11. Dartmouth On Wednesday

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Notre Dame men’s basketball goes from using the power of green to defeat Syracuse to hoping to take down the Big Green of Dartmouth. The Fighting Irish (5-5) look to win their second straight when Dartmouth visits Purcell Pavilion on Wednesday, December 11. Tip is set for 7 p.m. ET, streaming live on ACCNX. Tickets are still available for purchase here.

WHAT’S AT STAKE

• Setting the tone – the Irish only have two non-conference games left. First is Dartmouth which is followed by 10 days without competition to accommodate finals and the CFP. Then there’s Le Moyne on December 22, followed by another long break for the holidays that extends to the ACC opener at Georgia Tech on December 31—which provides plenty of downtime ahead for the Irish to recover as well.
• Keeping the unblemished record alive – Notre Dame and Dartmouth have squared off just six times over the century+ that the program has been around. The Irish have won all six of them. The most recent matchup was a 97-87 victory at home on December 19, 2017.
• Notre Dame’s historic dominance against Ivy League competition – Irish are 47-4 all-time against Ivy League schools. The last time the Irish lost to an Ivy Leaguer was January 3, 1977, to Princeton.
• A matchup to watch – Dartmouth is averaging 10.4 made threes/game which ranks 25th in the country. Notre Dame’s three-point field goal percentage defense is at 31.4 percent.
• #ProtectPurcell – A win would improve the Irish to 5-1 at home this season. Notre Dame is averaging 79.2 ppg at home on 49.3 percent shooting. They own a +10.6 scoring margin inside Purcell Pavilion.

FRESHLY SQUEEZED WIN

Notre Dame needed that one and got it. The Fighting Irish won its first ACC opener since the 2017-18 season and they did it by banding together down the stretch in a 69-64 win over Syracuse. Neither team had a lead greater than three in the second half until 2:11 remaining in the game.

The player who broke that one-possession margin was Braeden Shrewsberry. The sophomore had a huge game, tying his career high of 25 points behind six made three-pointers. He shot 8-of-15 overall and 6-for-11 from deep. Two of those triples came in the final four minutes of the game.

J.R. Konieczny was a spark off the bench with a season-high 15 points – 13 of which came in the first half. Despite getting into foul trouble, Tae Davis was a crucial piece of the Notre Dame offense with 15 points, going 6-8 from the floor while also chipping in two assists and two steals. Kebba Njie was just shy of a double-double as he finished with nine points and nine rebounds for the Irish.

The Orange were held to without a three for the first time since Holy Cross on Nov. 28, 2014.

FINDING THEIR WAY

Another reason the Syracuse win was so big – building confidence in a group that they can win without their All-ACC point guard Markus Burton, who was averaging just over 21 ppg heading into Vegas for the Players Era Festival. Burton then got hurt in the first four minutes of the Rutgers game and will be out of competition on a week-to-week basis. Not to mention Sir Mohammed, Notre Dame’s primary guard off the bench, was already out indefinitely recovering from his respective knee injury.

And despite losing their top scorer and primary ball handler, all three games in Vegas were there for the taking.

1. Matt Allocco put the team on his back against Rutgers and had a ‘March worthy’ performance. He forced overtime with a last-second three in regulation. Then in OT, he converted three triples in under 30 seconds to force a tie with under 15 seconds left. He ended up with a 24-point, 10-rebound double-double with 5 assists. He was 6-for-9 from three.

2. Versus #6/7 Houston, the Irish recorded a 7-0 run in the second half to pull within one at 44-45. Unfortunately, ND only scored 10 points in the final 13 minutes as Houston pulled away to win 65-54. Tae Davis led the Irish in scoring with 22 points on 9-of-15 shooting. It marked his second 20+ point performance of the season. He also tallied a team-high eight rebounds and a team-high four assists.

3. #21/19 Creighton was very similar. The Irish ultimately erased a 17-point deficit to take a lead 53-52 lead with 10:19 remaining. Yet, Creighton countered with four triples over the next four minutes and that ended up being the difference maker. Tae Davis and Braeden Shrewsberry led the Irish with 17 points each.

MAKING UP POINTS

Before Vegas, Burton was the only player in the country averaging 20+ points, 5+ assists, and 5+ rebounds. Now the Irish continue to work together to make up the 20+ points per game lost along with Burton’s ability to create shots for his teammates.

