Game Thread | Notre Dame at Louisville
Notre Dame (13-15, 3-12) at Louisville (18-11, 9-7)
Date: March 3
Time: 1:30 p.m. ET
Where: KFC Yum! Center | Louisville, Ky.
TV: CBS | Andrew Catalon and Steve Lappas
QUICK FACTS
- Notre Dame and Louisville will meet for the 38th time on Sunday. Louisville leads the series 22-15.
- Forward John Mooney leads all major conference players in rebounds per game in league play with 12.1 per game.
- Mooney is tied for ninth in the country with 17 double-doubles.
- Freshman Prentiss Hubb is fourth in the country in playing time among true freshman playing amongst the major conferences.
- Hubb has become the eighth true freshman since 1972-73 to dish out 100 or more assists.
THE STARTERS
Notre Dame
| Name | Points | Rebounds | Assists |
| Prentiss Hubb | 8.0 | 3.0 | 3.8 |
| TJ Gibbs | 13.7 | 1.9 | 3.5 |
| DJ Harvey | 11.0 | 4.2 | 0.7 |
| John Mooney | 14.0 | 10.8 | 1.1 |
| Juwan Durham | 5.5 | 3.8 | 0.5 |
Louisville
| Name | Points | Rebounds | Assists |
| Christen Cunningham | 10.0 | 2.2 | 5.0 |
| Khwan Fore | 3.5 | 1.4 | 1.2 |
| Dwayne Sutton | 10.5 | 7.0 | 1.8 |
| Jordan Nwore | 17.1 | 7.6 | 1.3 |
| Malik Williams | 7.3 | 5.7 |
0.3 |
STATS
| Stats (Per Game) | Notre Dame | Louisville |
| Points Per Game | 70.0 | 74.9 |
| Opp. Points Per Game | 69.1 | 67.9 |
| FG% | 39.9% | 43.6% |
| Rebounds | 36.7 | 37.5 |
| Assists | 12.9 | 13.5 |
| Blocks | 4.8 | 2.9 |
| Steals | 5.8 | 4.8 |
Preview
Neither program would have imagined the situation entering this game in January. Notre Dame enters Sunday’s contest on a four-game losing streak, while the Cardinals have lost three in a row, including Wednesday’s loss to Boston College.
For Notre Dame, it’s what I’ve written in this section since January. Mike Brey’s team needs to find offense and the Irish looked comfortable during Monday’s game at Florida State when a 20-second shot clock was put on them by Brey.
“We’re trying to play faster,” explained Brey. “I thought it carried over a little on Monday. It was almost a state of mind where our guys weren’t overthinking things on the offensive end. You have an opportunity to win some games before we go to Charlotte.
“Looking at the Louisville situation, I love how we competed in Chapel Hill. I love how we competed in Charlottesville. I love how we competed in Tallahassee. I’d like to see us do it again and see if we can finish it. We haven't’ been mentally tough enough to finish it. We’re putting ourselves in position.”
There is no denying the effort was there in Tallahassee but playing well for 34 minutes isn’t enough. Notre Dame held to just four points over the last 6:09 of Monday’s game and that’s not going to win ACC games.
Brey, as always, has remained positive and found the few silver linings in the season.
The Virginia and Duke days were really spirit breaking for us,” stated Brey. “It knocked us back on our heels. We were better against Duke than we were against Virginia.
“I think we’ve been pretty good defensively. We’re keeping people in the 60s. We just can’t get that thing to the 70s enough to do it. The playing faster thing was more of a frame of mind. I don’t want anybody overthinking because we’ve had a lot of guys overthinking offensively.”
While Louisville is on a slide, Brey knows his Irish will face a great environment and it could lead to another epic game with the Cardinals.
“We’ve had great games with them,” Brey said. “I love their fans because they love basketball. They know basketball. Every time I get in the hotel, they’ll talk about the double-overtime – we’ve had crazy games with them and we’ve won twice in that building.
“Maybe we can get it to the end and this time get over the hump.”
As for what a win would do? Well, it would keep Notre Dame’s hopes for a bid to the NIT alive, but Brey even admitted it would be tough task.
“Our guys are realistic. You’re not getting in the NCAA Tournament unless you win the whole thing in Charlotte and that’s a tall order for us. Could we play our way into the NIT? That’s an uphill battle for us. I’ve been realistic with them. We’re looking at four basketball games unless we can turn it.
“If we weren’t to get in the NIT, which again is an uphill climb, we wouldn’t play in anything else.”
What does Notre Dame need to do to win? Score and keep scoring.
Prediction: Louisville 78 Notre Dame 67