Virginia-Notre Dame Preview

No. 3 Virginia visits Notre Dame on Saturday in a matchup of Atlantic Coast Conference teams at different stages of college basketball's learning curve.

The Cavaliers (17-1, 5-1 ACC), who have been no lower than sixth in the AP poll all season, came off their lone loss, to then-No. 1 Duke in Durham, N.C., to polish off Wake Forest on Tuesday while trying to fix some flaws the loss exposed.

"We needed to address some things defensively," Virginia coach Tony Bennett said this week.

He added that it is "a little different the way Duke can exploit you. It wasn't quite the same as Wake Forest, but I liked how we corrected some things to start the game defensively that weren't there against Duke.

"We were really committed together to stopping the ball. That was a point of emphasis in practice for a couple days, and we did a good job of that."

So good, in fact, that the Cavaliers, back on their home court, jumped out to a 25-3 lead in the first eight minutes. By the time Wake Forest began to hit some shots, it couldn't get cut down the lead any lower than 13 points. Virginia won 68-45.

The Fighting Irish (11-8, 1-5 ACC) have more to learn, and the curriculum isn't getting any easier.

After two narrow losses -- against then-No. 17 North Carolina State in South Bend last Saturday and at Georgia Tech on Tuesday -- Notre Dame has back-to-back games with Virginia and Duke, which now sits No. 2 in the rankings.

Referring to those close losses, coach Mike Brey says the Fighting Irish have "kind of been who we've been, we've been right there. We just can't get over the hump, and this is a tough league to get over the hump in."

Junior forward John Mooney put up 41 points and 30 rebounds in those two games, above his team-leading averages of 14.4 points and 10.8 rebounds per game.

A pair of guards, junior T.J. Gibbs and sophomore D.J. Harvey, help with the scoring at 13.7 and 11.2 points per game, respectively, but the Irish don't have anyone else averaging above five rebounds per game.

"The one thing that's been lost in us not winning is Johnny Mooney is playing as well as anybody in the league," Brey said, "but when you're 1-5, you're not going to get a whole lot of attention."

Mooney and the Irish -- who are shooting 41.0 percent from the floor, among the worst teams in the nation -- will have their work cut out for them, facing the top team in the country in scoring defense, at 52.4 points per game. Notre Dame is allowing 68.7 points per game.

The teams are more even in offense, with Notre Dame averaging 74.0 points per game and Virginia at 73.7.

The Cavaliers also have some balance in scoring, with Kyle Guy leading at 15.0 points per game, De'Andre Hunter at 14.4 and Ty Jerome at 13.1. The team's overall field goal percentage is 47.8, just inside the top 50 in the nation.--Field Level Media