Irish ready to leave home

Mike Brey is still figuring out his team five games into the season.

He knows Carleton Scott, who had a seven points and a career high 11 rebounds in Tuesday’s win over Kennesaw State, is starting to feel more comfortable in his role off the bench. The same goes for Tim Abromaitis, who has shown deep range on his jump shot.

But much remains undefined.

“I think (we use) November and December to develop an identity,” Brey said. “I think we pass the ball well. We’re pretty good offensively and understand how to score it. I think we’re still trying to figure out the defensive end.

“It’s still, more than any team I’ve ever had, kind of stepping back and evaluating who we’re gonna be. What are we gonna hang our hat on? I don’t think the info’s in, but we’ve got about a month to get the info in.”

A team in flux isn’t necessarily a bad thing this time of year, but the learning curve will begin to get more and more steep as the schedule moves closer to Big East play. Notre Dame opens its conference schedule at home against Providence on Dec. 30, leaving eight more games for preparation.

The next big step is playing that first game away from home.

Notre Dame (5-0) leaves Purcell Pavilion for the first time a 8:30 p.m. Friday (Big Ten Network) when it plays Northwestern in the Chicago Invitational Challenge at UIC Pavilion. Although technically a neutral site match-up, Northwestern’s proximity to Chicago is likely to make it more  like a true road game.

“Can we be efficient and be mentally tough enough away from our building to handle it?” Brey said. “I think it’s a good test.”

Notre Dame expects Northwestern’s style to provide a difficult match-up.

The Wildcats (3-1) play a Princeton-style offense similar to Georgetown with emphasis on long possessions leading to easy buckets. Defensively, they play a 1-3-1 zone.

“We expect kind of a grind-it-out game,” said forward Luke Harangody. “Kind of similar to (Kennesaw State). They run the Princeton offense with a lot of back screens like a lot of what Georgetown does. We’re used to that. We’ve seen it before.”

Injury notes

Northwestern is without senior forward Kevin Coble, who underwent surgery on his left foot and is lost for the season. Coble was Northwestern’s leading scorer a year ago, averaging 15 points per game.

Irish guard Ben Hansbrough is nursing an ankle injury and has played limited minutes in Notre Dame’s last two games. Brey said he’s close to 100 percent, however, and will be fine for Friday.

Notre Dame freshman forward Tom Knight dressed for the first time against Kennesaw State after suffering an ankle injury of his own but didn’t play.