Following Wednesday’s 89-60 season-opening victory over Stonehill, Notre Dame men’s basketball returns to Purcell Pavilion to play host to the Buffalo Bulls. This will be the first meeting ever between the two schools.
Head coach Micah Shrewsberry has returned nearly every important piece from his first season in South Bend. His Fighting Irish made tremendous progress towards the end of the 2023-24 season, punctuated by Mishawaka local Markus Burton capturing ACC Freshman of the Year honors. Burton is also joined by fellow sophomore Braeden Shrewsberry and Princeton graduate transfer Matt Allocco in the backcourt. Coach Shrewsberry remade the frontcourt through newcomers, welcoming freshman Sir Mohammed from Charlotte, North Carolina, while also luring talented graduate mid-major forwards Burke Chebuhar and Nikita Konstatynovski away from Lehigh and Monmouth, respectively.
It was Burton and Shrewsberry who led the way in the opener, as the duo scored 18 points apiece, connecting on a combined six triples from beyond the arc. Junior forward Kebba Njie showed signs of physical progress and on-court maturity in his 18 minutes of action, nearly tallying a double-double with nine points and 10 rebounds. The Irish depth was also on display on Wednesday, as 11 of the 13 Notre Dame players to appear in the contest found the basket.
Buffalo enters this one sitting at 2-0, following a disappointing 4-27 campaign a year ago in head coach George Halcovage’s first season in Upstate New York. The Bulls won 83-82 on opening night, going on the road to beat Old Dominion thanks to senior guard Tyson Dunn’s corner three as time expired. They moved to 2-0 with an 87-78 win at home over D-III SUNY Fredonia on Friday evening.
The Bulls are led by a quartet of players averaging double figures thus far. Dunn’s 19 points per game is complemented in the backcourt by sophomore Ryan Sabol, who is averaging 19.5 points per game. Fellow sophomore guard Anquan Boldin Jr., son of former Super Bowl receiver and Pro Bowl wide receiver Anquan Boldin Sr., is averaging 12 points per game after a 22-point outburst against Fredonia. Freshman Ben Michaels comes off the bench and adds 13 points on average. The 6-foot-8 forward from England only appeared in 12 high school games prior to committing to the Bulls.
Coach Shrewsberry and company’s game plan will undoubtedly center around slowing down Dunn, who moved to the States after three successful years at the University of Western Ontario in London, Canada. The Newmarket, Ontario, native averaged nearly 15 points per game in his time in Canada, but he has stuffed the stat sheet at all levels thus far for Buffalo. Dunn is nearly averaging a triple-double, totaling 24 assists and 16 rebounds in his first two games at the D-I level.
The Irish will look to extend their home winning streak to six, dating back to last season. The roster is entirely healthy at this point in the season, but according to his postgame remarks on Wednesday, Shrewsberry will look to incorporate the freshman trio of Mohammed, Cole Certa and Garrett Sundra more in game two.
Monday’s matchup will tip off at 7 p.m. inside Purcell Pavilion and can be streamed on ACC Network Extra.
