Cullowhee, N.C. – Fresh off its season-opening home 106-65 victory over Dalton State to open the 2023-24 regular season, the level of competition ramps up this weekend as Western Carolina men's basketball hits the road for the first time on Saturday afternoon to open back-to-back road games, traveling to South Bend, Ind., to face the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.
 
Tobacco Road meets Hoosiers on Saturday as teams from arguably the top two basketball states in the union square off for the first time on the hardwood when WCU invades the double-domed Joyce Center on a Veterans Day afternoon matinee. Tip-off is scheduled for 2 p.m.. The game will be broadcast on the ACC Network Extra and ESPN+ (paid subscription required), and also through the Watch ESPN app. Live stats through StatBroadcast are also available online at CatamountSports.com. Please note that there will not be coverage through the Catamount Sports Network due to football.
 
Western Carolina (1-0) claimed its season opener for the second time under third-year head coach Justin Gray back on Tuesday night as four Catamounts scored in double figures in the mostly one-sided win. Senior Vonterius Woolbright, the Southern Conference Preseason Player of the Year, paced WCU with a game-high 19 points with sophomore DJ Campbell scoring 18 on 7-of-9 shooting. Bernard Pelote drained four of WCU's 11 3-pointers to finish with 14 points while senior Tre Jackson poured in a dozen including a pair of made triples.
 
The Fighting Irish is seeing purple for the second-straight game in opening the Micah Shrewsberry era in South Bend when the Catamounts roll into town. Notre Dame (1-0) scored a season-opening 70-63 victory over the Niagara Purple Eagles back on Monday (Nov. 6) night, overcoming a sluggish start and rallying from a 12-point deficit. Freshman point guard Markus Burton set a Notre Dame freshman debut record with 29 points.
 
Notre Dame was picked 15th in the current 15-team Atlantic Coast Conference preseason polling.
 
Guard play should dominate Saturday afternoon's storylines as WCU returns a three-headed backcourt monster featuring a trio of preseason All-SoCon selections. Woolbright is joined by Jackson and classmate Russell Jones Jr. as the great distributor. Those three look to contain Irish frosh Burton who looks for an encore performance after rookie debut.
 
Saturday marks the first-ever meeting between the Catamounts and Fighting Irish on the men's basketball hardwood. Western Carolina has faced 11 of the current 15 teams in the ACC, a league which sprung from The SoCon back in 1953. WCU is 3-51 all-time against the perennial basketball power conference with victories coming at Georgia Tech in 1980, at Florida State in 2001, and most recently over the Rick Pitino-led Louisville Cardinals in 2009.
 
The SoCon is currently 1-2 against the ACC in 2023-24 with both losses suffered by The Citadel. The Bulldogs fell 72-59 at NC State to open the season before a slim, four-point loss to Boston College on Friday night in Charleston. Also on Friday, Chattanooga scored the SoCon's first ACC win of the year with an 81-71 victory over Louisville.
 
Following Saturday's road game at Notre Dame, the Catamounts travel to Murfreesboro, Tenn., to face Middle Tennessee on Monday, Nov. 13 with a 7:30 p.m. ET / 6:30 p.m. CT tip-off against the Blue Raiders. Monday's game will be broadcast on ESPN+ (paid subscription required) with coverage from the Catamount Sports Network beginning at 7 p.m. Fans can listen to CSN locally in Sylva on 105.7 FM / 540 AM WRGC, The River, with live streaming audio and a link to live stats both available on CatamountSports.com.
 
Keep track of everything related to Catamount men's basketball and WCU Athletics through our social media outlets on Facebook (fb.com/catamountsports), Instagram (@catamountmbb @wcu_catamounts), and Twitter (@CatamountMBB @catamounts).