29. 'Wake' Up The Echoes Saturday

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Notre Dame men’s basketball has a chance to ruin Wake Forest’s postseason dreams while simultaneously bolstering its bid for the ACC Tournament and increasing its seeding. The Demon Deacons were listed as Joe Lunardi’s last team out of the NCAA Tournament and fell to Virginia on Wednesday night. The Irish (6-11) are currently in 13th place in the ACC standings, with four teams tied in front of them at 7-10.

Markus Burton continues to put up First Team scoring numbers. He’s coming off a 30-point performance at #13/14 Clemson. It marked his second 30-burger over the last five games. Burton has also surpassed Bonzie Colson for most 30-point games in ACC play with three, and he’s just a sophomore.

Coach Shrewsberry not only needs this kind of production from Burton, but also some others to step up and make the most of an opportunity. The injury bug has haunted this team all season, especially of late. Braeden Shrewsberry is officially out for the remainder of the year and Matt Allocco has missed five of the last six games.

Last season, Notre Dame and Wake Forest split 1-1. The Irish took it 70-65 on their home court while the Demon Deacons got the last laugh with a 72-59 victory in Washington D.C. at the ACC Tournament. Markus Burton totaled 52 points over the two games on 41.9 percent shooting, and get this, a perfect 23-23 from the free-throw line. Tae Davis totaled 27 points over two games vs. Wake, shooting a hot 56.3 percent from the floor.

The overall series between the two is tied at 9-9, making Saturday a tiebreaker of sorts. That match will tip at 5:15 p.m. ET on the CW.

BURTON – A WALKING BUCKET 

Grab your popcorn because Markus Burton is a walking bucket. After 39 days away rehabbing his knee injury, Burton returned on Jan. 4 and has been playing his best ball since. The sophomore fired off five consecutive games with 20 or more points in January, which hadn’t been done by an Irish player since Ben Hansbrough in February of 2011. In fact, Burton has produced 20+ points in 12 of his 15 games since his return.

In the last couple of weeks, Burton dropped a career best 32 points at BC on Feb 12, marking the fourth highest point total by a Notre Dame player in an ACC game. Then most recently dropped a 30-burger at Clemson on Feb. 26.

With all that said, Burton is now averaging 21.8 ppg in ACC play which surpassed Duke’s Cooper Flagg (21.8) for the No. 1 spot.

Overall on the year he’s averaging 20.8 ppg which places him 10th nationally. For perspective, the last Irish player to finish a season with a 20.0+ ppg average was Luke Harangody (21.8 ppg) in the 2009-10 season. Now here’s the kicker. If you take out his two-point Rutgers injury game in which he departed four minutes in, Burton’s average would be 21.7 ppg which would rank him fourth nationally.

ACHIEVEMENTS UNLOCKED

54 games. That’s all it took for Markus Burton to cross over the 1,000-career point milestone, etching his name alongside the program’s all-time greats. He became the seventh fastest Irish player to do so:

Austin Carr – 35 games

Adrian Dantley – 44

Tom Hawkins – 44

Bob Arnzen- 47

John Shumate – 47

Troy Murphy – 48

Markus Burton – 54

Gary Brokaw – 58

Chris Thomas – 60

He also became the program’s 68th overall player to do so which moved Notre Dame into a tie with Kansas for fourth place for most 1,000 point scorers behind UNC, Duke and Louisville.

There’s another rare list Burton can write his name on as well. He is currently averaging 20.8 ppg and a team best 3.1 apg. If those averages hold, he’ll join David Rivers as the only Irish players to average 20+ points and 3+ assists in a season.

MORE ON BURTON

In ACC play, the sophomore currently ranks first in scoring, eighth in steals (1.6), 10th in threes per game (2.0), 10th in free-throw percentage (.870) and 15th in FG% (.436).

Burton is most dangerous attacking the basket and utilizing his quickness. He’s shooting 47.8 percent from two-point range overall. More specifically he’s 46.8 percent from the midrange and 46.5 percent from the paint.

And more likely than not, Burton will get fouled attacking the basket and he’s the team’s best free-throw shooter. Burton is converting 86.5 percent from the stripe, up from last year’s 82.1 percent.

Furthermore, Burton worked really hard in the offseason on his three-point shot and it shows. He went from a 30.0 percent shooter from three to 37.1 percent this season. He’s tied his career high of four made triples three times since returning Jan. 4 In fact, he’s converting 38.0% from deep in ACC play.   

