Notre Dame @ North Carolina preview
Dean Smith Center
Last Meeting ( Feb 17, 2020 ) North Carolina 76, Notre Dame 77
After a late change of plans, Notre Dame will travel south to face North Carolina in an Atlantic Coast Conference showdown Saturday in Chapel Hill.
The Fighting Irish (3-5, 0-2) initially were scheduled to visit Pittsburgh on Saturday, but that game was postponed because of COVID-19 issues within the Panthers' basketball program. Instead, ACC officials announced Thursday that Notre Dame would visit the Tar Heels (5-4, 0-2).
Notre Dame coach Mike Brey said he is grateful his team will get a chance to play, period.
"That's how I think now," Brey said. "That's the crazy thing with how your mind is working with scheduling right now. Our guys, we're all trained to live day to day, but I'm thinking about Plan B. That's the weird stuff about it. It's crazy."
The Fighting Irish and Tar Heels had been scheduled to meet in North Carolina on Jan. 30. That date instead likely will be used for potential makeup games for both programs.
Now comes a chance for Notre Dame or North Carolina to earn their first ACC win of the season. The Fighting Irish are coming off a 66-57 loss against No. 23 Virginia, and the Tar Heels will try to bounce back from a 72-67 loss to Georgia Tech.
It's been a frustrating start for North Carolina coach Roy Williams, who is trying to mold an inexperienced roster that included three freshmen (Day'Ron Sharpe, RJ Davis and Kerwin Walton) in its starting lineup against the Yellow Jackets.
"We've got to have a greater sense of urgency," Williams said. "And then the other thing is just paying attention to the details of what we're talking about in the scouting report."
Through nine games, Armando Bacot leads North Carolina with averages of 12.3 points and 8 rebounds per game. Garrison Brooks is second in scoring at 11.1, and Caleb Love is third at 10.8. Brooks is second in rebounds at 7.8 a game.
Notre Dame's top scorer is Nate Laszewski, who is averaging 16.3 points on 66.2 percent shooting overall and 57.1 percent from beyond the arc. Next is Prentiss Hubb with 14.9 points and a team-high 4.5 assists per game, while Dane Goodwin averages 14.8 points.
The teams split their two games last season, with each side winning on its home court. North Carolina leads the all-time series 25-8 and had a seven-game winning streak against the Fighting Irish snapped last season in South Bend, Ind.
Laszewski provided the game-winning shot in that matchup for Notre Dame, hitting a 3-pointer with about two seconds remaining to secure a 77-76 victory.
This time around, Brey said he hopes to see another sign of improvement from his squad.
"We have lost five games to really, really good teams," he said. "We are not at that level to get over that hump yet. We can't quite do that yet, but we're going to keep working on it."
--Field Level Media