This Week: Notre Dame College men's basketball comes home for the first time this season for two games this week. On Nov. 16, the Falcons will take on Bryant & Stratton-Buffalo, at 7:30 p.m. NDC will host Wheeling University, in the first conference game of the season, on Nov. 19, at 4 p.m.
 
Records: NDC started the season with a pair of losses in the Conference Challenge in Slippery Rock, Pa. Bryant & Stratton is 2-0 but the team has not played since Nov. 6. Wheeling is 1-2 after losing its first two games of the season last weekend and then picking up a win against D'Youville College.
 
Coaches Corner: Mark Richmond enters his fourth season as the head coach of the Falcons. He has an overall record of 32-45 with a 27-35 MEC mark. Damone Brown is now in his fifth season at the helm of the Bryant & Stratton program. He has led the team to a 78-36 record. Chris Richardson enters his third season on the sideline at Wheeling, with a record of 17-34 (13-25 MEC).
 
Rankings: None of these teams are ranked in the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Division II Top 25 Poll.
 
Series History: Notre Dame met Bryant & Stratton for the first time last season, and won 86-75. NDC has a chance to even the all-time series with Wheeling. Entering the week, Wheeling leads the series 10-9, however, Notre Dame has won seven of the last eight matchups.
 
Noting the Falcons: Notre Dame is looking for win No. 1 on the season after facing Seton Hill and Slippery Rock in the Conference Challenge last weekend. So far in the two regular season games and the exhibition win over Cleveland State, the Falcons have scored either 72 or 73 points.
 
Jaedon Willis has stood out for the Falcons, scoring 33 points, on 11-of-19 shooting, in game one and following that up with 15 against Slippery Rock. He led the Falcons in scoring in both games last weekend. Against Cleveland State, he dropped 23 points. NDC is looking for its secondary scorer as no other Falcon is averaging double-digit points. Three guards lead the Falcons in rebounding right now, with DeAirius Barker pulling down eight and Jaedon Willis and Andre Harris not far behind with seven, each. Notre Dame outrebounded Seton Hill, 33-31, on Friday.
 
Noting the Bobcats: Bryant & Stratton has not played in a game in a week and a half, but in their first two games of the season, the Bobcats scored an impressive number of points. Against Andrews University, B&S won by a score of 102-62 and then defeated Central Penn, 119-78. In the first game of the season, Andrews shot the ball at 43-percent, but the Bobcats went 40-for-79 (51-percent) from the field and 14-for-26 (54-percent) from three. Four players scored in double-digits in that game, with DJ Little leading the way with 17. In the second game, Central Penn shot 58-percent from the field, however, Bryant & Stratton put up 104 shots in the game and had three players who scored at least 15 points. Little led the way with 30.

B&S is averaging over 90 shots taken per game, which includes almost 30 three-point shots each night. Four players (DJ Little – 23.5, Kalon Kimble – 13.5, DJ Brown – 11.5, Sam Dorissaint – 10) are averaging double-digit points.
 
Noting the Cardinals: Like Notre Dame, Wheeling's offense has been consistent with 73 points in all three of their games this season. In an 82-73 loss to California (Pa.), Marcus Johnson led the way with 28 points and eight rebounds. All of the numbers in the box score were close in that game, but Cal (Pa.) was on the move and had 21 more fast break points than the Cardinals. Wheeling stayed within striking distance against Shepherd, but lost 77-73. Four players scored in double-digits for the Cardinals. And on Nov. 15, Wheeling was able to pull away from D'Youville, in a 73-58 victory. Brent Price led the way with 22 points and eight boards.
 
Marcus Johnson and Brent Price are both shooting the ball at 53-percent from the field and both are scoring around 16 points per contest. The rebounding numbers have been pretty spread out with Brent Price and John Korte averaging 5.3 per game and Marcus Johnson hauling in five each contest. On the defensive side, WU has held opponents to 27-percent shooting from three-point range.