DURHAM, N.C. – The Notre Dame men’s basketball team will look to pick itself back up after two extremely tough back-to-back one-point losses in which they had the lead with under a minute remaining. However, it won’t be easy, as they remain on the road and travel to Cameron Indoor to take on #4/4 Duke.
The Blue Devils own a commanding 31-8 lead in the series. Irish are 6-12 against them since joining the ACC in 2013. A win at Cameron Indoor would be historic. The Irish have only won there twice in its long history — Jan. 16, 2016 and again on Feb. 9, 2021. The latter was a 93-89 victory in front of no fans.
Last season in Durham, Notre Dame suffered a 53-71 defeat. Markus Burton shined in his Cameron Indoor debut with 19 points. Braeden Shrewsberry followed behind with 13 points.
A win on Saturday would mark Coach Shrewsberry’s first-ranked victory as head coach at Notre Dame. A win would also mark the first top-10-ranked victory of his head coaching career overall.
In addition, a win would mark Notre Dame’s first top-10 win since No. 10 Kentucky on Dec. 11, 2021. It would be the first true road top-10 win since knocking off No. 9/6 Duke on Jan. 16, 2016.
Coach Shrews is also working on changing the culture of the program and what it takes to win on the road for an ACC game. Last season, ND went 7-13 in league play with just road wins at Georgia Tech and Louisville. They are searching for their first ACC road win this season.
TAKING THE POSITIVES WITH THE NEGATIVES
A terrible sense of deja vu. First, it was North Carolina on Jan. 4. The Irish fought hard and erased a 12-point deficit to claim a three-point lead with under 20 seconds to go. That’s when Elliott Cadeau converted a four-point play to give UNC the eventual 74-73 win. The returning Markus Burton drove the length of the court with four seconds left but couldn’t convert a very tough contested driving layup.
But the positive is that the Irish will be back at full strength moving forward, and what a gutsy return it was for Burton. Playing in his first game back since injuring his knee against Rutgers on Nov. 26, the All-ACC guard registered 23 points in 23 minutes. Burton scored 17 of his 23 points in the second half. He shot 7-of-14 overall and 9-of-10 from the free-throw line.
Then four days later it happened again. The Irish were up four with two minutes left but NC State rallied to take a 66-65 lead. With 10 seconds left the ball was put in Burton’s hand but he was…