How to watch Notre Dame men's basketball vs. Virginia
It’s been over a week since Notre Dame men’s basketball beat Marist, and it’s been 11 days since the Irish lost to The Citadel in blowout fashion. First-year head coach Micah Shrewsberry laid into his players after that game, blasting their effort and pointedly suggesting they transfer if it doesn’t improve.
That message is working, Shrewsberry said, entering Atlantic Coast Conference play.
“I think we’ve become closer as a team,” Shrewsberry said Thursday. “I tell them, ‘Sometimes I’ll give you something to come closer with. … I’ll be the common enemy if I need to be, if that rallies you guys together.’ But we have gotten a great response.”
Shrewsberry and company righted the ship, at least a little bit, with the Marist win. The Irish got to sit on that for eight days as they took a break for the Christmas holiday, but the gantlet of ACC play is coming up, starting with Virginia. The Cavaliers dropped out of the Associated Press Top 25 after a 77-54 loss to Memphis on Dec. 19, but they’re still 10-2 and would be No. 30 if the rankings extended that far.
Internal improvements remain Notre Dame’s focus, regardless of what happens against Virginia. Shrewsberry said the No. 1 thing to look for in the immediate future is eliminating turnovers, as the Irish are tied for 254th in Division I college basketball with 13.3 giveaways per game.
“We turn the ball over 20 percent of the time, so one out of every five times, we just give it to you,” Shrewsberry said. “‘Hey, you take it. Do something with it. We don’t want it.’ We have to get better at that. … We got to be more focused at the start and we got to be more disciplined and poised at the end to take care of that.”
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Here’s how to watch the Irish face the Cavaliers, including a special offer from Fubo.
Notre Dame vs. Virginia game information
- Teams: Notre Dame (5-7) vs. Virginia
- Date: Friday, Dec. 30
- Location: Purcell Pavilion in South Bend
- Time: Noon ET
- Television: ACC Network
- Streaming: Fubo (Try for free) – For a limited time, new subscribers can save $20 on Fubo’s Pro, Elite and Premier plans for the first month
- Radio: 960 WSBT-AM in South Bend
- Radio announcer: Tony Simeone
Matchup notables
• Head coach Tony Bennett has led Virginia since 2009, and every one of his teams — including the one that won the 2019 national championship — plays the same way. The Cavaliers slow the game down, play near-impeccable defense and grind the game out.
“We have to value every possession,” Shrewsberry said. “Whether that means we score or not, fine, but we need to go into that possession knowing that it’s the most important possession of the game, every single time.”
• Virginia sophomore guard Isaac McKneely is fourth in the country in 3-point percentage, and he’s not just a low-volume merchant, either. He makes 3s at an astonishing 48.3 percent clip on 5.5 attempts per game. He’s not the Cavs’ leading scorer, though; senior guard Reece Beekman is at 12.9 points per game.
“They’re a jump-shooting team and they can make shots, and they have a bunch of guys that can make shots,” Shrewsberry said. “We have to get them into the shots that we want them to take, and then we got to contest those shots.”
