14. Irish Wear Green vs. North Carolina - Presented By Verizon

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – The Notre Dame men’s basketball team (7-6, 1-1) will look to unlock the green jersey magic once again when they host the North Carolina Tar Heels (8-6, 1-1) on Saturday, Jan. 4, presented by Verizon. The game will be broadcasted by CBS at Noon ET. The game is officially sold out – Notre Dame’s first of the season.

ND vs UNC

Saturday will mark the 40th meeting between the Irish and Tar Heels. ND trails the overall series 9-30 but has a better mark at home at 4-6. In fact, the Irish have won two of the last three against UNC inside Purcell Pavilion.

Saturday will also mark the second of what will be four Irish Wear Green games this conference season. Notre Dame was successful in its first Green Game, defeating Syracuse on December 7.

Lastly, there is an interesting Irish connection in this series. North Carolina’s athletic director Bubba Cunningham earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business administration from Notre Dame in 1984 and 1988, respectively. He’s a former member of the Irish golf team (1982-83) and served as Notre Dame’s associate athletics director for finance and facilities from 1995-2000 and was the associate director of athletics for external affairs from 2000-02. Notre Dame’s athletic director is a former Fighting Irish student-athlete as well. Pete Bevacqua graduated magna cum laude, with a B.A. in English in 1993. He was a walk-on punter for head football coach Lou Holtz.

THE TAE-KOVER

Tae Davis has stepped up and balled out in Markus Burton’s absence, emerging as one of the top talents in the league. Scoring-wise, Davis had the fourth-best December in the ACC, averaging 20.0 ppg last month.

He’s produced three straight games with 20+ points, averaging 23.7 ppg in that span on 61.5 percent shooting. He’s also averaging 7.7 rebounds and 2.0 assists over those three games. If Tae can go big for two more games, it’ll mark the first time an Irish player has recorded five straight of 20+ since Ben Hansbrough in February of 2011.

Lastly, he’s riding a career-best eight straight games in double figures.

PROTECT PURCELL

For the most part, the Irish have done just that, going 6-1 inside Purcell Pavilion during non-conference play. If it weren’t for the letdown vs. Elon, the Irish could have been looking at 7-0.

This is their best start at home since the 2021-22 season in which they were a dominant 14-1 inside Purcell and qualified for the NCAA Tournament.

The Irish are averaging 80.6 ppg at home on 49.6 percent shooting. They boast a scoring margin at home of +13.4.

The best individual player at home this year? Braeden Shrewsberry is averaging 18.0 ppg on an impressive 51.8 percent shooting. He’s 41.5 percent from deep. The sophomore has recorded 20+ points in three of his last four home games.

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.

Three players in particular have stepped up to fill the void. Both Tae Davis and Braeden Shrewsberry are posting career highs in both points per game and shooting percentage. Then there’s Matt Allocco who is on pace to have the highest assist-to-turnover ratio in program history.

Davis is averaging 16.6 ppg, which ranks 10th in the ACC. For comparison, Tae averaged 9.2 ppg in his first year with the Irish. He boasts the third-best shooting percentage in the ACC at 53.7 percent. Diving deeper, he’s 51-of-75 (.680) at the rim.

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 getting to the foul line. He’s averaging 6.9 FD/40 which ranks 27th nationally. The Indy native ranks third in the league in FT attempts and sixth in makes. He’s shooting a career-best 76.5 percent from the stripe.

Next is Braeden Shrewsberry, who is averaging 16.2 ppg (11th in the ACC) on 43.7 percent shooting. His 2.9 threes per game rank second in the league, while his .373 clip from three ranks fifth.

In particular, Shrewsberry is hot from corner threes this year, knocking down 52.2 percent (12-for-23), which is 17.2 percent above the D1 average.

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.

However, it’s important to point out that he’s added to his overall arsenal. He’s developed a dangerous floater that keeps defenders guessing. Oh you think he’s shooting a three, well he’s gonna pump fake and drive now. He’s shooting 48.4% from the paint and he’s 12-15 around the rim. He’s 52.8 percent overall from two.

Last but not least is grad transfer Matt Allocco. The 6-4 guard is averaging 10.2 ppg on 45.4 percent shooting from the floor and 46.9 percent from beyond the arc. His 3.8 assists per game rank 10th in the ACC.

Allocco owns a 4.1 assist-to-turnover ratio which ranks fifth in the nation and leads all ACC players. It’s obviously way too early for comparisons, BUT, the highest A/TO ratio in program history for a season was 3.16 by Martin Inglesby back in 2000-01.

NOTRE NOTABLES

• Notre Dame is shooting 47.2 percent from the field which ranks fourth in the ACC.
• A defensive statistic that sticks out is the team’s three-point percentage allowed vs. the average opponent – .296 which ranks 25th. That’s the best ranking the Irish have had in that category since Haslam Metrics started tracking in 2014.
• Last time out, it was the tale of the good and the bad. The bad was the first half. The Irish shot a season low 28.1 percent and faced a 19-point halftime deficit at 24-43. The good was the second half. They scored a season best 51 points in a half on 60.0 percent shooting. Tae Davis scored 22 of his 27 points in the second half. Now, the Irish have to rebound from a tough 75-86 loss at Georgia Tech with UNC on Saturday.
• Freshman guard Sir Mohammed made his return from injury in the Georgia Tech game on Dec. 31. He had been out since the second game of the season back on Nov. 11.
• J.R. Konieczny is averaging 10.5 ppg in the two ACC games this year, which is third-best on the team. J.R. is shooting 8-18 (.444) from the floor and 3-7 from three (.429).

— ND —