Final ACC Road Test Of Season Set For Saturday At Wake Forest

NOTRE DAME at WAKE FOREST

The University of Notre Dame men’s basketball team finishes up its 2019-20 Atlantic Coast Conference road schedule against Wake Forest (12-15, 5-12) on Saturday afternoon (4 p.m. ET, Regional Sports Networks) at Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

• The Irish and Demon Deacons will be meeting for the 11th time on Saturday afternoon. Notre Dame leads the all-time series 6-4, including a 90-80 victory over Wake Forest on Jan. 29, 2020. T.J. Gibbs paced the Irish in that contest with 23 points on 7-of13 shooting, while John Mooney put up 19 points and 13 rebounds. Brandon Childress led Wake Forest with 24 points.
• Saturday will mark Notre Dame’s fourth trip to Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum and the Irish will be looking for their third victory in the building.

Notre Dame MBB at Wake Forest Game Notes (PDF)

BY THE NUMBERS: IRISH AT DEMON DEACONS

IRISH BOAST SOLID RECORD FOR ANNUAL HOME-AND-HOME ACC SERIES

Since joining the ACC for the 2013-14 season, Boston College and Georgia Tech have been designated as the ‘traditional’ yearly rivals for Notre Dame in the league. Each season, the Irish have met the Eagles and Yellow Jackets for home-and-home series. Notre Dame boasts the best record in the league against its designated repeat opponents since 2013-14 (records below are regular-season meetings only):

RECORD VS. ACC ANNUAL HOME-AND-HOME OPPONENTS SINCE 2013-14

* – Virginia repeated with Maryland in 2013-14

Each season since 2013-14, ACC teams have faced their designated home-and-home opponents each year, two other league opponents on a rotating home-and-home basis, five opponents on the road only and five opponents at home only.

PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT HIGHLIGHTED BY 1,000 POINT SCORERS

Notre Dame has produced 64 1,000 point scorers throughout the history of the program with 23 of those players reaching that statistical milestone during the Mike Brey era (2000-01 – current). Of the 85 players who have suited up for Notre Dame under Mike Brey, 36 of them were recruited by the staff and exhausted their eligibility with the Irish – 20 of those players have scored more than 1,000 points in a career.

Since 2000-01, Notre Dame leads all ACC teams in 1,000 point scorers (23) and is second in the country over that time frame to Villanova.

IRISH TRADITIONALLY AMONG BEST IN THE COUNTRY AT TAKING CARE OF THE BALL

Notre Dame finished third in the NCAA last season in turnovers per game – posting the fifth consecutive season of ranking in the nation’s top-10 for least amount of turnovers in a game. The Irish are also perennially one of the top teams in the country in assist to turnover ratio.

The Irish have not averaged over 10.0 turnovers per game since a 10.3 mark in 2013-14 (which was still good enough for 26th nationally).

NOTRE DAME TURNOVERS PER GAME, LAST FIVE SEASONS

MOONEY SUPERLATIVES

John Mooney’s production over the past two seasons has been remarkable and is chronicled over the next three pages. Here are his major superlatives (with additional informational support for the statistics in the following notes) –

• The only Division I player averaging 16-plus points and 12-plus rebounds. Since 1995-96, only Tim Duncan and Blake Griffin have posted similar numbers from a major conference player.
• Second in the nation with 12.7 rebounds per game and first among major conference players.
• Has collected 712 rebounds over the past two years, which leads all major conference players and is second in the NCAA.
• Over the past two years, he leads all major conference players in rebounds per game at 11.9 – and is the only such player averaging double-figure rebounds over the past two seasons.
• Over the past 25 seasons, the only ACC players to post consecutive seasons with 20 or more double-doubles are Mooney, Sheldon Williams and Tim Duncan.
• 23 double-doubles leads the nation and his 43 double-doubles over the past two seasons is the most in Division I.
• 14 double-doubles in 17 ACC games this season puts the conference record of 15 from Tim Duncan (1996-97, 16 games) in reach.
• Mooney is the first player since Tim Duncan to post 12 or more double-doubles in consecutive ACC seasons.
• 28 double-doubles in 57 career ACC games puts Mooney behind Travis Watson from UVA for the most in the ACC since 1995-96.
• One of six major conference players since 1996-97 with two or more seasons with 20 or more double-doubles.
• Mooney posted 12 straight double-doubles earlier this season and joins Walt Sahm (four) and LaPhonso Ellis (three) as the only Notre Dame players with three-or-more streaks of five-or-more consecutive double-doubles.
• MOONEY SECOND IN THE COUNTRY IN REBOUNDING

