This Week: Notre Dame College men's basketball enters the Mountain East Conference Tournament with a First Round matchup against Wheeling University, on March 6. Tipoff is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. inside WesBanco Arena, in Wheeling, W.Va.
 
Tournament Central: Notre Dame is the eight seed and Wheeling settled in at the nine seed. The other first round matchup will feature the seven seed Glenville State taking on the ten seed Frostburg State, at 6 p.m. The winner of the NDC-WU matchup will play Charleston, the top seed, on March 8, at 6 p.m. For more information, and to buy tickets, click here.

Records: NDC has ended the regular season with a 14-13 record and had a mark of 8-12 against MEC competition. In games played outside of the Murphy Gymnasium, the Falcons went 9-6 this season. Wheeling put together a record of 10-17, going 6-14 against the rest of the Mountain East Conference.

Coaches Corner: Mark Richmond is in year five with the Falcons and has a coaching record of 63-69 (47-55 MEC). Chris Richardson has now been at Wheeling for four seasons and holds a record of 32-72 (23-57 MEC).

Rankings: Neither of these teams were ranked in the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Division II top 25 poll.

Series History: NDC swept the regular season series versus Wheeling, winning at home, 79-66 on Nov. 18, before beating the Cardinals on the road, 80-71 on Jan. 24. Since their first meeting in 2013, Notre Dame holds a 13-10 all-time record over the Cardinals. Wheeling won nine of the first 11 matchups between these two teams, but since the beginning of the 2018-19 season, it's been all Falcons, who are currently on a nine-game winning streak.
 
Noting the Falcons: Notre Dame finished the regular season with a pair of solid performances last week. The Falcons and No. 14 ranked West Liberty went down to the wire and it took a 3-pointer by Zach Rasile with five seconds left to secure an 88-87 win for the Hilltoppers. Notre Dame shot the ball at 54-percent from the field, the fourth-highest shooting percentage by the team this season. Gbolahan Adio scored 27 points, shooting 83-percent from both the field and from 3-point range, Devin Haid added 19 points and nine rebounds and RJ Ogom had 14 points. In a 76-63 win over Salem University on Saturday, Notre Dame jumped out to a 36-25 halftime lead and held off the Tigers for the win. Haid went off for 18 points and nine rebounds, Ogom totaled 17 points, while both Adio and Trent Williams scored 10 points. Andre Harris led the team with 10 boards.

The regular season games between Wheeling and NDC featured two very different teams, as the first one was played in the middle of November and the second was played in late January. In the Falcons' home opener, Marcus Johnson scored 29 points to lead Wheeling, but Notre Dame answered with 20 points from RJ Ogom, 17 from Devin Haid and an eight-point, 12-rebound game from Andre Harris in a 79-66 win.The NDC defense held Wheeling to 32-percent shooting from the field. Wheeling came to play in the second game of the season series, taking a 38-30 halftime lead over the Falcons. But, Notre Dame shot 50-percent from the field in the second half, which included six 3-pointers to score 50 points in the final 20 minutes to win the game, 80-71. Joshua Dames led the Falcons with 16 points. Devin Haid scored 15 points, off the bench, while Jamarr Talbert Jr. had 11 off the bench. Marcus Johnson did not play in the second game for WU.

Devin Haid leads the team this season, and ranks eighth in the Mountain East Conference, by scoring 15.7 points per game. He is in the top-5 in the conference in both field goal percentage (49.2-percent) and free throw percentage (84.3-percent). RJ Ogom is right behind him with a free throw percentage of 84.2-percent. Andre Harris is fourth in the conference, grabbing 7.1 rebounds per game. Gbolahan Adio leads the team with 2.6 assists, while Haid dishes out 2.5 per game. Haid also ranks seventh in the MEC with 1.4 steals per game.

The MEC announced on Tuesday that NDC's Devin Haid was named All-Conference Second Team for his work this season.

As a team, Notre Dame is fourth in the conference with an averaging scoring output of 82.8 points per game. The Falcons are just outside of the top-5 in three pointers made per game, with 8.9. NDC ranks fourth in the MEC with 14.78 assists per game and is fifth with an assist-to-turnover ratio of 1.03. They also rank in the top five in blocked shots per game (4.04) and steals per game (7.33). On the boards, Notre Dame grabs 39.2 rebounds per game, which is fifth-best in the conference, and the Falcons are very good on the offensive glass, grabbing 13 per game, which ranks second in the league.

Noting the Cardinals: Wheeling closed the regular season with a 96-90 victory against Salem, before losing 107-92 to West Liberty. Sean Ealy led the Cardinals with 22 points against Salem, but S.J. Hutchinson (20) and Marcus Johnson (18) were not far behind. WU led the game, 42-33, at the end of the first half, but the two teams combined for 111 points in the final 20 minutes. Against West Liberty, Wheeling trailed by just five points, 54-49, after the opening 20 minutes, but WLU outscored the Cardinals by ten in the second half and shot 50-percent from the field. Marcus Johnson had a 29-points, 11-rebound double-double for Wheeling, while S.J. Hutchinson scored 17 off the bench.

Marcus Johnson leads the Mountain East Conference with 21.5 points per game, and leads the MEC in both free throw percentage, at 90.3-percent, and three-point percentage, at 46.2-percent. He ranks second in rebounding average, with 7.8, third in three pointers made per game, with 2.5, and sixth in field goal percentage, at 47.7-percent. He also ranks ninth in both assists per game (3.2) and assist-to-turnover ratio (1). Sean Ealy scores 13.8 points per game, which is 12th in the league and he ranks seventh in the MEC with a free throw percentage of 84-percent. Kevin Coleman Jr. blocks 1.4 shots per game, which is third-highest in the MEC.

Marcus Johnson was named to the All-MEC First Team by the Mountain East Conference.

As a team, Wheeling scores 82 points per game, shooting the ball at 44.5-percent. The Cardinals do rank third in the MEC with a three-point percentage of 37.1-percent and make nine threes per contest, which is fifth in the MEC. They also have the second-best free throw percentage in the MEC, shooting 76-percent. Wheeling blocks 3.89 shots each game, which ranks fifth in the league. However, WU is near the bottom of the conference in assists per game, with just 11.48 on average.