Men's Basketball: Here comes NC State; what you need to know ahead of Notre Dame game
Tom NoieMEN’S BASKETBALL
► WHO: North Carolina State (10-10 overall; 3-6 ACC) vs. Notre Dame (12-6; 5-2)
► WHERE: Purcell Pavilion (9,149)
► WHEN: Wednesday at 9 p.m.
►TV: Regional Sports Network (locally, that's Marquee Sports Network).
►RADIO: WSBT (960 AM).
►TICKETS: Available.
►ONLINE: Follow every Notre Dame game with live updates from Tribune beat writer Tom Noie at twitter.com/tnoieNDI.
Conference standings:Atlantic Coast Conference men's basketball rankings (Week of Jan. 24)
Men's Basketball:Notre Dame had to have this one; it got this one
►NOTING: Jericole Hellems scored 21 points on 5-of-9 from 3 as North Carolina State shot 60 percent from the field in a 77-63 home victory Saturday over Virginia. It marked only the second time in 417 games at Virginia that a Tony Bennett-coached team allowed the opposition to shoot at least 60 percent. Freshman guard Terquavion Smith scored 20 points. Swingman Dereon Seaborn added 13 points and five assists. The Wolfpack tied their season high for 3-pointers (12) and finished with a 34-16 advantage for points in the paint. … North Carolina State is 2-2 on the road in league play with wins at Georgia Tech and Louisville and losses at Duke and Miami. This is the first of two straight and four of seven league games on the road. … Smith committed to State as a high school sophomore. … Power forward Manny Bates, one of the league's top defenders, is out for the season after suffering a right shoulder dislocation in the opener. … North Carolina State returned three starters off last year’s team that finished 14-11 overall, 9-8 and ninth in the ACC. The Wolfpack were picked this preseason to finish ninth; the Irish were picked eighth. … The series with North Carolina State is tied at 8. Notre Dame is 3-5 at home and 4-5 as ACC colleagues. The Wolfpack have won four in a row after the Irish won four straight. Notre Dame's last win in the series was a 30-point home victory on Jan. 3, 2018, when Mike Brey become the winningest coach (394 wins) in program history. … North Carolina State is one of six repeat opponents for Notre Dame. The teams play twice in 11 days with the rematch in Raleigh scheduled for Feb. 5. ... Irish guard Prentiss Hubb entered the week ranked first in the ACC for assist/turnover ratio in league play at 4.83. … This is only Notre Dame’s third league home game of the season, and the second to tip at 9 p.m. The average number of home games for the other 14 league teams is four. Notre Dame (7-0) and North Carolina (10-0) are the only ACC teams still undefeated at home. No league team has played so few conference games or overall games at home than the Irish. … This starts a stretch of three home games in six days and four in eight overall for the Irish.
►QUOTING: "It doesn’t mean too much. At the end of the day, we’ve got to go out and hoop regardless. We’ve got three big games coming up, all home games. For us to protect our home court would be a big thing. We can’t get too high on this and have to put it behind us.”
— Notre Dame senior guard/captain Prentiss Hubb coming clear of Saturday’s win at Louisville.
— Tom Noie
Follow South Bend Tribune and NDInsider columnist Tom Noie on Twitter: @tnoieNDI