Tale of the Tape: Virginia vs. Notre Dame

Virginia’s men’s basketball team hits the road for its next two games, beginning with Saturday’s trip to Purcell Pavilion to tangle with Notre Dame. Tipoff is set for 1 p.m., and the game will be nationally televised by CBS.

The Cavaliers (17-1, 5-1 ACC) will look to start a new ACC road streak, as their school-record run of a dozen straight came to an end in Durham a week ago. The third-ranked Wahoos took their frustrations out on Wake Forest Tuesday night, jumping out to a 22-point lead and never looking back in a 68-45 romp at John Paul Jones Arena.

Junior guard Kyle Guy became the 48th player in school history to reach 1,000 points for his career and also moved into 8th place on the UVA career 3-pointers list with 188, passing Malcolm Brogdon.

As of Friday, the ‘Hoos are still 1st in the country according to KenPom (3rd AdjD, 5th AdjO) and the NET rankings. Notre Dame is 71st in the KenPom ratings (73rd AdjO, 103rd AdjD) and 79th in the NET.

Since the Fighting Irish joined the ACC (2013-14 season), Virginia has taken six of the seven meetings, with the lone loss coming in the 2017 ACC Tournament semifinals in Brooklyn. UVA is 4-0 all-time in South Bend.

Gone are Bonzi Colson (19.7 ppg, 10.1 rpg), Matt Farrell (16.3 ppg, 5.5 apg) and Martinas Geben (11.1 ppg, 8.0 rpg) for the Irish, who have struggled to a 1-5 record without them to begin ACC play and have lost three straight.

To make matters worse, senior guard Rex Pflueger, who was averaging 8 points and close to 5 rebounds per game, suffered an ACL injury in the Irish’s 10th game back on Dec. 15 (an 8-point win against Purdue) and will miss the rest of the season. Notre Dame has dropped 5 of its 9 games since the Pflueger injury.

The Cavaliers will key on 6-foot-9 junior stretch forward John Mooney and 6-3 junior guard Temple “T.J.” Gibbs. Mooney averages a double-double, leading the team with 14.4 points, an ACC-best 10.8 rebounds, and 1.2 blocks per game. Gibbs puts up 13.7 points a night to go with 4.1 assists.

Sophomore guard D.J. Harvey is their only other teammate averaging double figures in scoring with 11.2 points a game. The Irish rely on a trio of freshmen — Dane Goodwin, Nate Laszewski and Prentiss Hubb — who each average right around 7 points a game. Junior forward Juwan Durham, a 6-11 UConn transfer, averages just 15 minutes a game but blocks 3.2 shots a game.

This is the first of two meetings against Mike Brey’s club this season, as the Irish come to JPJ in exactly three weeks (Saturday, Feb. 16).