Player movement is part of big-time college basketball. Already this off-season, both Virginia and Duke have seen players leave programs with eligibility remaining. Irish fans will recall both Alex Dragicevich and Cameron Biedscheid departing early. Tuesday evening, the Notre Dame Men’s Basketball twitter account posted a statement from Coach Mike Brey indicating that current sophomore, Matt Ryan would be adding his name to that transfer list.
— Notre Dame MBB (@NDmbb) March 28, 2017
I guess the easiest thing to say is that there isn’t good news or bad news, just news. We debated bringing the banner of doom with us from the old place, but decided it best to leave it behind. Even if we packed it, I’m not 100% sure this would merit that dubious distinction.
On the one hand, Ryan appeared ready to make the big “junior leap” that we see so often in Brey’s “get old, stay old” program management. I said as much in our NCAAT preview and on the RakesReport pod. With Bonzie occupying defenses inside, and slashers around him, Ryan looked to be a valuable spacing component. With Beachem and Vasturia off the roster, Ryan was a leading candidate to absorb those minutes. His NCAA Tournament performances seemed to indicate an arrow pointing up for the Cortlandt Manor, NY sophomore.
On the other, Ryan only played 9 and 11 minutes in Notre Dame’s two tournament games. He didn’t play more than 4 in either second half. Perhaps the writing was on the wall. Perhaps Ryan had finally broken. There were previous whispers about potential transfer over dissatisfaction with Ryan’s role and minutes. While we on the outside saw Ryan as being the next Matt Farrell with a junior breakout, perhaps Ryan feared the fate of Austin Burgett. Burgett was largely buried by the emergence of Bonzie Colson and Rex Pflueger in his senior season. Despite public shows of solidarity, there were private rumblings around Burgett’s displeasure with his utilization in his final season. Ryan had a front-row seat for all of that in his freshman year.
It is perfectly natural to be disappointed that Ryan didn’t want to finish his time in South Bend on a positive note. Moreover, it sucks to lose a guy who seemed poised to step up in to a critical role. The flip-side, of course, is that perhaps Ryan saw something that none of us outside the program are privy to. There has been a low buzz that Nik Djogo was excellent in practice all year. Brey also seemed intrigued by the 3-and-D skill set freshman John Mooney can bring to the table. Perhaps Ryan read the writing on the wall. Perhaps he was already feeling DJ Harvey breathing down his neck. There are a lot of reasons this transfer could have come to pass. Not all of them are awful.
My own guess is that Ryan would prefer to play on the perimeter versus banging down low and guarding power forwards regularly. I think that’s what Brey is looking for. I think with Gibbs, Plfueger, Djogo, and Harvey presenting quicker perimeter defending, Brey wanted Ryan to focus on interior defense and rebounding. I also think that coming off of his third team AP All-American performance, Bonzie Colson is going to get a lot of shots next year. While Ryan would have one of the greenest lights in the country playing for Brey, I’m guessing someone else was whispering in his ear that he won’t be featured and could get passed over in the rotation.
Perhaps “perhaps” is the most over-used sentiment in this situation. As we all sit outside the confines of the program, everything we throw out is pure speculation. Unless we had eyes on practice, or sat in on meetings between Matt Ryan and the Irish coaching staff, all we have are theories and distant observations.
So where does everyone go from here? For Ryan, he’s released from his scholarship, but ACC rules prevent other ACC schools from offering him a spot. No matter where he ends up going, he’ll have to sit out the 17-18 season before playing out two final years of eligibility. For the Irish, they open the upcoming season with 10 scholarship athletes on the roster. Of those, Torres, Farrell, Geben and Colson will exhaust their college eligibility. This changes the recruiting dynamic for the upcoming season, but I’ll leave it to those more skilled in roster management to comment. From an X’s and O’s perspective, I could make the argument that the Irish have redundant (and perhaps better) fits for that role on the roster. John Mooney’s opportunity to contribute is now wide open. Brey will be looking for guys that can help defend the interior while spacing the floor on offense to give Colson and Farrell room to work. Ryan had every opportunity to leverage his experience and gorgeous shooting stroke to play that role. Sadly, he chose to move on instead.
In the end, this news isn’t great, but it isn’t terrible either. Both the Irish and Ryan have the opportunity to move on and be very successful. If there was going to be friction or discontent, better to move on from it in March than in November.
After hearing about guys like Farrell and Geben sitting down with Brey after their sophomore years and being convinced to stay, I can’t help but wonder if Ryan already had his mind up heading into that meeting. I was very wary of this transfer when Ryan was getting essentially zero minutes in the ACC season, but I was hopeful that his late season uptick would keep him in the fold. Ultimately, I wonder if he had already made up his mind midseason.
