What you need to know when Notre Dame hosts North Carolina in men's basketball
Tom Noie
MEN’S BASKETBALL
► WHO: North Carolina (10-3 overall; 2-0 ACC) at Notre Dame (7-5; 1-1)
► WHERE: Purcell Pavilion (9,149)
► WHEN: Wednesday at 9 p.m.
► TV: ESPN2.
► RADIO: WSBT (960 AM).
► ONLINE: Follow every Notre Dame game with live updates from Tribune beat writer Tom Noie at twitter.com/tnoieNDI.
► NOTING: Guard Caleb Love scored a team-high 22 points with four rebounds and two assists and power forward Armando Bacot added 18 points and 11 rebounds as North Carolina won Sunday at Boston College, 91-65. RJ Davis and Brady Manek each added 17 points for the Tar Heels, who led 49-20 at halftime and by as many as 36. It was North Carolina’s first game since Dec. 21. It had a league game postponed last week because of health/safety protocols with Virginia Tech. … North Carolina has won two straight and seven of eight. The loss was against a common Notre Dame opponent – No. 16 Kentucky (98-69) on Dec. 18. … Carolina’s other losses are to No. 3 Purdue and No. 18 Tennessee. … The Tar Heels spent two weeks in the Associated Press poll, and climbed as high as No. 18. … A graduate transfer from Oklahoma, Manek scored 17 points with eight rebounds against Notre Dame in an 85-80 Sooners victory on Dec. 4, 2018 in Madison Square Garden. … North Carolina returned four starters off last year’s team that finished 18-11 overall, 10-6 and tied for sixth place in the ACC. … The Tar Heels were picked this preseason to finish third, with five first-place votes, in the ACC; the Irish were picked eighth. … Hubert Davis is in his first season as a head coach at his alma mater, where he replaced Roy Williams, who won 485 games in 18 seasons at Chapel Hill. … North Carolina leads the all-time series 27-8, 5-3 at Purcell Pavilion and 9-3 as ACC colleagues. The Tar Heels have won two straight and nine of 10 in the series since 2016 after the Irish won three in a row. … The teams met twice last season, both North Carolina wins – by one point in Chapel Hill in January, in a game where Mike Brey coached the Irish while wearing shorts and by 42 points in the second round of the ACC Tournament. It was the most lopsided loss for Brey in his 22 seasons at Notre Dame. … This is the only scheduled regular-season meeting between the teams. … Notre Dame has been idle since a Dec. 28 league road victory at Pittsburgh. It had its previously-scheduled league home opener Saturday against No. 2 Duke postponed because of health/safety issues with the Blue Devils. That game may or may not be rescheduled. … Following this game, Notre Dame plays four of its next five on the road. … The Irish are 5-0 at home.
► QUOTING: “(North Carolina is) more of a four around one team than a power forward and a center. They downshift and play that way and it makes them very potent offensively. You look at the scoring and the numbers and the ways they can put numbers on the board, especially when they're downshifted, it's impressive. It's something we're going to have to deal with.”
-Notre Dame coach Mike Brey
Follow South Bend Tribune and NDInsider columnist Tom Noie on Twitter: @tnoieNDI