Notre Dame Basketball: 2019-20 keys to Fighting Irish beating Indiana

3. Notre Dame must continue to dominate the glass on the defensive end

The final key for a Notre Dame victory over Indiana will come at the defensive end. The Fighting Irish are one of the best rebounding, and more specifically, defensive rebounding teams in the country, so they need to continue to dominate the defensive boards in this one. The reason isn’t that Indiana struggles on the defensive end, but more so because the Hoosiers are so good when it comes to shooting that grabbing as many Indiana misses as possible will be important.

As I said, Indiana is very good offensively, averaging 82 points per game and is 18th in the country in field-goal percentage, making shots at a 49% clip. That means the Hoosiers don’t miss often on the offensive end, so limiting them to one shot per possession is key, but that is easier said than done as the Hoosiers are one of the better offensive rebounding teams in the country, grabbing over 12 per game.

One thing Notre Dame has going for them is that they are even better when it comes to grabbing defensive rebounds, they snatch over 30 per game which is 17th best in the sport. A big reason for that is senior forward John Mooney who not only leads the team in rebounding with 13.4 per game but has grabbed nearly a third of the team’s defensive rebounds (100) and more than double the next best rebounder, Juwan Durham’s 48.

If Notre Dame can limit Indiana to one shot per possession that will give them a better shot at winning the Crossroads Classic.