Having put the month of November in their rear view mirror, the unranked Notre Dame basketball team enters December with a 6-1 mark. That record was aided by the fact that all seven of their games have been in Purcell Pavilion, a circumstance that now changes and will offer a better litmus test as to how good this rebuilding team will perform as the season moves forward.
Last week saw only one game on the Irish docket, when they hosted the Fighting Illini from Illinois and escaped with a tight 76-74 victory. The win was part of the ACC-Big Ten Challenge, with the usual mix of positives and negatives attached to the overall assessment about where Mike Brey’s team is headed as they venture away from South Bend for the first time.