Men's Basketball: One more Atlantic Coast Conference demon awaits exorcism for Irish
Tom NoieMEN’S BASKETBALL
►WHO: Notre Dame (21-8; 14-4 ACC) vs. Florida State (15-13; 8-10)
►WHERE: Donald L. Tucker Civic Center (12,100), Tallahassee, Fla.
►WHEN: Wednesday at 7 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: Freshman swingman Matthew Cleveland took a ¾-court inbound pass from reserve forward Harrison Prieto with one second remaining and fired in a 3-pointer at the buzzer to beat Virginia, 64-63, on Saturday. It was Florida State’s sixth victory by one point this season, most in the nation, and fifth league win by one point. Cleveland led the Seminoles with 20 points. Prieto added 14 points and six rebounds. The game featured four ties and four lead changes. Florida State trailed by as many as 11. The win snapped a two-game losing streak for the Seminoles, who also had lost eight of nine. … Florida State enters the final week of the regular season in ninth place in the ACC. … It has averaged 24.4 wins overall the last five seasons. It entered 2021-22 with a 122-41 record in ACC play. That was third best for league wins behind Virginia (140) and Duke (127). The Seminoles have won at least 11 league games each of the previous three years and four of five. … Florida State needs to win its last two league games, both at home, to avoid its first losing season in the ACC since going 8-10 in 2015-16. … The Seminoles have been crippled by injuries this season, playing the Feb. 15 game against Clemson without four starters and the Feb. 19 game at Duke without all five starters. … Florida State returned two starters off last year’s team that finished 18-7 overall, 11-4 and second place in the ACC. The Seminoles were picked this preseason to finish second in the league behind Duke with 14 first-place votes. They spent one week – the first week of the season – in the Associated Press poll at No. 20. … Florida State’s roster features 21 players. Ten have started at least five games. … Florida State leads the all-time series 6-5, 5-0 at home and 6-4 as ACC colleagues. Notre Dame won last year’s lone matchup in South Bend when Florida State was ranked No. 11. … Florida State is 4-4 at home in league games this season with losses to Pittsburgh, Wake Forest, Virginia Tech and Syracuse. The Seminoles rank seventh in the league in home attendance (8,386). … No Florida State player is ranked in the league's top 20 for scoring or rebounding, nor in the 15 for field goal percentage, assists or free throw percentage. … Irish guard Prentiss Hubb ranks second for all games assist/turnover ratio (2.57), first in league games (4.65). He has 113 assists to 44 turnovers in 29 overall games, 79 assists to 17 turnovers in 18 league games . … Notre Dame has averaged 85.7 points over its last four games, three of those wins. The previous seven, it held each of its league opponents to 65 or fewer points. … This is the final Irish league road game of the season. Notre Dame is 6-3 on the road in league play. Only Duke (eight) has more league road wins.
►QUOTING: "It means everything." — Notre Dame guard Cormac Ryan on what it would mean for this team to earn a seventh league road win this season.
— Tom Noie
Follow South Bend Tribune and NDInsider columnist Tom Noie on Twitter: @tnoieNDI