WHERE: Viejas Arena | San Diego, CA

WHEN: 6:10 PM, Sunday | Mar. 20th

WATCH IT ON: TBS

SERIES HISTORY: Texas Tech is 0-1 all-time against Notre Dame. The Red Raiders played the Fighting Irish on December 6, 1975, in South Bend and lost, 88-63.

• The Fighting Irish are 24-10 on the season, and they finished second in the ACC with a 15-5 conference record. Notre Dame is unranked, and they’re 1-1 against teams ranked in the top 25 with a win over Kentucky and a loss to Duke.

• Mike Brey is on his 22nd season as the head coach of the Fighting Irish and has a 472-258 (220-163) record at the helm. Brey has led Notre Dame to the NCAA Tournament 13 times, and the Irish are making their first postseason appearance since 2017.

• Notre Dame has the 119th ranked scoring offense in the country, and they’re 46th in field goal percentage. ND is 8th in three-point field goal percentage and 18th in three-pointers made with 309.

• The Fighting Irish have the 123rd ranked scoring defense in college basketball, and they’re 184th in field goal percentage allowed. The ND defense is 339th in turnovers forced. They’re 299th in steals per game and 338th in blocks per game.

• Notre Dame is No. 40 out of 358 schools in the KenPom ratings for adjusted efficiency margin. They’re 27th in offensive efficiency and 78th in defensive efficiency, and they have three wins over teams in the KenPom top 50 (Kentucky, North Carolina, Alabama).

• The Irish are 2-8 in quad-one games with wins over Kentucky and Miami. They’re 2-1 in quad-two games and 11-1 in quad-three games. Notre Dame is undefeated (6-0) in quad-four games this season.

Wesley has been one of the top true freshmen players in college basketball this season and leads the Irish in scoring with 14.5 points per game. He’s second on the team in assists with 2.4 per game, and he’s a solid contributor on the glass with 3.6 rebounds per game. He leads the team with 1.3 steals per game on the defensive end. Wesley scored 18 points on 8-of-14 shooting and added three steals in the win over Alabama on Friday.

Goodwin is one of the most efficient offensive guards in college basketball. He’s shooting 50.1 percent from the field and 45.3 percent from behind the arc. Goodwin leads the Irish with 67 three-pointers made, and he’s second in scoring with 13.6 points per game. He’s solid on the boards with 4.6 rebounds per game. Goodwin scored 12 points on 4-of-7 shooting against Rutgers but was held to only three points against the Crimson Tide.

Atkinson is a grad-transfer who averaged 17.6 points per game for Yale a season ago. He’s the third leading scorer for the Irish at 12.8 points per game and is shooting 59.1 percent from the field. Atkinson leads the team in rebounds with 7.0 per game. He’s been huge for Notre Dame in the NCAA Tournament. Atkinson was 13-of-15 and scored 26 points with six rebounds and two blocks against the Scarlet Knights, and he had 13 points with eight rebounds and four steals against Alabama.

Round two of the NCAA Tournament will be the second all-time meeting between Texas Tech and Notre Dame on the hardwood. This matchup will feature the number one ranked Red Raider defense against a Fighting Irish offense that is eighth in the country in three-point field goal percentage.

Notre Dame is the best three-point shooting team Texas Tech has faced this season, and the Irish will pose a challenge for a Red Raider defense that has struggled at times to defend the three-point line. Texas Tech gave up eight three-pointers on 24 attempts to Montana State, and the defense will need to be ready to defend the arc against an Irish team that won’t hesitate to let it go from deep.

Notre Dame has done a great job of protecting the basketball on the offensive end, and they have the 24th fewest turnovers in college basketball this season. The Irish are 28th in the NCAA with a 1.36 assist-to-turnover ratio, and they do a good job of not beating themselves by turning the ball over.

Granted, they’ve yet to face a defense this season comparable to what the Red Raiders put on the floor. In 34 games, Notre Dame has faced only six teams with a defense ranked inside the KenPom top 50 for defensive efficiency ratings. The Texas Tech defense will provide a new test that the Irish haven’t seen this season.

Outside of three-point shooting and offensive efficiency metrics, it’s hard to find many areas where the Irish have excelled this year. Notre Dame is a below average team on the glass (299th), and they have a plus-0.5 rebounding margin over their opponents this season. They’re ranked 334th in offensive rebounds with 7.15 per game, so second chance points have been difficult to come by for the ND offense.

The Fighting Irish are a middle of the pack defense in points allowed (123rd) and field goal percentage defense (184th), and they’re one of the worst teams in college basketball at forcing turnovers (339th). Notre Dame averages less than two blocks per game on the defensive end, so advantage Bryson Williams, Kevin Obanor, and the Red Raiders when attacking the paint.

Texas Tech needs to ‘stack success’ in back-to-back games on the offensive end of the court. Expect the Red Raiders to take an aggressive approach in driving the lane and attacking the basket inside against the Irish defense. The length of Texas Tech will once again be a factor in this matchup, as Notre Dame features five guards as a part of their seven-man rotation.

Notre Dame has the 78th ranked defense according to KenPom, which would have been good for last place amongst teams in the Big 12 Conference this season. The Irish have allowed 73.2 points per game during their five contests in the month of March, and they’ll have to play a great game on the defensive end if they intend on pulling off the upset against the Red Raiders.