Any list of college basketball’s toughest places to play will include Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium, Kansas’ Phog Allen Fieldhouse and New Mexico’s notorious Pit.
But the toughest place for the No. 1 ranked team in the country to play is undoubtedly Notre Dame’s Joyce Center.
Since the Joyce Center opened in 1968, Notre Dame has hosted the nation’s No. 1 team nine times. The Fighting Irish have won an astonishing six of those games.
The Irish’s upsets of No. 1s include memorable wins over Bill Walton’s 1974 UCLA Bruins, a win that snapped UCLA’s 88-game win streak; the 1978 Marquette Warriors featuring Bo Ellis and Butch Lee, and the 1980 DePaul team that included Mark Aguirre and Terry Cummings.
“Maybe it’s in the water,’’ Notre Dame coach Mike Brey said.
Today for the first time since Feb. 1, 1987 when a North Carolina team led by Kenny Smith and J.R. Reid suffered a 60-58 loss to Notre Dame, the Irish will once again face nation’s No. 1 team South Bend as the undefeated Syracuse Orange (20-0 overall, 7-0 Big East) go up against Notre Dame (11-8, 3-3).
“There is a great history of playing great in big games here,’’ Brey said, “and certainly, I’m going to try to channel the heck out of all of that.’’
While it’s been 25 years since Notre Dame last faced a top-ranked team in its own building, the Joyce Center remains a most inhospitable place for visiting teams.
Since the beginning of the 2006-07 season, Notre Dame owns a 94-7 record at the Joyce Center. In that time, the Fighting Irish have fashioned separate win streaks of 45 and 29 games.
Notre Dame won all of its home games in the 2006-07 and 2007-08 seasons, thus becoming the first team in Big East history to post undefeated home records in back-to-back seasons. In one stretch covering three seasons, Notre Dame won 20 straight Big East home games, tying the conference record.
“It’s almost a mindset,’’ Syracuse assistant Gerry McNamara said. “When you have success, you build on it. They’re so accustomed to winning at home that they just build on it.’’
Louisville coach Rick Pitino said Notre Dame’s home success is a product of a program built on players that can shoot playing in a gym that caters to shooters.
“What makes Notre Dame special is how well they shoot at home,’’ Pitino said. “It’s a small place. It’s not a big dome. It’s a very small arena with a good shooting background to it. They recruit shooters.’’
This year, however, Notre Dame’s shooters have been off the mark.
The Irish rank 14th in the Big East with a .393 field goal percentage. Notre Dame’s .263 3-point shooting percentage also ranks 14th in the conference. The poor shooting has resulted in an offense that’s producing just 60.8 points per game, which is next-to-last in the Big East.
“I hope the building can help us offensively,’’ said Brey, “because we’ve struggled at times.’’
Syracuse comes into the game with an offense that’s averaging a conference-best 78.6 points per game.
“We don’t want to play in the ‘80s,’’ Brey said. “That’s not the goal, but we need to score more than we are.’’
Notre Dame’s hopes for the 2011-12 season took a hit when senior forward Tim Abromaitis, an All-Big East candidate, injured his knee in the fourth game of the year.
The loss of Abromaitis left Notre Dame with just one player; senior Scott Martin, who was a regular starter last year.
Still, there is the specter of the Joyce Center and all those ghosts and echoes.
Interestingly, Syracuse has been the one team that’s been almost impervious to the Irish’s success at the Joyce Center.
Syracuse is 11-4 all-time in South Bend. The Orange won five straight games at the Joyce Center from 2001-02 through 2005-06. And Brey thinks this year’s team is one of SU coach Jim Boeheim’s best.
“There are so many weapons and so many ways Syracuse can get after you,’’ Brey said. “They can put 80, 85 on the board rolling out of bed.’’
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