Senior forward John Mooney is second in the nation in rebounds per game with a 12.7 average. Mooney is the only Division I player in the country averaging 16-plus points and 12-plus rebounds per game (as of February 16, 2020).

NATIONAL REBOUNDING LEADERS:

MOONEY CLIMBING THE BREY-ERA CAREER REBOUND CHART

Passing 800 career rebounds against Pittsburgh, John Mooney became the sixth Mike Brey-era (2000-01- current) player to collect 800 or more rebounds. The see sidebar on page 4 for the all-time rebounding chart (Mooney currently ranks 11th).

BREY ERA REBOUNDING TOTALS

MOONEY GRABS 200 REBOUNDS IN JUST 15 GAMES

John Mooney reached the 200 rebound plateau in just his 15th game played against Louisville on Jan. 11. That matches Blake Griffin (2008-09) for the fastest to 200 rebounds in a season since Tim Duncan did it in 14 games during the 1996-97 season.

FEWEST GAMES TO 200 REBOUNDS, SINCE 1996-97, MAJOR CONFERENCES

FEWEST GAMES TO 200 REBOUNDS, SINCE 1996-97, ALL DIVISION I

MOONEY SETS CONSECUTIVE DOUBLE-DOUBLES MARK

With 12 consecutive double-doubles this season, a streak that ended on Saturday at No. 5/6 Florida State, senior John Mooney set the school record for consecutive games with a double-double. Luke Harangody previously held the mark with 11 straight in 2008-09. Mooney is the only Notre Dame player to ever record two double-double streaks over eight games in a career.

Currently on a five-game run of double-doubles, Mooney joins Walt Sahm (four) and LaPhonso Ellis (three) as the only Notre Dame players to own three different streaks of five or more consecutive double-doubles.

MOONEY POSTING DOUBLE-DOUBLES IN 66 PERCENT OF HIS CAREER STARTS

Up to 44 career double-doubles (sixth all-time at Notre Dame), John Mooney has posted nearly all of his career double-doubles in the past two seasons. He has earned a double-double in 44 of 67 starts – a .656 percentage that has not been seen since game starts became an official stat in the 1978-79 season. Expand to just games played against some of the top double-double performers in school history and the .656 percentage remains on the top of the charts.

* – career game starts unavailable, total games played statistic used

MOONEY BECOMES FOURTH IRISH PLAYER WITH OVER 700 REBOUNDS IN FINAL TWO SEASONS

Currently the 12th leading rebounder in Notre Dame history, John Mooney has posted much of that production over the past two seasons. In fact, Mooney has pulled down 700 rebounds since the start of the 2018-19 season. Only four other Notre Dame players have posted over 700 rebounds throughout their final two seasons in an Irish uniform:

600 REBOUNDS – FINAL TWO SEASONS AT NOTRE DAME

GIBBS IN RARE CONFERENCE SHOOTING TERRITORY

Entering this week’s ACC action, senior guard T.J. Gibbs is shooting .487 from the floor, .500 from three-point range and .902 from the free throw line in league play. Since 1996-97, no ACC player has posted a 40-50-90 line for those three shooting percentages. Among major conference players, only three other players have posted those numbers since 1996-97 (min 25 3FGA):

Expand the parameters to .800 at the FT line and T.J. Gibbs is among some noteworthy names in ACC history:

GIBBS SETS NOTRE DAME CAREER ACC SCORING MARK

Senior T.J. Gibbs set the ACC career scoring mark on February 2, 2020, with a game-high 23 points against Wake Forest, surpassing the mark held by Steve Vasturia (72 games, 739 points).

