting between the teams since the 2008 Maui Classic and only their second meeting since 1994. Notre Dame seeks its first win in three trips to Chapel Hill. The Tar Heels prevailed at the Smith Center in 1986 and 1993.
– Teams participating in the Big Monday games are set to return a combined six student-athletes who earned all-conference honors last season: Virginia Joe Harris and Akil Mitchell, North Carolina’s James Michael McAdoo, Syracuse’s C.J. Fair, Notre Dame’s Jerian Grant and Duke’s Quinn Cook.
– The Big Monday lineup will feature college basketball’s two-all time winningest coaches in Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski (957 career wins) and Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim (920), and three of the four active NCAA coaches with 700 or more wins in Krzyzewski, Boeheim and North Carolina’s Roy Williams (700). The ACC trio, which has combined for seven NCAA titles, comprises three of the five active Division I coaches in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
– A total of 24 starters are slated to return for the eight ACC teams that comprise the Big Monday lineup, including four apiece at Florida State and Notre Dame.
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