Game Thread | Marist at Notre Dame

Marist (7-2) at Notre Dame (4-7) 

Date: December 22nd

Time: 8:00 PM ET 

Where: Purcell Pavilion | South Bend, Ind. 

TV: ACC Network | James Westling and Tim Welsch

Line: Notre Dame -5.5

O/U: 125.5

ACC Standings

QUICK FACTS 

- Notre Dame leads the all-time series 2-0

- The Irish won the last meeting 88-73 in December of 2004. 

- Markus Burton leads off ACC freshmen in scoring at 15.5 ppg

- JR Konieczny has registered three double-doubles this season

- ESPN’s Matchup Predictor: 55.4% in favor of Notre Dame

PROJECTED STARTERS

NOTRE DAME

MARIST

TEAM STATS

THOUGHTS

When the schedule was released, Marist coming to town three days before Christmas appeared to be a final tune-up before ACC play starts next week when No. 22 Virginia comes to South Bend. 

Well, that’s simply not the case in the present as it has turned into a must-win game for Micah Shrewsberry’s team, but yet it almost seems more important than that given Notre Dame has lost five of six, including Wednesday's embarrassing 20-point loss to The Citadel...at home.

The good news for Notre Dame is Marist hasn’t played a major conference program this year, so the 7-2 record (4-2 on the road) isn’t quite as impressive, but the Irish are the last team in college basketball that should be looking at opponent wins and losses. 

And there is also bad news, which will make for an intriguing and likely very ugly basketball game before the holidays. Marist enters the game No. 9 in the nation in scoring defense at 60.4 ppg, including 27.2 percent from three, which is good for No. 15 in the country. 

In fact, the Red Foxes have held six opponents under 40 percent shooting this season. That’s problematic for the Irish as they’ll enter the game shooting 39.3 percent from the field and 26.1 percent from three. 

Shrewsberry vowed to change his coaching approach on Tuesday night following The Citadel game, so it will be fascinating to see his team’s response given how they’ve handled any kind of adversity this season. 

“Our emotional intelligence is not very good,” said Shrewsberry. “We don’t handle failure well at all. When failure happens, we collapse. That’s on me as a coach. I have to find a way for us to be better. I have to change my approach.”

It’s hard to predict how his team will respond, especially given Shrewsberry will be without his most experienced player in Julian Roper II for a second straight game as he deals with a foot injury. But having one of the nation’s top defensive teams play one of the wost offensive teams doesn’t inspire confidence in Shrewsberry’s team. 

But if the job isn’t getting done, Shrewsberry has already made it clear he’s not waiting to put his walk-ons into the game. 

“I don't know what’s going to happen on Friday, but if people don’t compete, then you’re going to see more walk-ons earlier than this,” explained Shrewsberry. “We’re building a culture and that ain’t it. That’s not the culture we’re trying to build.

“A message needs to be sent to some of these guys. If you don’t play hard, then you sit and rot on the bench. I’ll find a way - I’ll go and talk to people in compliance and I’ll help you transfer. This culture is getting built the right way and if you ain’t a part of it, you’re out. I don’t care.”

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