31. One Last Time In Purcell

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – The Notre Dame men’s basketball team wants to head off to Charlotte on a high note while treating its fans to a win in the Purcell Pavilion finale. The Fighting Irish (13-17, 7-12) look to complete a West Coast sweep when they host the Cal Bears (13-17, 6-13) on Saturday, March 8, at 4 p.m. ET on ACC Network.

Saturday is also Senior Day in which eight student-athletes and two managers will be honored in a special pregame ceremony around 3:30 p.m., along with special video tributes sprinkled throughout the game. Help us honor our walk-ons J.T Kelly, Thomas Crowe, and Thomas Hattan, our grads Nikita Konstantynovskyi, Burke Chebuhar and Matt Allocco and our seniors Julian Roper II and J.R. Konieczny. Speaking of Konieczny, he’s just 1-of-8 ACC men’s basketball players this year who have spent the past four years at the same university.

If you are wondering if Notre Dame and Cal have met before, it’s been a hot minute. They’ve only played twice and both were competed on neutral courts. The first was a 63-69 loss in 1966 in Honolulu, Hawaii. Then fast forward to Nov. 26, 2010, and the Irish won it 57-44 in Bay Lake, Florida.

Notre Dame rides into this matchup after back-to-back wins at home against Pitt and Stanford. The Irish are 10-5 inside Purcell Pavilion this season.

Cal is coming off a 68-85 loss at Louisville. They are 1-8 this conference season when traveling out east. The lone win was at NC State. The Bears are a fantastic offensive rebounding team, averaging 13.4 per game which ranks them 20th nationally and first in the ACC.

SO MANY SEEDS AT PLAY

If you are trying to figure out all the tiebreaker math for the ACC Tournament, let me save you some time. Saturday will be chaotic in the sense that Notre Dame could literally grab any seed number 9-15 based on different results. That’s right, there are scenarios for seven different seeds at play. The Irish could earn a bye and a chance at a No. 9 seed with a victory on Saturday, plus wins from Clemson, Pitt and Syracuse.

TRENDING

The last four games, two Irish players in particular have stood out. First, the face of the team, sophomore guard Markus Burton. The Mishawaka native has totaled a whopping 103 points over the last four games, that’s 25.8 points per game. He’s shooting 45.8 percent from the floor during this stretch, 9-23 from beyond the arc and an impressive 28-31 from the free-throw line.

The third-highest scorer during this stretch is a freshman who has certainly garnered some headlines as of late, Cole Certa. The 6-5 guard out of Le Roy, Illinois, is 7-15 from three-point range over the last four with hero moments in each of the wins over Pitt and Stanford.

Lastly, graduate guard Matt Allocco came back from injury and gutted out seven points and seven boards in the Stanford win on March 5.

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 played his best ball since. First, 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. All-in-all, Burton has produced 20+ points in 14 of his 17 games since his return.

In his last four games, Burton has gone 20-30-29-24. A little further back, 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. Burton has now surpassed Bonzie Colson for most 30-point performances in ACC games with three.

With all that said, Burton is now averaging 22.4 ppg in conference play which leads all ACC players.

Overall, he’s averaging 21.3 ppg, placing him seventh nationally and first amongst P4 players. 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 22.1 ppg which would rank him second 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:

1. Austin Carr – 35 games
2. Adrian Dantley – 44
3. Tom Hawkins – 44
4. Bob Arnzen- 47
5. John Shumate – 47
6. Troy Murphy – 48
7. Markus Burton – 54
8. Gary Brokaw – 58

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 21.3 ppg and a team best 3.0 apg. If those averages hold, he’ll join Ring of Honor legend 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, seventh in free-throw percentage (.871) eighth in steals (1.5), ninth in threes per game (2.1) and 15th in FG% (.440).

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 46.0 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. He is converting 86.6 percent from the stripe, which ranks 5th in the ACC. That number is 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 37.9 percent this season. He’s tied his career high of four made triples three times since returning Jan. 4 In fact, he’s converting 38.9% from deep in ACC play.   

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 48.6 percent, which ranks sixth in the league in overall games. He’s also shooting a career best 72.5 percent from the free-throw line.

In ACC play, Tae is averaging 15.4 ppg on 47.0 percent shooting – the latter ranks 11th.

The junior has been highly proficient around the rim where he’s 65.4 percent.

After recording just 4 points against Georgia Tech on Jan. 28, Tae has responded with nine out of 10 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.

CERTA-FIED BUCKET

February 22 – a 76-72 win over Pitt – aka the Cole Certa game. Certa recorded all 12 of his points in the 2nd half but it all stemmed from a 125-second period in which he drained 3 triples.

Then March 5 happened and that might now be dubbed the Certa game. After the Irish stormed back with a 15-0 run, Stanford counter punched with an 8-0 run and grabbed a one-point with 18 seconds left. Tae Davis then drove the paint and dished to Certa in the corner who found nothing but net and the eventual 56-54 victory.

Certa almost did it again at Wake Forest. He had already drained two triples and found the ball in his hands with 10 seconds left down three, but the rim just didn’t allow it.

NOTRE NOTABLES.

• Markus Burton broke his own record set last season (349) for most points during an ACC campaign with 380.
• Burton’s 21.3 ppg would rank him fourth all-time for sophomores at Notre Dame, trailing Adrian Dantley (30.4), Troy Murphy (22.7), Austin Carr (22.0) and Bob Arnzen (21.3).
• According to Haslam Metrics, Notre Dame has a rating of 11.07 vs. the average opponent in potential points allowed off of second chances (ranked 19th in the country).
• Also according to Haslam, Notre Dame has done a good job preventing opponents from draining threes this year. They rank 31st in the NCAA in defensive three-point percentage, allowing the ‘average opponent’ to make just 31.4 percent of their attempts from afar.
• 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.
• Limited sample size but Sir is shooting 55.6 percent from two-point range.

— ND —