As you said, Joe, this really opens the door for John Mooney and leaves minutes for Harvey immediately. While Mooney seems like he may possess a more diverse skill set than Ryan, we just haven’t seen enough of him to know if he can make a decent approximation of Ryan’s 3-point shooting. From a roster balance standpoint, the floor-spacing is definitely the main concern now. Hopefully Rex can either shoot at a similar clip with higher volume, or Gibbs can allow Farrell to play off-ball a bit more.
I had higher hopes for Ryan’s ND career, but it never all came together. I suppose it happens.
I doubt Mooney has a better stroke than Ryan, but I’m guessing Mooney has a more complete skill set, particularly around the rim. All guesses though.
Mooney looked slow and unathletic during his very limited minutes late in blowouts. If he couldn’t see the court this year, in a season where Geben was benched for being ineffective, I’m not getting my hopes up.
As a true frosh, Abro only played in blow outs. Same with Farrell.
I’m sad to hear he’s going. He has a beautiful shot, and I never understood the lack of minutes. That said, hopefully this is a good sign about the talent we have below him…if he didn’t see a place for himself in the offense with VJ gone, then somebody else has to be taking that spot.
While it puts a positive spin on things, it’s hard to imagine that he is concerned about Mooney taking his minutes when he was playing this year and Mooney basically wasn’t at all (and wasn’t redshirting). Much more likely, as alluded to on the Irish Illustrated podcast over the last few weeks, his relationship with Brey apparently deteriorated over time, and not playing him more when he was playing well in the tourney (and when Beachem was playing awfully) was probably the last straw. Kind of a bummer, but ¯_(ツ)_/¯.
That’s why I pointed out the Burgett thing. Could have made a big impression on the frosh. That can sour a guy on a coach and sew seeds of mistrust.
Man, this was a much more optimistic article than I envisioned. I think this is an absolutely huge blow to the team. If Brey couldn’t find minutes for Mooney or Burns this year when we desperately needed a big man to spell Geben, it doesn’t leave me optimistic for their skill sets. And I’m trying not to chuckle at the mention of Djogo, but come on, the dude was basically an attempt to get Thon Maker’s attention.
Basically, we will have yet another season with a short bench, and the guys in the rotation are going to have to play well all season. Geben has to be productive in his minutes. Torres has to play great defense when he’s in. And now Harvey has to have a very positive impact as a freshman. I’m basically on the opposite end of this; I think this is a huge blow to our chances for yet another double bye.
Multiple guys have mentioned Djogo on the radio show and in interviews. No one seriously though Maker was ever coming.
Short bench is nothing new. This was a deeeeep team that played 6 guys and spotted another 3 in irregularly.
This is an admittedly positive spin, but I also fail to see being too gloomy over spilt milk. We’ve got to play the guys we have and see what they can do.
I’m not in Ryan’s head, so I’m not willing to call this stupid, but it doesn’t feel smart. The last 3 years have bought Brey a metric crap ton of credibility. If Ryan wasn’t buying what he was selling, time for all to move on.
Oh yeah, I think this move is absolutely horrible for Ryan. I can understand being upset about the playing time this year, but the situation basically would have set up perfectly for him next year. Not to mention there are vey few coaches in the country who would be willing to give substantial playing time to a guy who is great offensively but a major negative defensively.
Oh well. I really can’t see Djogo getting much run this year, but if good Geben shows up and Harvey comes in strong from Day 1, I suppose we can deal with this transfer. I’m sure Brey has to be very disappointed he’s losing out on an experienced, offensively strong player though.
That’s really it, isn’t it? I’m sure Brey told him he needs him to defend and rebound and space the floor. For a guy who’s two assets are size and a picture-perfect release on his jumper, that should be a pretty good deal. He isn’t VJ with the athleticism, but even VJ was told to get in the paint and defend/rebound. Notre Dame is one of the most offensive-oriented programs in America. Where else are you going to get to hunt shots like the Irish do? Like I said on Twitter, I’m baffled.
Honestly, the more I think about it, the only thing that would even remotely make sense to me is if he was struggling with/disliked the academic rigor. Otherwise, I really don’t see a better offensive fit anywhere in the country. And he wouldn’t have to look further than Farrell to see a situation similar to his that worked out perfectly. Strange.
The crazy thing is that for all our speculation about the basketball reasons, it could be something simple like family or a girlfriend. There are a billion things on these guys’ plates. We could spend the next week guessing at it and never get it right.
