ACC Basketball power rankings: Duke ahead of pack as conference play starts
9-4 (0-2). . Fighting Irish . 13. team. 443.
Notre Dame is still without a signature win on the season but they are in a decent groove nonetheless, having won three of their last four games and the one loss came by two points to a solid Indiana team.
The Fighting Irish three wins have been powered by senior forward John Mooney. The double-double machine has been on fire as of late. Over the last three games, Mooney is averaging 15 points and 14.3 rebounds. His best performance was in Notre Dame’s 26-point blowout win over Alabama A&M. In the win, Mooney finished with 16 points, 18 rebounds 2 assists, 3 blocks and shot 66.7% from the 3-point line.
As long as Notre Dame continues to feed Mooney and limit their turnovers (second to Virginia in the ACC in turnovers per game with 9.6), they’ll have a good shot at an upset win in two games they are likely to be clear underdogs.
Their next opponent is Syracuse, who are currently sixth in the ACC with 7.8 steals per game. The Orange are on a nice run and will provide a decent mental test for Fighting Irish, as they will be forced to keep up with an Orange squad scoring 73.5 points per game.
Notre Dame looks ready for a test though, as their December 21, two-point loss to the Hoosiers was a neutral location game, and on top of that, it was a wild game both ways. The Fighting Irish showed a lot of mental toughness in coming back from 17 points down to take the lead in the second half but faded down the stretch. They missed a couple of chances to win at the buzzer but the more important, big-picture issue is the fact that Notre Dame gave up 37-second half points to Indiana in the loss.
The Notre Dame defense will need to show up for them to have a shot at slowing down the Syracuse and NC State offenses.