In terms of all conference action for the Irish, Gibbs ranks 5th on the scoring list with 859 points. Luke Harangody (1,329) and Chris Thomas (1,099) pace the Irish record books, followed by Troy Murphy (999) and Matt Carroll (920) in terms of all-time point totals in conference play.

GIBBS AMONG THE NATION’S TOP CAREER CONFERENCE SCORERS

Senior T.J. Gibbs has surpassed 800 points in regular season ACC play in his career – the 15th active Division I major conference player to reach that plateau.

HUBB REACHES 200 CAREER ASSISTS… QUICKLY

Sophomore Prentiss Hubb led the Irish with nine assists in the victory at Syracuse on January 4, 2020, reaching 203 career assists in his 47th game in an Irish uniform. Since 1996-97, that is the fifth-quickest for any player at Notre Dame.

DURHAM POSTS TWO NOTEWORTHY DOUBLE-DOUBLES

Senior Juwan Durham responded to the loss of John Mooney (illness) on the front line against Presbyterian with 11 points, 15 rebounds and four blocked shots to record his second career double-double. He followed up with 12 points, 11 rebounds and four more blocks against Fairleigh Dickinson. It was just the seventh and eighth time a Mike Brey era player has recorded 10+ points, 10+ rebounds and 4+ blocks – and the first time since John Mooney did it at North Carolina last season.

Others who have accomplished such a double-double include current Irish assistant coach Ryan Humphrey (2001), Torin Francis twice (2003, 2004), Luke Harangody (2008) and Bonzie Colson (2017).

DURHAM ALREADY AMONG TOP SHOT BLOCKERS IN NOTRE DAME HISTORY

Blocked shots are one of the youngest official NCAA official statistics, only becoming a part of the game boxscore for the 1985-86 season. With that in mind, it is still noteworthy that senior Juwan Durham (who still retains a year of eligibility after 2019-20) has already established himself as one of the top shot blockers in Notre Dame history.

In his first full season at Notre Dame in 2018-19, Durham swatted 63 shots which ranks fifth on the Notre Dame single-season blocked shots list.

This season, Durham pushed his career blocked-shot average to 2.2 and is one of just three Notre Dame players to average over 2.0 blocks per game in their career:

Durham’s 122 total blocks at Notre Dame currently rank him seventh all-time (see sidebar, page 8). Jordan Cornette is the Notre Dame blocked shots record holder with 201 from 2001-05.

PFLUEGER APPROACHING NOTEWORTHY CAREER MILESTONE COMBINATION

Graduate student Rex Pflueger is approaching a combination of career statistical totals that would make him one of just four Irish players to ever reach a unique combination of statistical marks.

Pflueger is approaching 700 points, 400 rebounds, 300 assists and 150 steals in his Notre Dame career – only Chris Thomas (2002-05), David Graves (1999-02) and Tory Jackson (2007-10) have reached those plateaus in combination.

A DECADE OF ‘NO FOUL’ CONTINUES

One of the mantras of Notre Dame basketball under Mike Brey has been to keep the amount of opponent foul shots down. Defend without fouling is a way of life for Irish basketball and the statistics bear out that trend.

In the last 10 years, Notre Dame has failed to finish among the top 10 in least amount of personal fouls committed just twice. They have also led the country in least amount of personal fouls three times.

The NCAA has been tracking the least amount of fouls committed in a season since 1993. Notre Dame is the only team since 1993 to lead the country in least amount of fouls more than twice (four times) and are on pace to make it five times this season.

NOTRE DAME FOULS PER GAME NATIONAL/CONFERENCE FINAL RANKING