BAD LUCK FOR BRAEDEN

After a zero-point showing vs. Virginia Tech on Feb. 8, Braeden Shrewsberry bounced back with 49 points over the next three games. The sophomore recorded 16 points at BC, 12 points vs Louisville and a team high 21 points vs. SMU. Braeden averaged 16.3 ppg over that three-game span on 16-39 shooting (.410), plus 11-24 from beyond the arc (.458). And just when Braeden was finding a groove offensively, the injury bug hit and will keep him out for the remainder of the season.

The sophomore guard averaged 14.0 ppg, up from last year’s 10.2. He shot 41.3 percent, which was up from last year’s 39.8. He connected on 2.8 threes per game this season, with a .369 clip from beyond the arc.  In addition, Shrewsberry connected on 40.0 percent from deep in ACC play, which ranked fifth.

Braeden’s offensive evolution was on display this past year. He shot 48.7 percent from two-point range. Specifically, he shot 43.2 percent from the midrange and 44.9 percent from the paint.

CERTA-FIED BUCKET

With both Matt Allocco and Braeden Shrewsberry out with injuries for the Pitt game, Coach Shrews needed some other guards to step up and fill the void. Insert freshman guard Cole Certa who brought the home crowd to its feet when he drained three triples in a 125-second span, including one in which he sent a Pitt defender crashing into the ND bench before draining a corner three. Certa tallied all 12 of his points in the second half.

Speaking of second-half heroes vs. Pitt, you can’t not talk about J.R. Konieczny as well. The senior guard was absolutely clutch from the free-throw line, going 6-6 in the in the final 40 seconds. The Irish needed every single one of them as they ulimately emerged with the 76-72 W. He tallied all 10 of his points in the second half as well.

THE TAE-KOVER

Tae Davis should be a candidate for Most Improved in the ACC. He’s averaging a career best 15.8 ppg, up from last year’s 9.2 ppg. The Indy native is shooting a career best 50.2 percent, which ranks fourth in the league in overall games. He’s also shooting a career best 74.8 percent from the free-throw line.

In ACC play, Tae is averaging 15.8 ppg on 49.2 percent shooting – the latter ranks ninth.

The junior has been highly proficient around the rim where he’s 99-of-147 (.673).

After recording just 4 points against Georgia Tech on Jan. 28, Tae has responded with eight consecutive games in double figures, including two of 20+. Tae was critical in the 2OT win at BC, dropping 20 points. Also a commonality with the Pitt win was Tae dropping a team-best 21 points.

BEST TWO GUARDS / BEST BIG THREE

With Burton averaging 20.8 ppg and Shrewsberry checking in at 14.0, we were curious where that stacked up amongst guard combos in the ACC. The answer – first. Their combined 34.8 tops Duke’s Flagg/Knueppel and Pitt’s Lowe/Leggett.

So then that got us thinking, where do ND’s big three of Burton, Shrewsberry and Davis (15.8 ppg) stack up amongst other ACC big threes – regardless of position. The answer was yet again number one.

The Irish trio are a combined 50.6 ppg, which tops Stanford’s trio of Raynaud/Blakes/Sellers.

NOTRE NOTABLES.

• According to Haslam Metrics, Notre Dame has a rating of 10.7 vs. the average opponent in potential points allowed off of second chances (ranked 11th in the country).
• Also according to Haslam, Notre Dame has done a good job preventing opponents from draining threes this year. They rank 46th in the NCAA in defensive three-point percentage, allowing the ‘average opponent’ to make just 31.9 percent of their attempts from afar.
• The 14-point comeback at BC was the largest come from behind victory in the Coach Shrews era.
• Burton’s 32-point performance at BC was not only a career high but the fourth highest point total for an Irish player in an ACC game.
• Notre Dame was a perfect 16-16 from the free-throw line against Virginia Tech on Feb. 8. It marked the third best free-throw shooting percentage game in program history.
• Kebba grabbed a career-high 12 rebounds in win at BC and recorded the game-winning putback.
• Sir Mohammed has started in seven straight games and is shooting 11-20 from two-point range in that span.
• Limited sample size but Sir is shooting 55.9 percent from two-point range.
• Garrett Sundra tied his career high of 11 points vs. SMU on Feb. 19.
• Notre Dame earned its first-ever win in Charlottesville after a 74-59 victory over Virginia. Coach Shrewsberry has now defeated Virginia twice in three matchups.

— ND —