Watch ABC57 Tipoff and Notre Dame's basketball game this Saturday

The Notre Dame men's basketball team faces long standing rival Syracuse at Purcell Pavilion on Saturday.

The Irish lost its only senior - Rex Pflueger to injury.

Now the young team is trying to navigate a difficult schedule without him.

Head Coach Mike Brey spoke with ABC57's Allison Hayes about this season.

"We still would like to fight to get to the NCAA tournament. The one thing I told them after the Rex injury was, last season we lost DJ Harvey, Bonzie Colson, for almost all of the ACC season. We lost Matt Ferrell at times and we still made a run at the end to get in the bracket. Until the Davidson upset, an hour before the Selection Show. So we've kind of done this before. I was trying to explain it to the freshmen, You guys watched it from afar. But, a man down, we still played our way in. So, we want to try to fight our way back and see if we can stay in the bracket and not get knocked out at the last minute this March," Brey said.

You can see more from Coach Brey on ABC57 Tipoff this Saturday, January 5th, from 11 a.m. to noon on WMYS. The game airs on WMYS at noon.