Who are the first two people to look at to pick up some of the load – Tae Davis and Braeden Shrewsberry.

Davis is averaging 16.6 ppg in Burton’s absence, producing double-digit points in all five games. He’s gotten to the free-throw line 32 times in that five-game span, doubling the amount from the next highest person (16 – Allocco).

Next, there’s Braeden Shrewsberry, who is averaging the most points over the last five at 17.6 ppg. He’s knocked down 17 triples in that span, averaging 3.4 per game.

So who’s next? Well, there’s Matt Allocco, who is averaging 10.6 ppg since Burton went down. Allocco is shooting a team-best 42.9 percent from deep in that span.

How about freshman forward Garrett Sundra, who played his first significant minutes against #21/19 Creighton and delivered. He recorded his first double-digit scoring effort with 11 points on 4-for-5 shooting (3-for-4 from three). He followed that with 5 points on 2-for-3 shooting at Georgia. He’s now 4-for-6 from beyond the arc.

Then keep an eye out for J.R. Konieczny. He boasts the second-highest +/- on the team behind Burton. More on him below.

GETTING HIS MIND RIGHT

After the Syracuse win, J.R. Konieczny was asked how he stayed ready and locked in to help lift the team after previous games of limited minutes:

“Want to give a huge shoutout to Coach Getter, he was telling me all week we need you to get back to the old J.R. and the joy you had out there. I admit, my body language sucked the last week, so trying to come out here with some confidence. Give credit to the coaches for sure,” Konieczny said.

J.R. came off the bench and supplied 13 first-half points against the Orange. He ultimately finished with a season-high 15.

TAE-KING OVER

Notre Dame wants to see the Ta(k)e Over in the first half of this 2024-25 season. Tae has this explosiveness and innate ability to attack the rim like no other on the team. He’s been using that to his advantage and currently averaging a career-best 14.5 ppg on a career-high 50.5 percent shooting.

Tae is riding a five-game double-digit scoring streak. He’s looking to surpass his career best of seven which was set over the final seven games of last season.

Where is the Indy native getting it done? Well, he’s shooting 27-of-42 (.643) from around the rim (within 4.5 feet) and 5-of-6 from the mid-range. Tae is averaging 6.6 fouls/drawn per 40 minutes. He’s turned that into 4.2 made free throws per game, averaging 72.4 percent at the stripe.

In the Buffalo victory, he poured in a career-high 27 points on 7-of-13 shooting. Plus he drained a career-best 12-of-13 from the free-throw line. Davis got it done in crunch time as well, scoring 13 of Notre Dame’s final 15 points.

BRAEDEN’S OFFENSIVE GAME

We know what Breaden is capable of from three. Last season, he drained 55 three-pointers in conference play which set a new program record for ACC threes. He ultimately hit 78 treys which were second most by a DI freshman.

This season, he’s averaging a team-best 2.9 made threes per game which ranks third in the ACC. His 29 made threes rank 42nd nationally and second in the ACC.

Shrewsberry is hot from corner threes this year, knocking down 47.6 percent (10-for-21), which is 12.8 percent above the D1 average. Overall, he’s 34.9 percent from beyond the arc.

But Braeden has added to his offensive arsenal in year two. He’s developed a dangerous floater that keeps defenders guessing, shooting 53.4 percent from two-point range.

With all that said, Shrewsberry is riding a career-best streak of six straight games with double-digit points. He’s averaging 18.3 ppg in that span. Shrewsberry is averaging 16.2 ppg overall.

BURTON’S IMPACT

When Burton was in the lineup the offense was vastly improved from a year ago. Case in point, Notre Dame posted six straight games to start the year with 75+ points, which hadn’t happened since the start of the 2009-10 season.

With Burton:
The Irish were shooting 51.9 percent from the field which ranked 14th nationally and led the ACC at the time. They were also a hot 61.0 percent from two, which ranked 17th in the country. CBB Analytics had Notre Dame’s offensive rating at 122.3 (34th nationally) while KenPom’s offensive efficiency ranking put the Irish at No. 51.

Irish Numbers Heading Into Game 11:
Notre Dame is now shooting 46.9 percent from the field and are converting 54.0 percent from two. CBB Analytics have them with a 112.3 offensive rating. KenPom’s Offensive Adj. Efficiency places them at No. 66.

— ND —