14. Irish Goes West To Begin ACC Play

STANFORD, Calif. – The Notre Dame men’s basketball team will begin ACC play with its first California road swing since Cal and Stanford joined the ACC last year. It’s prime scheduling for the Irish, knocking out the Cali road trip right off the bat during the holiday break and getting a week off before their third conference game.

The Fighting Irish know the importance of grabbing two wins this week after suffering a setback loss to close the non-con portion of their season. Notre Dame will first look to bounce back against Stanford on Dec. 30 inside Maples Pavilion at 9 p.m. ET on ESPN2. Then ND will make the short drive to Berkeley to challenge Cal on Jan. 2.

Last season, the Irish ended the regular season with both these teams and emerged victorious in both in dramatic fashion. First, a 56-54 last-second win against the Cardinal in which Cole Certa hit the game-winner. Then a 112-110 4OT thriller against Cal in which Markus Burton dropped 41 points.

Coach Shrewsberry is 1-1 in ACC openers, while the program all-time record is 5-7.

If you are an Irish fan in the Palo Alto or Berkeley area, now is the time. This trip will mark the first time ND has visited Cal and the second time at Stanford, with the previous visit being on January 12, 1993. In that game, Monty Williams dropped 23 points in the 67-61 win.

WHO’S HOT?

With Markus Burton on the mend, the ball has been put in the hands of freshman Jalen Haralson, and he has delivered. The Indiana native has dropped 20 or more points in three of the last four games. He’s 26-57 from the field in that span, averaging 17.8 ppg – a team best.

One of those big time performances was the TCU overtime victory and it was Jalen himself who hit the buzzer beater in regulation. Down two with three seconds remaining, Haralson hit a step-back fadeaway jumper to tie it at 76-all. Haralson finished the night with 20 points & a career high 9 assists. Other ND greats over the last three decades to match Jalen’s stat line of 20 points, 5 rebounds, 9 assists and 1 block: Jerian Grant in 2015 / Chris Thomas 3x (twice in 2002 and once in 2005).

ACC PLAY RESET

Notre Dame begins ACC play with a 9-4 record so let’s talk about how we got here:

The Irish incurred three losses earlier in the season, but two were to ranked powers Kansas and Houston in Vegas, and the third was a what-if scenario in Columbus – a one-point loss at Ohio State. Those battles tested the Irish, as they learned from them and got better. After Vegas, they rattled off four straight wins, which included an SEC Challenge victory over Mizzou and a Quad 1 win at TCU. At that point in time, the Irish jumped from 86 in the NET to 69. They received votes in the A.P. poll for the first time in the Coach Shrews Era. They appeared at No. 25 in Andy Katz’s Power37 and No. 41 in Jon Rothstein’s 45.

As Coach Shrewsberry stated, it was a culmination of all their games played, specifically the three losses this year.

In fact, not only did they close, but they battled back. The Irish were down 12 to Missouri (7 at the half) and 11 to TCU (9 at the half). The last time Notre Dame came back to win after being down 9+ at halftime was a 13-point deficit to Virginia Tech in the ACC Tourney on March 7, 2018.

It was done by playing team basketball – making the extra pass and hitting clutch shots. Notre Dame produced 16 assists on 25 made field goals against Mizzou and then recorded 27 assists on 33 made field goals at TCU. The latter marked the most assists in a game since at Syracuse on Jan. 4, 2020.

The Irish were then looking to make it five in a row when Purdue Fort Wayne came to town, but it was a cold shooting day for the home team. The three-point loss dropped ND 21 spots in the NET to 81. They check in now at 66 in KenPom.

A CAREER NIGHT FOR SHREWSBERRY AND MOHAMMED

In that four-game win streak was an 82-58 win over Evansville, which featured career high performances from both Braeden Shrewsberry and Sir Mohammed.

Shrewsberry scored a career-high 26 points on 9-12 shooting from the floor (75%) and finished with a career-high 8 three pointers, shooting 80% from three on 8-10 shooting.

Then there was Mohammed who dropped a career-high 21 points on 8-12 shooting from the floor. Mohammed also chipped in two rebounds and three assists for the Irish.

SHREWSBERRY DIALED IN

That last note now leads us to Who’s Hot 2.0, which is Braeden Shrewsberry. He’s also filling the scoring hole that is Burton and has produced five straight games in double figures. He’s averaging 15.8 ppg in that span on 51.0% shooting.

He’s been dialled in from beyond the arc, where he’s 21-41 (.512) over the last five games. That was the fifth best three point field goal percentage in the month of December for anyone with at least 20 made threes.

More on Braeden over his last five games: His 71.6 effective FG% and 72.5 true shooting % both rank in the 99th percentile according to CBB Analytics.

Overall, Braeden is 48.8 percent from three, which ranks second in the ACC & 14th in the nation. He’s converting 3.3 made threes per game, which ranks second in the league. Lastly, his 42 total threes rank 17th nationally.

MORE THAN JUST REBOUNDING

Carson Towt is 19-26 (.731) from the floor over the past four games. He’s averaging a double-double in that span at 10.0 points & 10.0 rebounds. He’s also recorded the second most assists over the last four games with 11.

During that stretch, the graduate recorded a season high 19 points against Idaho, in what was his third double-double of the season (15 boards). He also scored 13 points in big road win at TCU, in which he was a perfect 6-6 from the floor, to go with his 9 boards & 4 assists.

CERTA-FIED

Cole Certa has flashed NBA Jam on fire like moments at different points of this season. The sophomore sharpshooter flashed it in the season opener when he dropped 22 points on a career best 6-9 night from three-point range. He showed it vs. Mizzou when he converted three triples in the final 4:35 of the game, including the game-winning three with 17 seconds left.

But nothing tops his second half at TCU where he drained four triples in a row, ultimately converting five in the half and six in the game to finish with 20 points. It marked the second game this season in which Certa came off the bench and drained 5+ threes.

Over the last five games, Certa has averaged the third most points at 12.2 ppg. He’s 15-33 from three in that span (.455).

NOTRE NOTABLES

• The Irish are 13 wins away from 2,000 all-time. They would become the eighth program to achieve this feat.
• Logan Imes earned a career high 12 points vs. Purdue Fort Wayne (12/21). He shot 5-10 from the floor, including 2 triples. He also grabbed a career best 4 steals.
• Certa is a perfect 22-22 from the FT line. This marks the third most free throws made for those Division I players who have not missed this season.
• Njie grabbed a season-best 10 rebounds in the win over Evansville.
• According to Haslam Metrics, Notre Dame allows the ‘Average Opponent’ to convert only 3.2% of all second-chance opportunities (ranked 12th in the NCAA), and with a rating of 10.30, they’re 13th in potential points allowed off of the offensive glass as well.
• Kenpom Rating: Offense 114.5 (81st) & Defense 102.1 (66th).

— ND —