Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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MEN'S BASKETBALL either way and will go a long way in determining if the Irish make the NCAA Tournament. These games also present great opportunities for Notre Dame to pick up some credibility with quality road victories. Non-conference (2): Indiana (20‑14 last season) and at Illinois (19‑14). ACC (10): At Syracuse (18‑13), at Miami (25‑13), North Carolina (26‑12), at Clemson (16‑15), Louisville (27‑9), at Georgia Tech (12‑19), at Wake Forest (13‑19), at Florida State (17‑16), Mi‑ ami (25‑13) and North Carolina State (22‑14). Six of the 10 in the ACC are road games against teams picked to finish lower than Notre Dame in the confer‑ ence, but they match up well enough with the Irish that they could defend home court against Brey's team. The Irish were pegged fourth in the con‑ ference's preseason media poll, with Miami, Florida State, Louisville, North Carolina State, Syracuse and Pittsburgh rounding out the top 10 in order. Notre Dame faces the No. 2, No. 3, No. 5, No. 6 and No. 9 teams from the preseason conference poll all on the road, with home games against the No. 1, No. 7, No. 8 and No. 10 teams. That leads to projecting a few poten‑ tially comfy conference home wins, but a very tough, top‑heavy list of road games. The games against Indiana and Il‑ linois could prove to be necessary ré‑ Irish Roll To Season-Opening Win After unveiling its 2014-15 ACC championship banner to a crowd of 9,149 fans at Purcell Pavilion, Notre Dame handled visiting Saint Francis 87-56 in its season opener Nov. 13 behind a stellar night from Demetrius Jackson. The junior point guard — a preseason first-team All-ACC selection by the league's media — finished with a career-high 27 points on 10-of-14 shooting, including 3 of 5 from three-point range. He also gath- ered eight rebounds and dished out three assists in the blowout win. "As you could see, it is Demetrius Jackson's team," head coach Mike Brey said. "He is in total control, calling stuff. I didn't call a whole lot. "He was calling sets, entries, out-of-bounds situations. He actually called for a sub … he's got that ability to score it, make plays and defend it. He's really explosive, really confident, and he's got a group around him that are easy to play with for him." In addition to Jackson's individual dominance, the Irish collectively owned the glass, outrebounding the Red Flash 53-31 while gathering 21 on the offensive glass. Senior forward Zach Auguste led the effort with 14 boards and also contributed 15 points on 6-of-12 shooting. "I think when we keep him focused on that on both ends, offensive and defensive backboard, he's really much more effective then," Brey said. "I thought his low-post decisions, he kicked it out a couple of times and those were good. But let's keep him focused on rebounding." Brey announced following the game that freshman forward Elijah Burns will redshirt this season. The Troy, N.Y., native was behind schedule in his rookie campaign following surgery for an ankle injury in April, and stuck behind a logjam of more experienced and healthy forwards. — Jordan Wells