Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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www.BLUEANDGOLD.com JANUARY 2019 47 MEN'S BASKETBALL "We'll see," Durham began. "I don't know so far, but hopefully it's good things. … That's the highlight of my day, coming to practice and preparing for the games. "Coming to the gym and getting the extra work." Though Mooney got into early foul trouble, he was able to add four points and six rebounds in just 10 minutes against the Illini. He avoided the bench against Oklahoma and had 11 points and 11 rebounds in his first 11 minutes of action before finishing with 15 points and 14 boards. For the junior, he spent much of his first two seasons roaming the perim- eter and filling the "stretch four" role. So far this year, he is more in the post playing the traditional "five" position while finding chances to shoot from deep when necessary. "It's certainly growing," Mooney said of his assuredness. "The bigs have put a lot of work in with Coach Hum- phrey [since] beginning of the year, working on our moves. We're defi- nitely a confident group. "We know that to kind of get our offense going we may have to throw it down there and be a threat. Just keep the defense guessing and get them to flatten. We're getting better at that." Turning into more of a post player on the collegiate level has been a fairly smooth process so far for Mooney. "It's a transition from setting screens and rolling instead of setting and pop- ping," Mooney explained. "I'm devel- oping myself into a post threat and just doing whatever I need to help us get wins. "It's good to be able to do both with shooting it or going down low if there is a mismatch. I'm confident in my game right now. It's a testament to my teammates getting me involved and the guards throwing it down to myself and Juwan. Just letting us go to work." Mooney wouldn't mind playing more minutes on the court with Dur- ham, but will defer to the coaching staff on that move. "I think having both of us on the floor — we can both rebound, run the floor, go down low and Juwan can also shoot it — that could be great," Mooney said. "I've known Juwan since I was in like fifth grade. We used to play against each other down in Florida. "We're close and work out together. We're always in each other 's ear to make each of us better on and off the court with technique and going at each other. He's huge for us." "Big" developments are still ahead. ✦ THREE-POINT PLAY 1. Irish Offense Struggling: Mike Brey's Notre Dame teams are known for their ability on the offensive end, but that has not been the case so far for the 2018-19 version. Through the team's first nine games, the Irish connected on just 41.3 percent of their field goal attempts and 31.2 percent behind the arc. Notre Dame ranked 298th nationally in the former at the start of the Dec. 9 games and tied for 264th in three-point shooting. If the numbers continue throughout the season, it would be the lowest field goal percentage for the Irish under Brey since 2004-05 (41.0 percent) and the lowest three-point percentage in the Brey era. 2. New Double-Double Machine: During the previous two seasons, it was Bonzie Colson racking up double-doubles for Brey and company. Irish junior forward John Mooney is taking over that role for Notre Dame. Through his first nine games, Mooney recorded five double-doubles while averaging 11.6 points and 9.7 rebounds in those contests. Mooney, who spent the majority of his first two years in South Bend on the perimeter, has been much more of a factor in the post while still getting shots up on the perimeter to create mismatches for the Irish offensively. Finding a consistent post presence was vital to the Irish heading into the new season, and Mooney is delivering so far. 3. Rex Pflueger's Homecoming: Brey and the Irish staff promised senior guard Rex Pflueger during the recruiting process that he would get to play a game back in his home state of California. Pflueger got his chance Dec. 8 against UCLA and he didn't waste the opportunity. He connected on all four of his three-point attempts to finish tied for a game-high 14 points. Even though Notre Dame fell 65-62 on a last-second shot by Bruins guard and Indianapolis native Kris Wilkes, it was a good night for the senior during his homecoming, which he needed after notching just one double-digit scoring performance in his first eight games (20 points versus DePaul). — Corey Bodden 2018-19 NOTRE DAME MEN'S BASKETBALL SCHEDULE Date Opponent (TV) Time (ET) Nov. 1 Central State! (ACCNE) W, 76-54 Nov. 6 Illinois-Chicago# (ACCNE) W, 84-67 Nov. 8 Chicago State (ACCNE) W, 89-62 Nov. 14 Radford# L, 63-60 Nov. 17 William & Mary# W, 73-64 Nov. 20 Duquesne# W, 67-56 Nov. 24 DePaul W, 95-70 Nov. 27 Illinois& W, 76-74 Dec. 4 vs. Oklahoma+ L, 85-80 Dec. 8 at UCLA L, 65-62 Dec. 15 vs. Purdue^ (CBS) 1:30 p.m. Dec. 18 Binghamton (ACCNE) 7 p.m. Dec. 20 Jacksonville 7 p.m. Dec. 29 Coppin State (ACCNE) 12 p.m. Jan. 1 at Virginia Tech* (ESPNU) 1 p.m. Jan. 5 Syracuse* (Raycom) 12 p.m. Jan. 12 Boston College* (RSN) 12 p.m. Jan. 15 at North Carolina* (ESPN) 9 p.m. Jan. 19 NC State* (Raycom) 2 p.m. Jan. 22 at Georgia Tech* (RSN) 7 p.m. Jan. 26 Virginia* (CBS) 1 p.m. Jan. 28 Duke* (ESPN) 7 p.m. Feb. 2 at Boston College* (RSN) 2 p.m. Feb. 6 at Miami* (ESPN2/U) 7 p.m. Feb. 10 Georgia Tech* (ESPNU) 6 p.m. Feb. 16 at Virginia* (Raycom) 2 p.m. Feb. 19 Wake Forest* (ESPN2/U) 7 p.m. Feb. 23 Virginia Tech* (ESPN2/U) 4 p.m. Feb. 25 at Florida State* (ESPN) 7 p.m. Mar. 3 at Louisville* (CBS) 1:30 p.m. Mar. 6 Clemson* (ESPN2/U) 9 p.m. Mar. 9 at Pittsburgh* (Raycom) 12 p.m. Mar. 12-16 ACC Tournament$ TBA ! Exhibition; # Gotham Classic; & ACC-Big Ten Chal- lenge; + Jimmy V Classic at Madison Square Garden in New York; ^ Crossroads Classic at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis; * ACC game; $ at Char - lotte, N.C; ACCN — ACC Network; ACCNE — ACC Network Extra Mooney, a junior forward, secured five double- doubles during the first nine games of the 2018- 19 season. PHOTO BY COREY BODDEN