For the final time in the tenure of Notre Dame head coach Mike Brey, Virginia Tech men’s basketball travels to South Bend, Ind. on Saturday.
The Hokies (14-10, 4-9 ACC) are winless on the road this season, dropping all seven of their opportunities. Ironically, the Irish (10-14, 2-11 ACC) aren’t great either away from Purcell Pavilion (0-6), but they’ve got this one at home. Evan Lepler and Terrence Oglesby have the call between VT and ND at 2 p.m. ET on RSN.
This matchup features two programs in the gutter of the conference this season. Tech is 12th while Notre Dame is 13th, marginally ahead of Georgia Tech (2-12 ACC) and Louisville (1-12). Using metrics, the Hokies are 59th in KenPom and 55th in the NET while the Fighting Irish are 179th and 198th, respectively.
Simply put, even coming off Wednesday’s not-so-fun loss to Boston College, this is a game Tech should win. ND’s defense has been the worst in league play this year and the team’s two wins in the ACC came at home vs. Georgia Tech and Louisville, the only two teams that are worse.
It’s a veteran Notre Dame team, as one would expect under Brey’s watch. Tech is 7-9 all-time against him; the only other game in the series with ND was the NIT championship in 1973 when Virginia Tech won by one in overtime, 92-91, in New York.
Mike Young’s enjoyed playing Brey recently, too – VT’s won four in a row in the series. Dating back to the Buzz Williams era, the Hokies are 7-2 in their last nine against the Irish, including three wins in four tries on the road. The two sides last met in last year’s ACC tournament quarterfinal when Virginia Tech won 87-80.
Notre Dame uses a seven-man rotation made up of five seniors and two freshmen. Here’s the breakdown according to points per game:
Nate Laszewski (6-10, 230, Gr.): 14.2 points per game
JJ Starling (6-4, 200, Fr.): 11.9
Dane Goodwin (6-6, 214, Gr.): 11.9
Cormac Ryan (6-5, 195, Gr.): 11.6
Marcus Hammond (6-4, 188, Gr.): 8.9
Trey Wertz (6-5, 193, Gr.): 8.7
Ven-Allen Lubin (6-8, 226, Fr.): 6.1
Laszewski’s decision to return to school came down to the last minute in the summer. As a result, Notre Dame actually pursued Grant Basile in the transfer portal, but he landed in Blacksburg. Keve Aluma and Justyn Mutts defended Laszewski well in 2021-22, and you can bet Young & Co. will use a similar gameplan this time around.
Goodwin, Ryan and Wertz have been staples of the ND program under Brey. Outside of Lubin, everyone on the floor is capable of stepping out and shooting a 3-pointer, which keeps defenses on their toes. The Irish have the second-best turnover rate in the country (13.4%), too. Most of the problems lie on the defensive end.
While Notre Dame is 87th in adjusted offensive efficiency, according to KenPom, it sits at No. 293 on defense. As far as conference-only numbers are concerned, the team is 10th and 15th, respectively. For comparison, the Hokies are 33rd and 95th overall, ninth and 10th in ACC play.
The Irish struggle to force turnovers and defend two-point shots. They’re barely better against the three-ball, but their effective field goal percentage defense in ACC play ranks 14th; only Louisville is worse.
In the last few weeks, the Hokies faced two solid defenses in Virginia (No. 23 in adjusted defensive efficiency) and Duke (31). Miami (103), Boston College (118) and Syracuse (122) were all above average, too. Virginia Tech shot above 50% in four of those five contests with the lone outlier being BC.
It faced four pretty good offenses, too, in Miami (10th in adjusted offensive efficiency), Virginia (25), Duke (57) and Syracuse (62). Only the Hurricanes really tore the Hokies up, shooting 58.3% (35-of-60).
Saturday’s meeting in the Joyce Center should come down to Virginia Tech’s defensive effort. As Young alluded to after the loss to the Eagles, Tech’s offensive struggles impacted the defense, which can’t happen.
The Hokies weren’t stellar on offense, but they got some solid looks that didn’t fall. However, it was the defense that struggled, particularly against the pick-and-roll. A good bounce-back effort on defense at Notre Dame should lead to a positive result.
Print
The last few games have me wondering if the discipline needed to run CMYs O and D, especially the D, make it really hard for transfers to excel in year 1. Of course it could just be that they aren’t great defenders.
This team has not been able to defend the pick and roll as all three centers have been exposed and huge weakness. Poteat especially cannot defend or get back this the reason his minutes have disappeared
Turn off the lights, the party is over.
Yeah, the 2nd BC loss ended our NCAA hopes for sure. Let’s hope we at least make the NIT for a couple extra games
Never say die.
Until when or IF we lose in the ACC Tournament, we have a shot.
How soon we forget.