The Notre Dame men’s basketball team (10-10, 4-5 ACC) begins the month of February with a road trip to Miami (4-17, 0-10 ACC). After a late second-half surge fueled a comeback win against Georgia Tech on Tuesday, the Irish improved to .500 on the season, taking three of their last four games in ACC play. They have a prime opportunity to make it three in a row against the Hurricanes, who sit at the bottom of the conference and are winless in their first 10 ACC matchups. In 2023-24, Notre Dame dropped both regular season matchups against Miami. This season, however, the Irish will face them on a 10-game losing skid, coming in as comfortable favorites.
In year two under head coach Micah Shrewsberry, the Irish have shown marked improvement. They sat at 7-14 with only two ACC wins this time last season and struggled down the stretch in close games. Their hard-fought win over the Yellow Jackets on Tuesday night was a microcosm of the progress this team has made. After hanging around all game, they took their first lead with under two minutes remaining behind a pair of clutch Markus Burton threes and a dagger and-one from Kebba Njie. From there, they held on to steal an important win.
The growth of last year’s freshmen and sophomores, who form the core of the team this season, is a testament to what Shrewsberry is building. The reigning ACC Rookie of the Year Burton has taken a leap in year two. He leads the team in points and assists, averaging 20.4 and 3.3 per game respectively. His efficiency is much improved as well, putting up 46.1/43.3/86.0 shooting splits on slightly higher volume. His turnovers are also down from 3.7 to 2.0 per game. But he is not the only development success story.
Fellow sophomore and backcourt partner Braeden Shrewsberry is contributing 14.8 points per game, up from 10.2 last season, and the junior frontcourt tandem of Tae Davis and Njie have each taken steps forward as well. The two command the glass for the Irish, combining for 11.7 rebounds per game, while Davis has jumped from 9.2 to 15.8 points per game in his third collegiate season. The addition of graduate guard Matt Allocco has rounded out a much-improved Irish starting five, the Princeton transfer scoring 9.8 points per game while providing valuable court spacing. The career 40-plus percent three-point shooter is hitting them at an outstanding 48.6% clip through his first 20 games.
The Georgia Tech win positions Notre Dame ninth in the ACC ahead of a stretch of very gettable conference games. After Miami, the Irish stay in state to face Florida State (13-8, 4-6 ACC), who sit one position behind them in 10th. They then return home for 12th-place Virginia Tech (9-12, 4-6 ACC) before traveling to 17th-place Boston College (9-11, 1-8 ACC). If they can take care of business, the Irish could emerge from the ACC’s middle of the pack.
Since making the first Final Four in program history in 2023, the Miami men’s basketball program has experienced a drastic fallout. After the 2023 roster was uprooted by transfer departures, the program has had no continuity since. The 10-game losing skid to finish last season has proven to be ominous foreshadowing for this year’s nightmare campaign. After a 3-0 start, the Hurricanes have since won only a single game. After a home loss to Mount St. Mary’s gave them their worst start to a season since 1992, head coach Jim Larrañaga, the winningest coach in program history, abruptly retired. A team that was already spiraling watched their prospects worsen. They have yet to regain any form of footing under veteran assistant interim Bill Courtney, losing every game since Laranaga’s resignation.
To make matters worse, Nijel Pack, star guard and the lone player remaining from the 2023 Final Four team, suffered what looks to be a season-ending foot injury. Senior guard Matthew Cleveland has had to carry the scoring load, averaging a team-high 15.7 points per game on over 50% shooting. Around Cleveland, 11 new faces have come in between six transfers and five freshman recruits. Before the season, Larrañaga expressed optimism for the group’s experience, with five of the six transfers having NCAA Tournament experience in a group of eight upperclassmen. Their recruiting class, which ranked top-10 in the country, also included five-star Philadelphia guard Jalil Bethea. But none of them have been able to provide reliable production, leaving Courtney without a confident rotation 21 games in.
The Hurricanes share a similar statistical profile to the Irish offensively, and both struggle to space the floor. On defense, however, the Irish are far stingier, allowing just over 70 points per game to Miami’s 80. Coming off his fifth straight game over 20 points, a feat not accomplished since Ben Hansbrough in February of 2011, Burton’s scoring should be difficult to manage for the Hurricanes. They will need a focused defensive effort to slow him down and will hope to get production on the other end around Cleveland to pull off the upset. If Notre Dame continues to play stout defense and avoid self-inflicted errors, it should expect a comfortable win to extend the streak to three in a row.
The two teams are set to face off on Feb. 1, with the tip set for 8 p.m. in Watsco Center.
