What to know about Notre Dame men's basketball at Georgetown
Notre Dame men’s basketball travels to Georgetown at 1 p.m. ET on Saturday, and the Irish look like a better team than last season when the Hoyas beat them 72-68 in overtime Dec. 16. Their 86-77 win over Buffalo on Monday proved that, at least in the eyes of second-year head coach Micah Shrewsberry.
“I think early on in the year, this is when you gotta be a group that shows a little resolve at times,” Shrewsberry said. “Last year, we’re losing this game. I can tell you that right now.”
Here’s everything you need to know about the matchup.
Notre Dame vs. Georgetown
- Teams: Notre Dame (2-0, 0-0 ACC) vs. Georgetown (2-0, 0-0 Big East)
- Date: Saturday, Nov. 16
- Location: Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C.
- Time: 1 p.m. ET
- Television: NBC
- Radio: 960 WSBT-AM in South Bend
Matchup notables
• This is the first significant test for either team, with Notre Dame winning comfortably over Stonehill and Buffalo and Georgetown dispatching Lehigh and Fairfield.
• To say the Hoyas struggled in their first season under head coach Ed Cooley is an understatement. They came to South Bend and beat the Irish, but when Big East play began, they took a nose dive. An 8-7 start became a 9-23 finish after Georgetown lost 16 of its final 17 games. The Hoyas closed the 2023-24 season on an 18-game losing streak against anyone not named DePaul.
• Cooley razed last year’s roster. Of Georgetown’s top-four scorers and top five in minutes, only one — junior guard Jayden Epps — is a returning player. Epps led the Hoyas with 18.5 points per game and is averaging 14.5 so far this season. In a small sample size, he’s shooting 40 percent from 3-point range.
• Cooley brought in graduate transfer Micah Peavy (TCU) and sophomore transfer Malik Mack (Harvard), who average 14.0 and 16.7 points per game, respectively. Peavy has also been a menace on the defensive end with 5.0 steals per game.
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• However, the star has been freshman center Thomas Sorber, the No. 41 player in the 2024 On3 Industry Ranking. Sorber is averaging 22.5 points, 11.0 rebounds and 2.0 blocks through the first two games of his college career. He appears to be someone Cooley can build around as Georgetown hopes to out-perform its projected ninth-place finish in the Big East.
• Shrewsberry, who went through a trying first season as well but finished strong, opted to bring the majority of his top players back. As a result, Notre Dame might have a legitimate “big three” on its hands. Sophomore guards Markus Burton and Braeden Shrewsberry and junior forward Tae Davis have been sensational through two games.
• Burton hasn’t shot efficiently yet — primarily because he’s only shooting 23.1 percent from three-point range — but he’s averaging 18.5 points, 6.0 rebounds, 6.5 assists and 2.0 steals. Significantly, he has only turned the ball over twice the game. As Burton’s long-range jumper comes along and he learns to handle the amount of attention he gets from opposing defenses, he’s on track to live up to his preseason All-ACC billing.
• Shrewsberry is shooting 54 percent from beyond the arc, and he’s also averaging 18.5 points per game. Davis went off for 27 points in Notre Dame’s win over Buffalo, notably going 12-of-13 from the free-throw line. If the Irish continue to get these performances from their best players, they should be a much-improved team this season.
