Jan. 28, 2018
WHO: Notre Dame (13-8, 3-5 ACC) at No. 4/4 Duke (18-3, 6-3 ACC)
WHAT: ESPN Big Monday
WHERE: Cameron Indoor Stadium, Durham, North Carolina
WHEN: Monday, January 29, 2017, 7:00 p.m. ET
TICKETS: Game is sold out, see the Vivid Seats Notre Dame Ticket Exhange for access.
BROADCAST INFORMATION:
ESPN national broadcast with Sean McDonough (play-by-play), Jay Bilas (analyst) and Allison Williams (sideline). Also available on the WatchESPN app.
Notre Dame Basketball Radio Network with Jack Nolan (play-by-play) and Zach Hillesland (analyst). Available locally on WSBT AM 960/FM 96.1, worldwide on WatchND.tv and via network affiliates (see page 8 of the notes package for a complete list).
Here are Five Things To Know about the Notre Dame – Duke contest…
QUICK FACTS
- Notre Dame is the only team in the ACC faced with three Saturday – Monday turnarounds this season in which they need to travel to complete the two-game weekend. Duke faces three Saturday – Monday turnarounds, but will remain at home for one of the two quick turnaround weekends. The Irish also are the only conference team asked to play an 8 p.m. late game on Saturday before traveling to play on the road Monday evening.
- Sophomore T.J. Gibbs earned his sixth 20-point scoring game of the season, pourting in a career-high 27 points in the battle with Virginia Tech on Saturday. Playing all 40 minutes, Gibbs (40.12) joins Syracuse’s Tyus Battle (40.25) as the only ACC players to average over 40 minutes played in league competition.
- Sophomore John Mooney has posted back-to-back career-best performances. At Clemson on Jan. 20, the Orlando, Florida, native scored 13 points with seven rebounds. He started the Virginia Tech game (his second career start) and responded with a career-best 15 points and 11 rebounds for the first double-double in his time at Notre Dame.
- The Irish enter the game at Duke on Monday night without three of its top six players – seniors Bonzie Colson (fractured left foot) and Matt Farrell (sprained left ankle, bone bruise) and freshman D.J. Harvey (left knee bone bruise) are all sidelined with injuries. When healthy, those players account for 42.9 points scored per game.
NOTRE DAME – DUKE SERIES HISTORY
Notre Dame and Duke renew their ACC rivarly on ESPN’s Big Monday, with the Irish holding a 5-3 advantage in the series between the two ACC opponents. The Blue Devils lead the all-time series, which began with a 1965 matchup in Chicago Stadium, 22-7 and won 17 of the first 19 meetings between the two schools.
Notre Dame and Duke have faced each other in just about any way two collegiate teams can face each other – the 1978 Final Four, the Great Alaska Shootout, the preason NIT, ACC Championship games and regular-season neutral site contests.
Since Mike Brey took over the Notre Dame program, the Irish are 5-4 against the Blue Devils and Brey is the only former Blue Devil assistant to earn a victory over Mike Krzyzewski in head-to-head competiton.
IRISH FACE EIGHTH-STRAIGHT GAME WITHOUT TWO STARTERS
Notre Dame has been tasked to take on the daunting ACC schedule without its full roster and will play travel to Duke down two starters for the eighth-consecutive game.
All-American Bonzie Colson has been sidelined since the NC State game (Jan. 3) and will miss at least the next five weeks.
Senior captain and Wooden Award Watch List selection Matt Farrell sprained his left ankle in the team’s first game without Colson (NC State) with five minutes remaining in the first half and missed the next three games – returning to the starting lineup against Louisville on Jan. 16.
With Farrell back, the Irish then lost freshman D.J. Harvey with 8:25 remaining in the first half against Louisville with a bone bruise in his left knee – meaning that once Farrell returned to the lineup, the Irish were down just one starter for only 11 minutes, 35 seconds.
Farrell’s recovery from his ankle injury suffered a set back this week and he has been sideline indefinitely with a bone bruise in his left ankle.
INTERNATIONAL DUO
Senior Martinas Geben (Vilnius, Lithuania) and sophomore Nikola Djogo (Hamilton, Ontario, Canada) became first pair of foreign-born players to start a game during the Mike Brey era when they were both in the starting five against Virginia Tech on Jan. 27, 2018.
The last pair of foreign-born players to start a game for Notre Dame occurred in the 1999-2000 season under head coach Matt Doherty. On Jan. 25, 2000, freshmen Jere Macura and Ivan Kartelo – both from Split, Croatia – started against Miami (Florida).
Djogo is the first Canadian-born player to start a game for Notre Dame. He and Geben join Macura, Kartelo, Tom Timmermans (Driehuis, Netherlands), Eric Katenda (Paris, France) as the six foreign-born players to compete for Notre Dame under head coach Mike Brey.
NOTRE DAME AT DUKE – BY THE NUMBERS
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1 |
Notre Dame leads the country in least amount of personal fouls committed per game with a 13.2 average. The Irish are also second in the NCAA in terms of total fouls committed (264). |
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2 |
Senior Martinas Geben ranks second in the ACC in rebounds per conference game (10.6) and leads the league in offensive rebounds per game (4.75) in ACC games. |
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Mike Brey is the fourth-longest tenured head coach among power five conference teams – now in his 18th season at Notre Dame. Jim Boeheim (42), Mike Krzyzewski (38) and Tom Izzo (23) are the only other power five conference head coaches with a longer tenure at their current institution. |
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5 |
There are only five players in the ACC avearging a double-double in league play, including senior forward Martinas Geben. Geben is averaging 12.3 ppg and 10.6 rpg in eight ACC games, joining Marving Bagley III and Wendell Carter Jr. (Duke), Luke Maye (UNC) and Doral Moore (Wake Forest) as the five ACC players to average a double-double in league competition. |
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Notre Dame is 5-3 against Duke since joining the ACC for the 2013-14 season. |
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5 |
More weeks of game action expected to be missed by senior Bonzie Colson after fracturing a bone in his foot on Friday, December 29. Colson was averaging 21.4 points, 10.4 rebounds and over two steals and two blocks per game – the only college player to hit those averages this year and the only player to reach those averages since Sports Reference started tracking statistics in the 1992-93 season. |
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12 |
Sophomore T.J. Gibbs needs just 12 points in Monday’s game to double his scoring output from his freshman season in 2016-17. Gibbs has 324 points this year after scoring 168 points in his rookie season. |
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95 |
The senior class of Bonzie Colson, Matt Farrell, Martinas Geben, Matt Gregory and Austin Torres (graduate student) is three wins away from becoming the all-time winningest senior class in Notre Dame basketball history. The 2016-17 and 2012-13 senior classes currently hold the record with 97 wins over a four-year span. See page 3 of this notes package for more details. |
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96 |
Free throw percentage (.964) for T.J. Gibbs in ACC play this season – the best mark in the conference. Gibbs is 27-for-28 from the line in conference play. |