I think you’re definitely way off on Djogo. He was being recruited by Wichita State, Stanford, Wisconsin, and Michigan, among others. I’m not sure that he will be the one to step up this season or anything (maybe but he’s only a RS frosh), but he is a very legitimate player and brings a lot to the table.
I seemed to remember him as a low 3 star recruit, who may have had interest from other schools, but only received an offer from ND. My memory might be incorrect.
As it is, I can’t really remember any situation where a guy playing for Brey went from literally 0 minutes to a guy making an actual impact for ND. I’m probably overlooking an obvious candidate, but I definitely can’t think of any recently.
Roster management dictated he go on the 5 year plan (God, I wish Mooney had joined him). Cheers to Nik for seeing that the right way. There have been plenty of true freshmen who have stepped in over the course of their first year of eligibility. While there’s far less evidence that someone who is on a 5 year plan steps up in year 1 on the floor, think about it this way:
Is the inability to unseat Steve or VJ from the rotation is a really high bar that Nik was only going to clear if he was an obvious double digit scorer and great defender from day 1. Since he had such an obvious reason to sit and get acclimated, I’m not going to assume he can’t play.
I’ll give him this; if he can be a solid ball-handler, then he might get some run this year. We’re woefully short on guys who have shown an ability to handle ball pressure (Farrell is good as long as he’s not being sloppy; Gibbs looked very loose with the ball last year; Pflueger basically passed as soon as any pressure was applied so I’m not sure how he good he is there). Having an extra ball handler on the court (aka the Vasturia/Scott Martin/Zach Hillesland role), where you don’t need to be a PG but can handle the ball, is a way he could get Brey to play him.
POINT BONZIE BABY!
Ha oh man. Although in all honesty, Bonzie’s ability to knock down 3s is probably the biggest reason I think Geben and Torres are going to get a ton of burn. I can see a ton of pick and pop action with Farrell/Gibbs and Bonzie this year.
International players (even Canadians) are just different. They get recruited later. The ranking sites get on them later, never know what to do with them, and often just don’t rank them or give them their cursory three-star rating. His recruitment was just picking up. He transferred to that big-time prep school from his small-town high school and schools just started hearing about him. Brey locked it down before he took other visits, with I think WSU and Wisconsin scheduled. Forgot Butler offered him as well.
Not that Nik’s at the same level, but Jerian redshirted and then averaged 12 points and 5 assists his first season. There aren’t really very many direct comparisons of redshirts in the Brey era, though. Carleton is the only eventual core player who redshirted, and he didn’t play much his first year playing.
The rest I can think of were all end of the roster type guys. Torres played Torres minutes. Knight didn’t play much. Burns obviously didn’t play. Katenda was never healthy.
So who knows? Brey has made all sorts of things work. I don’t really think it will be Djogo as a main guy this year, but I do think he will be down the line, and it will be a good thing.
Abro was a great RS, it’s just he did after his frosh season. Guessing he was kept active as a frosh because Scott was on a RS.
I think this takes out a player that was certain to be part of this team’s “core”. I think this is basically how the roster looks:
Colson, Farrell – obviously, these guys run the show and are your captains
Gibbs, Pflueger – will get a ton of minutes but can they make an offensive leap?
Harvey – will be in the rotation, but how prominent will he be?
Djogo OR Mooney OR Burns – one of these will have a major role, the other two will be peripheral players
Geben, Torres – probably exactly the same role as last year
I would’ve put Ryan in the same level as Gibbs and Pflueger but changed to “can he make a defensive leap”. I thought he’d be the third leading scorer on this team, though, to be honest, so I’m more inclined to think this is a big deal. Where does the rest of the scoring come from?
With Bonzie and Farrell, it gives you a lot of leeway to just fill in the other pieces and be fine. Still, now you’re counting on someone or perhaps two someones with little to no experience (out of Harvey, Djogo, Mooney, and Burns) to play a major role for you as the fifth starter and/or a primary bench guy. It would have been much more comforting to have Ryan in there and take these guys down a notch.
Obviously, it’s college basketball. If you don’t get contributions from guys who haven’t played much before, you’re going to suck. But it is still unnerving to see it laid out like that. Fortunately, Bonzie Colson calms a lot of nerves.
I think Bonzie is going to have to play the 4 alongside Geben/Torres a lot this year. I just can’t imagine Burn/Mooney/Djogo going from 0 playing time to prominent player. I would love for one of them to prove me wrong though.
