Notre Dame was just seconds away from picking up one of the biggest wins of the Micah Shrewsberry era this past Saturday against North Carolina. Despite falling short in the final moments of the game, the Irish must now turn their attention to the North Carolina State Wolfpack as the two are set for battle in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Photo via Notre Dame Athletics
As the dust on the new year begins to settle, memories must transform into short-term. With conference play starts to unravel, time off in between games becomes shorter, which makes it almost easier to suffer a one-point loss on a last-second shot on your home court.
The Irish will be traveling out east for a matchup with the Wolfpack for their second road ACC game of the season. NC State, a team that is coming off an appearance in the Final Four a season ago, come into this one dropping their last two matchups.
They are led by senior guard Marcus Hill, a transfer from Bowling Green in his first year with the Wolfpack. With DJ Burns graduating, NC State needed someone to lead its charge in the scoring department and Hill has been just that. Despite going 3-4 since the start of December, Hill has scored in double figures in all seven games. In that time, Hill has also emerged as a threat rebounding the basketball, averaging 4.6 per game.
On the year, Hill is averaging 12.6 PPG on 50.7% shooting and hasn’t knocked down a three since Dec. 7 against Florida State. It was only his fourth made three of the seasons, as he has shot 4-17 from deep thus far. With Markus Burton making his return to the Notre Dame lineup, defending Hill becomes much more doable.
The Wolfpack’s second option, Jayden Taylor, is much more willing to shoot from beyond-the-arc. The Indianapolis native, who spent his first two seasons at Butler before transferring to NC State in 2023, shoots 3.9 threes per game and knocks down 34.5% of them. In his last four games, Taylor has knocked down nine of his 16 attempts, an impressive 56%. While NC State ranks 14th in the ACC in 3-Point FG Percentage, Notre Dame must continue its stellar defense on the perimeter that ranks fourth in the conference.
The Irish showed a fight against North Carolina that they haven’t shown since Burton went down with an injury back on Nov. 26 against Rutgers. Getting him back in the lineup, even if it was off of the bench, was huge for a Notre Dame team that has quickly fallen back to .500 and 1-2 in conference play.
“He’s just a warrior man.” Coach Shrewsberry said following the loss to the Tar Heels. “Some people would be scared to come back against North Carolina…he ain’t ducking anybody.”
Burton played 23 minutes for the Irish and scored 23 points on 7-14 shooting. However, his defense is going to be the biggest impact on this game against NC State, a team that leads the conference in turnover margin at 3.71. On the other side of that, Burton must take care of the basketball after turning it over four times against the Tar Heels. In his six games played, he’s turned the ball over 11 times, a number that Notre Dame wants to see decline.
His return to the lineup also opens up the floor for sophomore Braeden Shrewsberry and junior Tae Davis, both of which have seen strong developments since Burton’s injury. The two combined for 33 points against the Tar Heels, shooting 12-29 from the field. While Notre Dame is elite at preventing opponents from making threes, so is the Wolfpack, who are tied with the Irish in the ACC allowing opposing teams to knock down just .301% of their shots from range. Luckily, Shrewsberry has shown his ability to get inside and knock down shots inside the three-point line, which will be crucial.
Regardless, it seems as though Notre Dame has found its big three.
This will be the seventh time this season the Irish are playing away from Purcell Pavilion and they haven’t won one since the third game of the season against Georgetown on Nov. 16.
“We’ve got to go and find a way to capitalize on the road,” Shrewsberry said. “We’ve got to start better and play better for 40 minutes on the road to go get one on the road.”
It’s a great opportunity for the Irish to go and win a game that they aren’t supposed to on the road. It would move them back over .500 and put them at 2-2 in ACC play. Any momentum this team can generate from now until the end of the season is going to be huge, and it can start in the second week of January.
“We’ve got a bunch of fighters,” Shrewsberry said after the North Carolina loss. “When we compete and play, we can play with anybody. There’s nobody I’d rather rock with than this group.”
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