Notre Dame men's basketball in ACC tournament
WASHINGTON — You again? Notre Dame men's basketball and Georgia Tech have been permanent repeat opponents since the Irish joined the Atlantic Coast Conference in 201314, which means they play at least twice a year.
The teams spent much of league play circling one another in the league standings, seldom separated by more than one team and a handful of league wins. They each finished tied for 12th, but the Irish earned the tiebreaker with a season series sweep. Now they meet in the first game on the first day of the ACC Tournament in Washington.
Formal introductions are not needed. Both coaches know the other team as well as they know theirs. March is here.
● WHO: No. 12 seed Notre Dame (1219 overall; 7-13 ACC) vs. No. 13 Georgia Tech (14-17; 7-13)
● WHERE: Capital (20,356), Washington
● WHEN: Tuesday at 2 p.m.
● TV: ACC Network
● RADIO: WSBT (960 AM).
● ONLINE: Follow every Notre Dame game with live updates from Tribune beat writer Tom Noie at X (formerly Twitter) at twitter.com/tnoieNDI
One
Arena
Scouting Georgia Tech basketball
Freshman forward Baye Udongo scored 21 points, one shy of his career high, with nine rebounds and two blocks in Saturday's 72-57 loss at Virginia. In a game that featured three ties and eight lead changes, the Yellow Jackets led by as many as two and trailed by as many as 23. They shot .404% from the field, .190% from 3 and .846% from the foul line. The loss snapped a threegame Georgia Tech win streak . ... Only four players – all starters – returned from last year's team that finished 15-18 overall, 6-14 and 13th place in the ACC. Georgia Tech was picked 13th this preseason . ... Six of Georgia Tech's ACC wins came this season against teams in the top half of the league. Fourteen of its 20 league games were decided by single digits . ... The Yellow Jackets have outrebounded their last six opponents by an average of 11.8 rebounds per game . ... Georgia Tech went 2-1 in neutral-site games this season with the wins over
Penn State in New York and Massachusetts in Honolulu and the loss to Nevada, also in Hawaii.
By the numbers
3: Baye Ndongo has won league rookie of the week honors three times. Only Markus Burton and Carlton “Bub” Carrington have won it more, each with four. He's the first Yellow Jacket to earn at least three league rookie of the week honors since former guard Josh Okogie in 2016-17.
3: Number of wins for Georgia Tech this season over ranked teams. Notre Dame has none.
15/20: Combined number of ties and lead changes for Georgia Tech in its two games against Notre Dame this season.
18.0: Scoring average for Yellow Jackets guard Miles Kelly in two games against Notre Dame. He scored 25 in January and 11 in February.
45/4: Georgia Tech has been a member of the ACC for 45 seasons and has won four league championships - 1985, 1990, 1993 and 2021.
Who's hot
Making a late push for league all-rookie team honors, freshman guard Naithan George finished his first season ranked second in the ACC in assists (4.57) and fifth in assist/turnover ratio (2.25). George, who didn't start the season in the rotation, also averaged 9.3 points and 2.4 rebounds in 29.4 minutes. He started 27 of 28 games.
Who's not
Battling through a balky back of late, guard Miles Kelly missed all four of his shots and went scoreless in 22 minutes against Virginia. He finished with a team-worst plus-minus rating of (-20). It was the third time this season that Kelly, the team's leading scorer (14.1 ppg.) has gone scoreless in a game.
Quoting the Yellow Jackets
“This time of year, it's not about getting on the floor and practicing two and three hours. It's really about the nuances of the game and attention to detail.”
Georgia Tech head coach Damon Stoudamire
Series history
Notre Dame leads 17-13 overall, 14-7 as conference colleagues. The Irish have won five of the last six, including both meetings this season. Two of the last four and three of six have gone to overtime. The teams have met only once in the ACC Tournament: March 12, 2019, a 78-71 Irish win in Charlotte.
Scouting Notre Dame basketball
Freshman guard Markus Burton led four in double figures with 24 points, four rebounds and four assists in 31 minutes, and sophomore swingman Tae Davis added 13 points and six rebounds in Saturday's 82-76 loss at Virginia Tech. The Irish shot .519% from the field, .412% from 3 and .684% from the foul line. They led (for 62 seconds) by as many as three and trailed by as many as 10. The Irish finished with 42 points in the paint and 17 bench points . ... A loss would give Notre Dame at least 20 losses in consecutive seasons for the first time in program history dating back to 1897-98 . ... Defensively, the Irish allowed 66.5 ppg., which was second in the ACC and 29th nationally . ... Notre Dame is 1-1 in neutral-site games this season, both of which were at Barclays Center in November where it lost to Auburn before beating Oklahoma State . ... The Irish have lost two straight and three of five, all on the road, to end the season.
By the numbers
3-3: Notre Dame played six games on Tuesdays with wins over Western Michigan, Georgia Tech and Wake Forest and losses to The Citadel, South Carolina and North Carolina.
5: Sophomore swingman Tae Davis has scored double figures in a seasonbest five straight games, where he's averaged 13.0 ppg.
19: Games between double figures scoring efforts from Irish junior guard Julian Roper, who went for 13 points in the Dec. 16 loss to Georgetown before scoring 11 in the loss to Virginia Tech.
84.6: Average points allowed by Notre Dame in its last three regular-season league losses, all on the road. Prior to that, the Irish had allowed at least 80 points only once all season, 83 to Auburn on Nov. 16
535: Points scored this season by Markus Burton, a program record, which topped the previous mark of 519 set by former Irish All-American Troy Murphy in 1998-99.
Who's hot
For maybe the final time this season, it's Markus Burton, who simply did it all nearly every game this season. Burton finished sixth in the ACC in scoring (17.26) and assists (4.26), 13th in freethrow percentage (.802), fourth in steals (1.97) and seventh in minutes (33.5).
Who's not
Everyone not named Burton. With the regular season complete, only one Irish (Burton) averaged double figures for points. That last happened in 199495 when Pat Garrity was the lone Irish to score at least 10.0 points a game.
Quoting the Irish
“We talk about it. We work on it. Like, rebounding's about want-to. Do you want to get it, or do you not want to get it? Shot goes up, it's hit or be it. It's your choice. We chose to be hit.”
Notre Dame coach Micah Shrewsberry after his team was outrebounded 39-28 in Saturday’s loss at Virginia Tech
Looking ahead
It's simple – survive and advance. If Notre Dame survives, it advances to Wednesday's second round (2:30 p.m., ESPN) against No. 5 seed Wake Forest (19-12; 11-9). If Notre Dame loses to Georgia Tech, its 2023-24 season ends.
Follow South Bend Tribune and NDInsider columnist Tom Noie on X (formerly Twitter): @tnoieNDI. Contact: (574) 235-6153.