LOUISVILLE, Ky. ― Can we turn back the basketball clock to the good, old days of what was once the rivalry in the Big East?
Please?
Remember when it was Notre Dame basketball against Louisville? It didn’t matter the venue. It didn’t matter the records. The teams would usually find themselves in high-leverage, must-watch matchups that often went to one overtime, two overtimes, sometimes even five overtimes in what is the longest regular-season game in Big East history (February 9, 2013).
Advertisement
Noie: Could Notre Dame basketball find its way on the road against Syracuse?
Chat Transcript: Dissecting, discussing the current status of Notre Dame basketball
From 2006 to 2013, seven of the 11 meetings needed more than 40 minutes to decide.
For myriad reasons, it’s become just another vanilla college basketball conference matchup. Louisville was down and Notre Dame won. Notre Dame now is down and Louisville is expected to deliver another Atlantic Coast Conference road beatdown of the Irish.
Forget what Billy Joel might croon; the good, old days were indeed good.
Advertisement
Notre Dame basketball (11-11 overall; 2-7 ACC) vs No. 23 Louisville (15-6; 5-4)
-
Date: Wednesday, February 4
-
Site: KFC Yum! Center (22,090), Louisville, Kentucky
What channel is Notre Dame basketball versus Louisville on?
-
Radio: 960 WSBT-AM in South Bend. Also on SiriusXM on ACC Radio and channels 955 and 956. You can also listen live free on Audacy.
Series history between Notre Dame basketball and Louisville
In a series that started in 1952 at the old Jefferson County Armory, now known as the Louisville Gardens, Louisville leads 27-19 overall, 13-5 in games played in Louisville. Notre Dame leads 7-6 as ACC colleagues.
Louisville won last season’s lone meeting, 75-60, at Purcell Pavilion on February 16, 2025. Markus Burton led the Irish, who led by as many as six and trailed by as many as 18, with 22 points, three rebounds and four assists. That loss snapped a four-game Notre Dame win streak in the series that included two straight wins at Yum! Center, where it hasn’t lost since 2021.
Advertisement
This is the only regular season meeting.
Notre Dame basketball versus Louisville storylines
∎ The road has become a lonely place for Notre Dame, which has lost four straight away from home in league play, the last three by double digits (average 16.3 points) since opening the ACC schedule with a 47-40 victory at Stanford. The task now is to go and win at a place that, outside the Research Triangle of North Carolina, might be the toughest to play.
∎ Can a free of mind team be a dangerous road team? Nobody gives Notre Dame any chance of going into Yum! Center and staying within double digits of deep and talented and better Louisville, which is 11-2 at home. This is the ultimate wing-it league road game for the Irish ― just go play.
Advertisement
∎ Louisville may have found out something about itself Saturday when it erased a 12-point deficit at home against SMU to roar back for an 88-74 win. The Cardinals were picked in preseason to finish second in the ACC behind Duke.
Keep an eye on …
Notre Dame guard Jalen Haralson
In the year of the freshman all around college basketball, Haralson has quietly had a solid debut that has been buried under a dubious Irish season. He went for a career-high 26 points against Syracuse on 9-of-12 from the field and 8-of-11 from the foul line to go with four rebounds and two assists in 31 minutes.
Advertisement
His drive and hammer dunk in the first half is something we haven’t seen from many Irish. Go watch it on YouTube. It was solid.
Averaging 15.5 points, 3.6 rebounds and 2.6 assists in 26.8 minutes this season, the 6-foot-7 native of Anderson, Indiana has been Notre Dame’s best player in ACC play. He’s averaging a team-best 16.7 points with 3.4 rebounds and 2.4 assists in 29.2 minutes. He’s quietly moved into eighth in the league in field goal percentage (.504).
Notre Dame hasn’t been able to sustain success in league play, but it has a chance every night thanks to Haralson.
Louisville PG Mikel Brown, Jr.
Irish head coach Micah Shrewsberry didn’t need to watch film or dive deeply into the scouting report to know well of Brown. He helped coach the freshman in each of the last two summers as part of USA Basketball. The 6-5, 190-pound guard from Orlando, Florida is still working his way back from a back issue that cost him eight games, but there’s still plenty to work with.
Advertisement
Brown came off the bench for the first time this season against SMU, then went for 20 points, four assists and three rebounds in 29 minutes. He’s second on the squad in scoring (16.4 ppg.), to go with 2.9 rebounds and 5.0 assists in 28.0 minutes. When he’s on, Brown does what elite point guards do; he controls everything. Shrewsberry saw that the last two years with USA Basketball. On Wednesday, he’ll see it from the other sideline.
Notre Dame basketball 2025-26 schedule
Follow South Bend Tribune and NDInsider columnist Tom Noie on X (formerly Twitter): @tnoieNDI. Contact Noie at tnoie@sbtinfo.com
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: No Atlantic Coast Conference rest for road-weary Notre Dame basketball
