The preliminaries are out of the way for Notre Dame and Ohio State as the undefeated and untested teams meet on Sunday afternoon in Columbus, Ohio.
Neither the Fighting Irish (3-0) nor the Buckeyes (3-0) faced a major conference opponent while compiling some gaudy stats.
Notre Dame is averaging 12.3 made 3-pointers to rank in the top 25 nationally while scoring at an 89.7 points per game clip. The margin for victory against Long Island University, Detroit Mercy and Eastern Illinois was 24.7 points.
The Fighting Irish are also getting 39 points per game from the bench.
“We have 11 guys that are capable,” coach Micah Shrewsberry said. “Sometimes in practice you’ll have separation, but there hasn’t been much separation in practice. Every day a different player plays great and we have so many guys. So, we don’t have that, ‘OK, you’re doing this and this is your spot.’
“We have options now so we can keep mixing. If it’s not your night, that’s fine, we can go with someone else and that’s OK. We are going to keep trying to press the right buttons.”
The Buckeyes scored 118 in their first game against Indiana University Indianapolis, 94 vs. Purdue Fort Wayne and “only” 75 against Appalachian State to average 95.7 with a 21.3 victory margin.
Ohio State isn’t as deep as Notre Dame and could be hampered if Devin Royal misses a second straight game due to a hip injury. He was the team’s leading rebounder (6.9) last season and averaged 14.0 points and 5.5 rebounds in the first two games this season.
Coach Jake Diebler was somewhat optimistic Friday when talking about Royal’s availability.
“Certainly hopeful, and prayerful, and all that,” Diebler said. “He’s making progress. It’s too early for me to stamp it one way or another, but he’s progressing.”
The Buckeyes will need all the help they can get on the glass against Notre Dame’s Carson Towt, who led the nation last season in rebounding with 12.4 per game at Northern Arizona. His 13.3 average this season includes 19 boards against Long Island.
