After claiming its first-ever win inside John Paul Jones Arena at Virginia on Saturday, the Notre Dame men’s basketball team will return home Tuesday night. Coming off a 74-59 win, the Irish (9-10, 3-5 ACC) will take on the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (9-11, 3-6 ACC) for the second time this season. Georgia Tech defeated Notre Dame in Atlanta on New Year’s Eve by an 86-75 score but has lost four of five games since.
Around the ACC
With just over a month remaining in the college basketball regular season, Duke has pulled away as the clear and obvious ACC frontrunner. Ranked second in the country as of Sunday night, the Blue Devils have won 13 consecutive games — all by at least six points. As a result, they’re 9-0 in conference play with a key non-conference win against Auburn in the picture.
Behind the Blue Devils, Louisville has emerged as a terrific story under first-year head coach Pat Kelsey. One of the worst teams in power-conference basketball over the last few seasons, the Cardinals have entered the national rankings on a nine-game win streak. While they’ve struggled to take down top-tier opponents, the Cardinals have taken care of business in the ACC, posting an 8-1 in-conference record with a loss to Duke.
Clemson’s also playing well after a deep postseason run, checking in at 17-4 overall and 9-1 in the ACC. The Tigers have won five straight games since a loss to Louisville and have a marquee defeat of Kentucky under their belts going back to early December. Notre Dame will host Louisville on Feb. 16 and travel to Clemson on Feb. 26.
Behind those two, Wake Forest is unsurprisingly contending at 15-5 overall and 7-2 in the ACC. The Demon Deacons lost to Duke on Saturday but won six consecutive games before that. They’ll play host to the Irish behind March 1.
To round out the top of the conference, three teams each have a 6-3 in-league record, including 13-8 North Carolina. The Tar Heels struggled badly in non-conference play and have lost two of their last three, but they hung 102 points on Boston College at home on Saturday. SMU and Stanford have been massive surprises, rising from respective rankings of 13th and 17th in the ACC Preseason Poll to a tie for fifth in the conference standings. SMU has used a terrific, well-balanced offense that averaged 83.1 points per game, while Stanford has followed the lead of double-double machine Maxime Raynaud.
Raynaud currently leads the ACC in both scoring (20.5 points per game) and rebounding (11.7 rebounds per game).
The New Year’s Eve game
After sweeping the season series against Georgia Tech last year, Notre Dame battled the Yellow Jackets in McCamish Pavilion just under a month ago. The Irish arrived at 1-0 in the ACC and on a three-game win streak, while Georgia Tech entered at 0-2 to start conference play.
Georgia Tech completely controlled the first half, building a 43-24 lead through 20 minutes of action. Notre Dame shot just 28.1% from the field in the opening half, while the Yellow Jackets hit at a 60.7% rate during the same timeframe.
The Irish would rally in the second half, going on 11-0 and 11-3 runs to close within a possession, but Georgia Tech shot the ball well enough to survive 51 post-halftime points from Notre Dame. Georgia Tech received massive contributions from its bench, as non-starters Javian McCollum and Duncan Powell each provided 21 points to help the Yellow Jackets outscore the Irish 44-15 in bench points. On the other side, junior forward Tae Davis poured in 27 points to finish off his phenomenal month of December.
What’s happened since
In the four weeks since the Georgia Tech loss, Notre Dame could easily have a record of 4-2 or 5-1. Instead, the Irish are 2-4 with one-point losses to North Carolina and NC State to go with a blown first-half lead at Syracuse on Jan. 18.
With a full week off, Notre Dame responded nicely this past Saturday, beating Virginia by 15 points on the road. The Irish lit up Charlottesville with 12 made three-pointers, including a total of seven from the backcourt duo of sophomores Markus Burton and Braeden Shrewsberry. Burton, who reached 21 points on the night, enters the Georgia Tech contest with four consecutive 20-point games. Shrewsberry collected 13 points, while Davis stuffed the stat sheet with 16 points, six rebounds, five assists, two steals and only one turnover.
Georgia Tech has also gone 2-4 to start the new year, booking a four-game skid with home wins against Boston College on Jan. 4 and Virginia Tech on Wednesday. The Yellow Jackets were not in action over the weekend.
Fighting the injury bug and absences for other reasons in recent weeks, the Yellow Jackets have not played a rotation deeper than seven men over the past three games. In Wednesday’s 71-64 defeat of Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech once again leaned on Powell and McCollum, who combined to tally 39 points. In total, all five of Georgia Tech’s starters played at least 31 minutes, two of those starters being players who did not crack the first five on opening night.
Against the Hokies, Powell played all 40 minutes, notching a career-high 23 points. The Sacramento State transfer has averaged 14.1 points and 6.1 rebounds over the past six games, giving life to a thin Georgia Tech squad. McCollum’s averaging 16.5 points over his last eight after a 16-point effort against the Hokies. Sophomore Naithan George has been the consistent presence in the Yellow Jacket lineup all season, averaging an impressive 6.3 assists per contest with double-figure scoring in seven straight games.
Notre Dame and Georgia Tech will tip off at 9 p.m. inside Purcell Pavilion on Tuesday night.
