This week: Notre Dame College men's basketball will play three non-conference games this week, before the holiday break. They battle Bryant & Stratton College of Buffalo on Dec. 15., at 6 p.m. The Falcons will head to Melbourne, Fla. for the Florida Tech Winter Classic. NDC will matchup with Florida Tech on Dec. 19, at 7 p.m. and then will take on Lynn University on Monday, Dec. 20, at 4:30 p.m.

Records: Notre Dame has an overall record of 7-2 and a conference record of 5-1. Bryant and Stratton has a record of 6-4 this season. Florida Tech enters the week with an 8-2 record and Lynn has a 4-3 record.

Coaches Corner: Mark Richmond is in his third season as the head coach of the Falcons. He has an overall record of 24-31 and has gone 20-24 in conference play. Damone Brown is in his third season as head coach at Bryant & Stratton Buffalo and has a record of 42-27. At Florida Tech, Billy Mims is in his 17th season, while Jeff Price enters his 15th season at Lynn, over two different stints at the university.

Rankings: None of these teams are ranked in the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Division II Top 25 Poll.
 
Series History: Notre Dame will be meeting all three of these teams for the first time. NDC's trip to Florida will be the farthest south that the program has been since they visited Laredo, Tex. for two games on Dec. 30 and 31, 2011.

Noting the Falcons: Notre Dame went 2-1 last week, winning both of their conference games. They took down Davis & Elkins, 85-81, on Wednesday and then beat West Virginia Wesleyan, 71-58, on Saturday. The Falcons have a conference mark of 5-1, which is their best start in the MEC era, and are tied at the top of the standings with West Liberty. The Falcons beat No. 7 West Liberty on Nov. 23.

NDC has an overall record of 7-2, and with a win on Wednesday they will match their best start in program history. To begin the 2008-09 campaign, the Falcons won eight of their first ten games. That season, NDC finished the year with a 19-12 record.

Jaedon Willis has been a scoring machine this season and, until last Wednesday, he held the highest point total in a game in the conference this season with 38. Frostburg State's Agyei Edwards scored 40 last week. Willis also had a 28-point performance on Nov. 13. The junior is fourth in the MEC in scoring with 20.9 points per game, fourth in three-point percentage (35.9-percent) and first in three-pointers made per game at 3.1. He also ranks fourth with a 2.2 assists-to-turnover ratio. Michael Sampson ranks fourth in the MEC in both defensive rebounding (6.2 per game) and total rebounds (8.7 per game) and is tied for second in steals, with 2.6 per game. Sampson's 23 total steals ranks 19th in NCAA Division II. The Falcons have four players (Willis – 29, Sampson – 28, John Godinez – 24, DeAirius Barker – 20) who have recorded at least 20 assists this season.

Notre Dame leads the Mountain East Conference, and are 23rd in Division II, by shooting 39.5-percent from three-point range. They take care of the ball, as well, and rank tied for second in the MEC with a 1.20 assist-to-turnover ratio. The Falcons are fourth in the conference, averaging 15.2 assists and eight steals.

Noting the B&SC Bobcats: Bryant & Stratton has gotten off to a solid start to the month of December. After going 3-3 in November, the Bobcats have gone 3-1 this month. In their last game on Dec. 6, B&SC defeated Villa Maria 62-55 and had balanced scoring with Sam Dorissaint (15), Eric Waters (13) and Denzel Fuller (12) all posting double-digits. The team shot the ball at 46-percent.

Dorissaint leads the team in scoring average, putting up 15.5 per contest, while shooting 52-percent. Eric Waters is not far behind, with 14.8 points per game, on 55-percent shooting. Bryant & Stratton has four players shooting over 50-percent from the field, who have taken at least 49 shots. Waters pulls in 10 rebounds per contest, records 2.4 steals per game and blocks 1.1 shots per game. Davon Ware dishes out 5.9 assists per game.

Noting the Panthers: Following an opening night loss to Auburn-Montgomery (83-81), Florida Tech went on an eight-game win streak. That streak was snapped last Saturday when they fell to the No. 5 ranked team, Nova Southeastern. In the contest against Nova, Florida Tech was held to just 25 first half points, but did put up 51 in the second half. Runako Ziegler went 6-for-9 from the field and 8-for-9 at the free throw line to lead the team with 22 points. Mekhii Noble had a season-low 10 points and nine rebounds. The Panthers have another tough test, as they are scheduled to face Florida Atlantic on Friday, in an exhibition contest.

This season, Florida Tech is 6-0 on their home floor. All four games of the Winter Classic will be held at the Charles and Ruth Clemente Center.

Sesan Russell leads the team with 17.6 points per game and Mekhii Noble is second with 16.3 per contest. Florida Tech is the best team in NCAA Division II in rebounding average with 46.7 per game. They are also fourth in the nation with 467 total boards, third in defensive rebounds per game (32.4), 14th in offensive rebounds per game (14.3) and rank 17th with an 8.6 rebounding margin. The Panthers' defense holds teams to a 38.8-percent shooting (ranking 11th) and 27.3-percent from three (ranking 16th). Noble leads D2 with 9.2 defensive rebounds per game and nine double-doubles this season. He is also second in total rebounds (128) and third in rebounds per game (12.8). Russell is 10th in total assists (58) and 18th in assists per game (5.8).

Noting the Fighting Knights: Lynn's first four regular season contests were at home, and they took advantage of it. The Fighting Knights began the season 4-0 in the month of November, winning by an average of 24.3 points. In December, they have had to go on the road to face tough competition, including No. 19 Barry University. Lynn has dropped three consecutive contests this month, but none of the losses have been by more than six points. This past Saturday, they lost by two on a last second layup by Florida Southern. In that game, Tommie Luke came off the bench and gave the Fighting Knights 15 points, five rebounds and six assists in 31 minutes. Christian Peevy had 15 points and 10 rebounds.

Christian Peevy scores 21.6 points per game on 53-percent shooting. He is second on the team in rebounding average at 8.7. Cameron Gaines leads the squad with 8.9 rebounds and 1.9 blocks per game. Brandon Bornelus dishes out nearly five assists per game (4.9) and has a 2.6 assist-to-turnover ratio.

This season, Peevy is 10th in the country with a 94.6-percent free throw percentage and Bornelus ranks 16th by shooting 91.7-percent from the charity stripe. The team ranks eighth in D2 in free throw shooting by putting together an 80-percent mark.