All you need to know as Notre Dame remains on ACC road with a visit to No. 7 Virginia
Tom Noie
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∎ WHO: Notre Dame (10-16 overall; 2-13 ACC) vs. No. 7 Virginia (20-4; 12-3)
∎ WHERE: John Paul Jones Arena (14,593), Charlottesville, Virginia
∎ WHEN: Saturday at noon
∎ 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
Last game:One more time at Duke for the Irish coach Mike Brey and Notre Dame nearly steals it
∎ NOTING: Former South Bend resident and Indiana guard Armaan Franklin scored 14 points with five rebounds and three assists and fellow guard Kihei Clark added 14 points, four rebounds and six assists in Wednesday’s 61-58 win at Louisville. The Cavaliers shot .442 percent from the field, .333 percent from 3 and .563 percent from the foul line in a game that featured four ties and seven lead changes. They trailed by as many as nine, led by as many as 10, finished with 15 assists and had six turnovers. … Franklin is the nephew of former Notre Dame women’s basketball player and assistant coach Coquese Washington. … Clark is the winningest player in ACC history (71 victories) surpassing Duke’s Shane Battier with Wednesday’s win. … Virginia has won three straight and 10 of 11. … The Cavaliers are 12-1 at home this season (loss to Houston) and 7-0 in ACC play. It has league losses to Miami (Fla.), Pittsburgh and Virginia Tech … Picked third with six first-place votes in preseason, Virginia returned five starters off last year’s squad that finished 21-14 overall, 12-8 and sixth place in the ACC. … Virginia leads the all-time series 16-3, 7-0 in Charlottesville and 11-1 as ACC colleagues. Notre Dame’s regular-season win occurred last season in South Bend. The Irish also beat the Cavaliers in the 2017 ACC tournament. ... Virginia leads the ACC in scoring defense (60.33 ppg.), 3-point field goal percentage (.376), assists (16.25), and assist/turnover ratio (1.81). It is tied for first in turnover margin (+3.67). The Cavaliers are second in scoring margin (+9.25), third in field goal percentage defense (.414), fourth in steals (6.88), sixth in field goal percentage (.459) and blocks (4.29), eighth in rebounding margin (+0.25), 12th in scoring offense (69.58) and 14th in free throw percentage (.703). … Virginia is third in the league in average home attendance (14,214). … The Cavaliers have been ranked inside the Associated Press Top 10 each of the last four weeks. Earlier this year, they were ranked as high as No. 2. … Virginia enters the weekend tied with Pittsburgh for first place in the ACC; Notre Dame is alone in 14th. If the league tournament started today, Notre Dame would play No. 11 seed Boston College in the first round. The Eagles are currently tied with Florida State for 10th.. … Notre Dame has lost 18 consecutive ACC road games to ranked teams. Its last league road win over a ranked team was Jan. 16, 2016 at then-No. 9 Duke. … The Irish are 1-1 against ranked teams this season. … The Irish have lost four straight, eight of nine and 11 of 13. … Notre Dame is 0-7 on the road in league play, 0-9 overall away from home.
∎ QUOTING: “We’ve got (five) games left against NCAA tournament teams. Let’s just take them one at a time, compete our (butts) off and see if we can steal one or two. I don’t care what our record is. Just embrace the atmospheres and compete.” — Irish coach Mike Brey on finishing out a disappointing regular season
— Tom Noie