ACC Basketball: Analyzing each team’s overall offense for 2020-21 season

Notre Dame Fighting Irish

2019-20: 72.8 ppg in ACC play

When a team loses four of the five players who started more than two games and four of the eight who averaged double digits in minutes played, it would not be surprising to predict said team would put up fewer points on the scoreboard. Such will be the case for Notre Dame Basketball, but they will remain in the seventh spot when it comes to scoring, in part, because they have a better chance to reach last year’s average than Louisville does.

The 2019-20 Fighting Irish had a lot of difficulty scoring during the seven minutes a game that John Mooney (16.2 ppg) was not on the floor. Coach Mike Brey set the Fighting Irish offense in virtually a five out hoping to exploit Mooney on a mismatch or have the shooters benefit from their defender doubling down on Mooney.

The hope is 6’10 junior Nate Laszewski will improve upon his seven points when he averages more than the 21 minutes he did last season. Having the ability to play the five-position as well as power forward, Laszewski will be able to stretch the defense more so than Mooney every did.

Junior and returning starter Prentiss Hubb will be the leader on the court, locker room, and huddles this season. Hubb is the one who will benefit the most from center Juwan Durham returning for a fifth season. Hubb loves to drag his dribble off of Durham’s ball screen, swing to Durham up top, to screen away for a shooter.

If no shot was available for T.J Gibbs (13.3 ppg) Hubb would get the ball back on the wing to attack the basket. This season junior Dana Goodwin, who arguably should have been the ACC’s Sixth Man of the Year as the sole bench player to average over10 points, will be starting in place of Gibbs.

In order to stretch the defense out even more and allow the backcourt of Hubb and Goodwin to operate, Ryan Cormac (8.7 ppg) the 2019  transfer from Stanford is more athletic and a better perimeter shooter than Rex Pflueger (5.2 ppg). Cormac loves to spot up on the right-wing for a three-point shot, look for him to receive a lot of skip passes from Goodwin and Hubb.

Off the bench, Robby Carmody has logged only186 minutes over the past two seasons and is a formerly injured player who will make an impact. Trey Wertz being ruled ineligible from Santa Clara will weaken the bench to some extent, but the starters will keep their average around 73 points per game.