4. Battle of the ND's on Tuesday Night in Purcell

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – The Notre Dame men’s basketball team comes home with its unblemished record intact, passing its first road test of the season with a victory at Georgetown. Up next, the Fighting Irish (3-0) will host back-to-back games inside Purcell Pavilion, starting with North Dakota on Tuesday, Nov. 19, at 7 p.m. ET. The game will be streamed on ACCNX. Tickets are still available for purchase on FightingIrish.com.

BACK AT PURCELL WITH A 3-0 RECORD

Notre Dame got a coveted win on the road in game three. After the game Coach Shrewsberry described road victories as gold nuggets. It was an obstacle last season in which they went 2-10 in true road games. However, this is a much different group and they proved it at Georgetown with an 84-63 route. It was the 31st all-time meeting between the two and it marked Notre Dame’s biggest victory over the Hoyas since March 4, 2000.

Thus, Notre Dame is off to a 3-0 start and will look to keep the good vibes flowing against the Fighting Hawks. The only time Notre Dame and North Dakota have squared off on the hardwood was a 46-38 victory in February of 1941.

FULL TEAM EFFORT

“We shot 60 percent from the field, we shot 43 percent from three, 92 percent from the free-throw line. We are a really an elite offensive team when we move the ball like this. We had 20 assists on 32 made field goals. That’s hard to deal with. It was everybody too and that’s what we need to be successful.” – Coach Shrews

Game three was the Matt Allocco breakout/spotlight performance. The graduate guard went 5-for-6 from the field, 4-for-5 from three, to earn 15 first-half points. Allocco ultimately finished the game with 17 points, a team-high seven assists and five rebounds.

Markus Burton picked up the torch in the second half where he scored 12 of his 16 points. Burton was a perfect 8-for-8 from the free-throw line and dished out five assists.

That duo shone the brightest but everyone had their moment. Braeden Shrewsberry had a solid second half and finished with nine points. Tae Davis continued his strong start to the season with 13 points and eight rebounds. Then there’s Kebba Njie with eight points and five boards. Nikita Konstantynovskyi came off the bench and tied Davis for the team-high in rebounds with eight, plus eight points. Burke Chebuhar came off the bench and went 3-for-3 from deep for nine points.

NOT LAST YEAR’S OFFENSE

An offseason emphasis, familiarity with Coach Shrews’ system, comfortability with your returning teammates – this is not last year’s offense and the Irish have proven that through three games.

• W, 89-60, over Stonehill
• W, 86-77, over Buffalo
• W, 84-63, over Georgetown

The Irish have already tied the amount of games they recorded 80+ points last season with three consecutive 80+ point wins to start the year.

If the Irish can replicate that against North Dakota and Elon this week, they’ll tie the program’s all-time record for consecutive 80+ point games to start the season. Five straight have happened on four occasions: 1962-63, 1964-65, 1978-79, 2009-10.

TAE’S HOT START

What a week for Tae Davis. 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 free-throw line. Davis got it done in crunch time as well, scoring 13 of Notre Dame’s final 15 points. He followed that up with 13 points on 5-of-6 shooting in the Georgetown road win. He grabbed a team-high eight boards.

Through three games, Davis is averaging 16.3 points and 6.3 rebounds. He’s shooting 56.0 percent from the field and 86.4 percent from the free throw line.

KenPom’s offensive rating for Davis ranks him seventh nationally. They also rank him 13th in the country in Fouls Drawn/40 minutes with 9.5.

ONE OF BEST STARTING FIVE IN THE COUNTRY

Notre Dame’s starting five of Burton, Shrewsberry, Allocco, Davis and Njie ranks as the second-highest Adjusted Offensive Efficiency group in the country. In addition, they rank sixth nationally in Efficiency Margin. The top lineups are featured in the picture below courtesy of EvanMiya.com.

Furthermore, according to CBB Analytics, the ND starting five are +26 in +/-, which ranks in the 98th percentile this season.

ANALYTICS TO KEEP AN EYE ON

Three straight games with not only 80+ points, but all above 50 percent shooting as well. The Irish are shooting 53.4 percent from the field which ranks 13th nationally. They are also shooting a blistering 61.8 percent from two, which ranks 24th in the country.

Diving deeper – Notre Dame is shooting 55 percent from the mid-range jumper (two-point range outside of paint) which ranks 17th in the nation.

CBB Analytics has Notre Dame’s offensive rating at 125.5 which ranks 25th nationally.

After the Georgetown victory, the Irish jumped from 76 on KenPom to No. 53.

With all that said, Notre Dame’s current highest national ranking on NCAA Statistics is defensive rebounds per game. The Irish are averaging 34.3 per game which ranks sixth nationally and first in the ACC.

INTRODUCING MUSH

If Irish fans weren’t familiar with Matt Allocco’s game, they were after the Georgetown game. A team-high 17 points, a team-high seven assists, plus five rebounds. He was nearly a perfect 4-for-5 from three in the first half.

Allocco is both the vocal leader and wily vet for this young squad. He’s a gamer and super competitor. He boasts a true shooting percentage of 88.3 which ranks fifth nationally. He owns an effective field goal percentage of 92.3 which ranks fourth in the country. He’s shooting 9-of-13 from the field (.692) and 6-of-10 from three (.600).

And it’s not just his shooting. Allocco ranks fifth in the nation and first in the ACC with his 11.0 assist/turnover ratio.

— ND —