Irish Set To Face No. 13/11 Louisville In Purcell Pavilion

NOTRE DAME VS. LOUISVILLE

The University of Notre Dame men’s basketball team (10-5, 1-3) returns to Purcell Pavilion for Atlantic Coast Conference action against No. 13/11 Louisville (12-3, 3-1) on Saturday afternoon (2 p.m., ESPN).

• The Irish and Cardinals will be meeting for the 40th time, with Louisville holding a 25-14 edge in the series.
• Notre Dame is 8-8 at home against Louisville and 3-3 in regular-season ACC play against the Cardinals.
• Known for its dramatic moments through the years, nine of the last 22 meetings between the two teams have gone to at least one overtime. Louisville owns a 6-3 advantage in those overtime games.
• The Cardinals earned two victories over the Irish last season, a 75-61 ACC victory in the KFC Yum! Center and a 75-53 win in the second round of the ACC Championship.
• Over the previous 39 meetings, Notre Dame has scored 2,829 points against 2,863 from the Cardinals – a difference of just 34 points (less than one point per meeting in the series).

ND MBB Notes vs. Louisville (PDF)

BY THE NUMBERS: IRISH VS. CARDINALS

MOONEY LEADS THE COUNTRY IN REBOUNDING

Senior forward John Mooney leads the nation in rebounds per game with a 13.6 average. Mooney is the only Division I player in the country averaging 15-plus points and 13-plus rebounds per game (as of January 9, 2020).

NATIONAL REBOUNDING LEADERS:

MOONEY CLIMBING THE CAREER REBOUND CHART

Passing 700 career rebounds against Syracuse, John Mooney became the seventh Mike Brey-era (2000-01- current) player to collect 700 or more rebounds. The Notre Dame career rebounding chart is on page 8 (Mooney is currently the 20th overall career rebounder in Notre Dame history).

BREY ERA REBOUNDING TOTALS

MOONEY CLOSING IN ON CONSECUTIVE DOUBLE-DOUBLES MARK

Now with nine consecutive double-doubles and 12 in 14 games played this season, senior John Mooney is threatening the school record for consecutive games with a double-double. Luke Harangody set the mark with 11 straight in 2008-09.

MOONEY POSTING DOUBLE-DOUBLES IN 60 PERCENT OF HIS CAREER STARTS

Up to 33 career double-doubles (11th all-time at Notre Dame), John Mooney has posted all of his career double-doubles in the past two seasons. He has earned a double-double in 33 of 54 starts – a .611 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 .611 percentage remains among the best.

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

STATISTICAL MILESTONES

Notre Dame’s veteran players are approaching, or have reached, some noteworthy statistical milestones:

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.

MOONEY POSTS DOUBLE-DOUBLES IN 12 OF FIRST 14 GAMES

Senior forward John Mooney, who led all major conference players in rebounds per game in league action last season and was one of seven major conference players to average a double-double, is off to an even better pace in 2019-20.

The Orlando, Florida, native has posted 12 double-doubles in 14 games played this season. He paced the ACC with 20 in 33 games played last year (and 13 in conference play – the most since Tim Duncan in 1996-97) and is up to 33 total in his career (good for 16th on the all-time Notre Dame double-double list).

Mooney missed the Presbyterian game with an illness.

MOONEY DOUBLE-DOUBLES IN 2019-20

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 those statistical marks in combination.

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 statistical marks.

Entering the Louisville game, Pflueger is at 664 points, 380 rebounds, 288 assists and 124 steals.

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 2.5 (2.476) and is one of just three Notre Dame players to average over 2.0 blocks per game in their career:

Durham’s 104 total blocks at Notre Dame currently rank him ninth all-time (see sidebar, page 5). Jordan Cornette is the Notre Dame blocked shots record holder with 201 from 2001-05.

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 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

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. So far, in 2019-20, the Irish are ahead of Virginia Tech (12.3) for the NCAA lead in least amount of fouls per game (11.9).

NOTRE DAME FOULS PER GAME NATIONAL/CONFERENCE FINAL RANKING