What channel is Notre Dame basketball vs. Stanford on Wednesday? Time, TV, prediction

Now it gets weird.

Weird not because we’ve reached the end of the line of the regular season with only two games remaining. Weird not because we’re set for another late start for Notre Dame basketball, the seventh game this season that tip at 8 p.m. or later.

Raise your hand if you remember with fondness the Houston game that started at 1:11 a.m. Eastern time on Thanksgiving. Didn’t think so.

Noie: This one wasn’t more of the ACC road same for Notre Dame basketball, was it?

Weird because the last week of the regular season brings with it the first look at the West Coast version of the 18-team Atlantic Coast Conference in consecutive home games, the first against Stanford (9 p.m., ESPNU).

To paraphrase a certain former Irish basketball head coach – they’re in the league, too!

Notre Dame entered the final week in a three-way tie for 13^th place with Syracuse and Cal. Saturday’s opponent to close the regular season?

Cal.

At 4 p.m., which was changed Monday from an 8 p.m. start.

Weird.

What time does Notre Dame vs. Stanford start?

What channel is Notre Dame vs. Stanford on? Tickets?

What is the series history between Notre Dame and Stanford?

Wednesday is the first meeting since Notre Dame beat Stanford (67-61) in Palo Alto on January 12, 1993. It’s been a minute since the teams who regularly play every season in football have played basketball.

Notre Dame has won all three games against Stanford, including 2-0 in South Bend, by 17 total points. The teams first met on December 26, 1934, a 29-19 Irish win in the old Fieldhouse.

This is the first meeting as ACC colleagues.

Players to keep an eye out for …

Stanford (19-10; 11-7 ACC)

Along comes the best ACC player that many have probably never heard of, a first team All-ACC lock and someone who might earn league player of the year honors had it not been for Duke’s Cooper Flagg.

Nobody really knew of Stanford forward Maxime Raynaud when the season started. With Stanford a league newbie, Raynaud didn’t earn first- or second-team all-league preseason honors last fall. That won’t be the case when the all-league teams drop next week.

Raynaud has been a scoring/rebounding/minutes machine in his first and only ACC season. The 7-foot-1, 245-pound Paris native leads the nation with a program-record 21 double doubles for points and rebounds. The entire Notre Dame roster has combined for three double doubles.

Raynaud leads Stanford in scoring (20.2 ppg.), rebounding (10.9 rpg.) and minutes (33.7 mpg.). He can score. He can rebound. He can step out and shoot a 3. He’s an elite big, not only in the ACC but the country.

Know the name. Remember the name.

Notre Dame (12-17; 6-12)

If there was something for the Irish to feel good about coming clear of another hard-luck, near-win Saturday at Wake Forest, it may be the interior arrival of junior power forward Kebba Njie.

Njie’s work on Saturday in Winston-Salem – 10 points, four rebounds, two blocks in 25 minutes – was what many have waited for and wanted all season. When he keeps it simple – get the ball, shoot the ball – he’s effective. When he must think and move and dribble, it gets dicey.

Njie’s never going to be a traditional post player (see Raynaud, Maxime), but there’s no reason he can’t do what he did against Wake Forest. At the least, he can be effective around the rim. Now go and do it against the league’s elite big.

How about a score prediction for Notre Dame vs. Stanford?

Notre Dame 75, Stanford 71: The overall and conference records, and the recent runs both teams have been on (each are heading in opposite directions) scream that the Irish have little chance of beating the Cardinal, even though it’s a Notre Dame home game.

Why the confidence in the Irish? Something happens to Stanford when it boards a plane and heads east. Stanford has played seven league games at least two time zones removed from Northern California and is 1-6. The average margin of defeat is 18.3 points. Five losses have been by 13 points or greater.

The outlier was a 72-71 win at North Carolina on January 18.

Stanford is 0-5 in ACC games played in the Eastern time zone. Notre Dame resides in the Eastern time zone. Therefore …