What to know about Notre Dame men’s basketball at North Carolina
After back-to-back wins over projected NCAA Tournament teams, Notre Dame men’s basketball can’t afford to rest on its laurels for long. Not with a trip to Chapel Hill, N.C., on deck.
The suddenly red-hot Irish will go on the road to face No. 7 North Carolina at 7 p.m. ET on Tuesday at the Dean E. Smith Center, where the Tar Heels are 13-1 this season. UNC is a wildly experienced team that features the likely Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year, one of the nation’s best rebounders and, of course, former Notre Dame guard Cormac Ryan.
Here’s everything you need to know about the matchup.
Notre Dame vs. North Carolina game information
- Teams: Notre Dame (12-17, 7-11 ACC) and North Carolina (23-6, 15-3 ACC)
- Date: Tuesday, March 5
- Location: Dean E. Smith Center in Chapel Hill, N.C.
- Time: 7 p.m. ET
- Television: ACC Network
- Radio: 960 WSBT-AM in South Bend
- Radio announcer: Tony Simeone
Matchup notables
• North Carolina can clinch a share of the ACC regular-season title with a win Tuesday night. The Tar Heels are a half-game ahead of Duke, who defeated North Carolina State on Monday. They’re also a projected No. 2 seed, per ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi. While losing to the Irish would certainly hurt, that alone probably wouldn’t knock UNC off the 2-seed line.
• A loss would drop Notre Dame in the ACC standings entering the final weekend of the regular season. The Irish are a game ahead of Boston College, Miami and Georgia Tech for 11th in the league, and the Eagles and Hurricanes face each other Wednesday night. They’re also a game behind Virginia Tech for 10th place, and the Hokies play a game they should win Tuesday night against Louisville.
• Ryan has been a significant addition for the Heels. His three-point shooting came alive last month, when he went 14 of 27 in a three-game stretch from Feb. 13-24. He averaged 17.3 points per game in that span, scoring 18 in a 54-44 win at Virginia. Overall, Ryan is a key complementary scorer at 10.7 points per game.
• UNC dominates the glass, coming in at No. 23 in the country and No. 1 in the ACC in rebounding margin. Forwards Armando Bacot and Harrison Ingram average 10.3 and 9.1 rebounds per game, respectively. Bacot has dominated the paint for North Carolina since 1983 (fine, 2019) but Ingram, a junior, has emerged as a breakout star after transferring from Stanford.
• Both Bacot (14.0 points per game) and Ingram (12.5) can score, but offensively the Heels go as senior guard RJ Davis goes. Davis, the favorite for ACC Player of the Year, exploded this season for 21.4 points per game. He willed North Carolina to a 75-71 win Feb. 26, scoring 42 points on 14-of-22 shooting, including a 7-of-11 effort from beyond the arc.
• Davis and Bacot might be the best one-two punch in the nation, and when you factor in Ingram, Ryan and freshman guard Elliot Cadeau, UNC has a combined 19 years of experience in its starting lineup (including the 2023-24 season). Notre Dame has only seven.
• That being said, that Irish lineup of three freshmen and two sophomores is playing like a veteran group as of late. Everyone knows about freshman guard Markus Burton — and for good reason — but freshman forward Carey Booth, sophomore forward Tae Davis and freshman guard Braeden Shrewsberry have routinely come up big when Notre Dame has needed a bucket in the past three weeks. Their progress will be put to the test in Chapel Hill.
