Monday’s 71-70 victory over North Carolina in Chapel Hill left the Fighting Irish with a 3-0 ACC record, a 15-1 overall record, and a #13 ranking in the current AP poll. It’s a good start.

Good. Not great.

“To be 3-0 in this league, we’re thrilled,” Mike Brey said after the Carolina game, “but we need some rest after Saturday double overtime and the energy we exerted here tonight.”

With a few exceptions, the non-conference schedule was not challenging; and rest was not an issue. While none of the vanquished conference foes was a poor opponent, they aren’t the top teams in the ACC. Nevertheless, Jerian Grant and Pat Connaughton have played 42 minutes per conference game, Demetrius Jackson has played 37 minutes per conference game, and Steve Vasturia has logged 36 minutes per contest. It took a substantial commitment of starters’ playing time to defeat three opponents who aren’t at the top of the league.

Make no mistake, Irish fans should be very pleased with what they have seen so far this season; but Saturday’s contest vs. Virginia represents the difference between a good start and a great start.

Notre Dame was not competitive in either of its two games against Virginia last season. The first game, played at home, was a 15-point Cavaliers victory that wasn’t that close. Virginia had a 58-34 lead with 7:26 left to play when Head Coach Tony Bennett emptied his bench. Game two was tied 30-30 at halftime only to have Virginia win by 21 points.

The Cavs had a 16-2 ACC record last season. They finished first during the regular season and, they won the conference tournament. They are, arguably, a better team this season. UVa is a great defensive team that has allowed only 51 points per game this season and a better offensive team than most people understand it to be – fourth in the Pomeroy offensive efficiency rankings.

The outcome of Saturday’s game is important, of course; but Notre Dame fans should be most interested in how their team competes against Virginia’s physical defense. The Irish were intimidated last season. Will they punch back (figuratively, of course) this season. The answer will tell us what we can expect the rest of the way.

Georgia Tech Revisited

Georgia Tech was not good last season, so I didn’t expect much from the Yellow Jackets coming into last Saturday’s game in South Bend. I should have done my homework. Maybe I can get partial credit for submitting a late assignment.

Tech had four transfers in the playing rotation – 6’8” Demarco Cox, 6’8” Charles Mitchell, 6’8” Robert Sampson, and 6’0” Josh Heath. Those four accounted for 37 points and 26 rebounds on Saturday, points and rebounds that weren’t on last year’s team. More importantly, they converted Georgia Tech from a soft team to a physical one that will have its way with quite a few ACC opponents before the season is over.

Cox graduated from Ole Miss last spring and was eligible to play as a Georgia Tech graduate student. Mitchell (Maryland) and Heath (USF) got NCAA waivers and didn’t have to sit this season, Mitchell to be closer to family and his ailing grandmother, Heath because USF fired his father and coach, Stan Heath. Sampson, son of Virginia legend Ralph Sampson, sat out last season after leaving East Carolina.

Georgia Tech isn’t an outstanding team, but it has become a physical one that plays hard for third year coach Brian Gregory. Look for it to be involved in a few noteworthy upsets between now and March.

Crazy Stats

Regardless of the weak non-conference schedule, some of Notre Dame’s offensive numbers are eye popping so far. As a team, the Irish have made 54.8% of their field goal attempts, best in the ACC by 24 percentage points. For comparison, ND made 46% of its shots a year ago as did the 2010-11 team with senior Ben Hansbrough, junior Jack Cooley, and several other good scorers. The percentage is likely to fall as the conference season progresses, but this year’s squad is converting shots into points like no ND team has in many years.

“Our offensive efficiency is an unbelievable weapon for us,” Brey said after the Hartford game. “Even when we’re having defensive lapses or people are getting to us, our offensive efficiency has been excellent.”

Zach Auguste’s .671 make rate is second in the conference to Jahlil Okafor’s .682; but Jerian Grant’s .513 is the shooting statistic I find most interesting. Grant, who has never been a great three point shooter, has made only 33.3% of his attempts from beyond the arc; but he has converted 65.1% of his two point shots. Grant is making shots close to the basket at a rate one would expect from a really good 6’10” center.

Five in a Row

Another noteworthy stat is Zach Auguste’s free throw percentage. Auguste, a 48.3% free throw shooter a year ago, has made 68% of his freebies this season. He has made 15 of his 17 free throws in the three conference games – 88%.

“It’s more of a mental thing with me,” Auguste told me last week. “I work on it every day, and I have to make five in a row before I leave practice every day.”

Sure enough, Auguste was the last guy off of the court after pregame warmups last Saturday. There he was, shooting free throws until he made five straight. Take notice the next time you’re in the JACC.

The Boards

The last of this season’s crazy stats is Notre Dame’s rebounding. The Irish have a preposterously poor negative 11 rebounding margin in three conference games, more preposterous because they have won all three games as well as the Michigan State game that found them with 17 fewer boards than the Spartans.

Playing four guards most of the time is part of the problem; but Pat Connaughton’s 8.3 rebounds per game are good enough to rank seventh among ACC players, and Steve Vasturia is adding a healthy 5.0 rebounds per game. Most coaches would kill to get 13 rebounds per game from a pair of guards.

“My area of concern comes back to defensive rebounding,” Brey said when I asked about his concerns heading into the conference season. “Georgia Tech comes in here with a huge front line, and they pound on that board.

“We absorbed, I believe, 16 or 18 offensive rebounds against Michigan State, and we almost didn’t get out of there,” Brey continued. “We’ve gotta be better. We can’t absorb that in league play a lot or it’s not going to be good.”

But absorb is what the Irish did, 19 offensive rebounds by Georgia Tech and 21 by North Carolina.

“We knew they were going to bang on us inside, and they did… a lot like Michigan State,” Brey said.

Notre Dame’s counter has been to go small and run.

“I thought when we ran a little bit in the first half and we were able to get some rebounds, we felt like we didn’t have to play against those bodies.”

It’s going to be difficult to get the running game going against Virginia. The Irish need to hold their own on the boards to get a win on Saturday.

Thud

There is some surprise mediocrity in college basketball, “mediocrity” being the word I have chosen in a fit of kindness.

Michigan is 9-6 with losses to the New Jersey Institute of Technology and Eastern Michigan. UConn is 7-5 with losses to Yale and Temple. Florida is only 7-6, but at least its losses came at the hands of major conference teams.

The heartwarming story of a struggling program comes from Los Angeles. After a 28-win first season, Steve Alford’s UCLA Bruins are 8-7 overall with an 0-2 record in the Pac12. UCLA has lost five games in a row, most recently an embarrassing 71-39 thrashing by Utah. During the broadcast, Bill Walton observed, “This is like a practice for Utah.”

Bruins fans are not happy with Alford, partly because of his team’s performance, of course, but just as much because of the coach’s transparent arrogance. Robert Carpenter’s recent Bruin Report Online article called UCLA’s hiring of Alford “outrageously inept and a massive fail.”

Failure couldn’t find a better guy.

A Good Start, Revisited

I’ll be doing this every week through the end of the basketball season. What do you think? Was it a good start?