I see a starting 5 of Farrell, Gibbs, Pflueger, Bonzie, Geben. Harvey comes off the bench early, either sending Gibbs or Pflueger to the bench depending on matchups. Torres is your next guy off the bench, with Mooney being the last guy off the bench. If Burns can defend as well as his high school coaches said, maybe he steals some Torres minutes.
In non-conference play, I could see a deep rotation, getting all 3 of Djogo, Mooney, and Burns minutes. But once conference play opens, I’m betting on just a 7 man rotation of the upper-classmen and Harvey.
I think it will start as Geben then eventually be handed off to Mooney. I’m not the highest on Mooney, but he has the skill-set necessary to play with Bonzie as a big who can defend bigs and rebound but also spaces the floor offensively. I think he will play a big role out of necessity.
That’s a really great way of looking at it. I fully agree with your roster run-down. Ryan had every opportunity to start the summer as a “main guy” and maintain that status. In Brey’s system, that’s a minimum of 20 minutes a night. With Bonz drawing doubles and Farrell driving-and-kicking, he was going to get a bunch of clean looks and if he shot 40% from deep, he was going to probably average double figures.
Now, you’re really dependent on someone from the Harvey, Djogo, Mooney, Burns quartet stepping up. Otherwise, you need to hope Brey finds a way to play 2 bigs regularly and Geben continues to evolve. My worry is that Ryan provided instant offense. After the Colson and Farrell line above, who else can you count on for 10+ a night?
If Gibbs learns to finish, he’s going to be a scoring monster (especially playing off the ball alongside Farrell). His ability to catch and immediately go to the rim is really impressive. If he can finish through contact, he’s going to average double figures. Of course, after watching this season, that’s still a big “if.”
Additionally, if he can get his 3 pt % up to/over 35% (32% on a low volume this year), I think he can be that 3rd scorer on a nightly basis.
The good news for Gibbs is that he’s going to spend the majority of his minutes playing alongside Farrell this year, rather than as the primary ball-handler. That gives him an offseason to keep refining his scoring game without having to spend a ton of time worrying about learning how to run the offense.
But really, we are going to miss Ryan a ton. Teams would have had to think long and hard about doubling Bonzie with Farrell and Ryan both sitting outside waiting to knock down 3s at a 40% rate. Can Pflueger step up and be the guy that hits those shots? Can Gibbs?
On another note, I hate to overstate things, but Brey simply HAS to find a transfer this offseason. The roster for the year after next is unusually bare for him. Only 6 scholarship players projected.
This happens in college basketball. But it isn’t very typical of Brey to have roster imbalance like that. Sure, he can bring in a freshman class of 4-5 guys and get the numbers back up, but does Brey of all people really want to go into a season with almost half his guys being true freshmen?
It would bring tremendous balance to the roster if he can bring in a transfer who will sit out next season, get himself acclimated to the system, and be ready to be a rotation player as an upperclassman for ’18-’19. Then you still get your class of 4 freshmen, but you’re back up to 11 total and your eligibility is much more spread out.
I’d put a lot of money on Brey bringing in a transfer, just gotta hope it’s actually a guy that can step into the rotation right away after his sit-out year.
You’ve got PsychoB, Scott Martin, and Dan Miller as examples that worked out well. Of course, you have Sherman too.
Probably needs to be a PG, right?
Either that or a gunner to spread the floor. Like I said, if you want to jack 3’s, this is a fun system and roster. TJ’s eligibility runs out after 19-20. You probably would like to space them like you have with TJ and Farrell. If you pick up a PG with only 2 years of eligibility, you put him right on top of TJ. Might be better farming for that role in high school recruiting and find that gunner on the x-fer market.
Yeah, that’s probably the worst part of this whole thing. If Brey isn’t looking for a ball-handler, then his next best option is a Matt Ryan.
Yea, I’d rather it be an off-guard who can act as a 2nd PG when needed. I think we should count on handing the keys over the TJ. But I’m not going to be too choosy, just get a guy who can play!
Several guard transfers out there: The PG from Bryant (he was quick) averaged about 15 ppg. Evans from Rice averaged 21 ppg- more of a combo. Both these guys are sophs.
Two frosh names- Lewis from Duquesne (averaged 14 ppg, played in HS with Tatum and Cook from Iowa). Also, Miami of Ohio has a PG who averaged nearly 17 and 5.
It will be interesting to see if a couple of 6’8 forwards who did well as frosh look for bigger stages. AJ Brodeuer averaged almost 14 and 7 at Penn and ND was recruiting him as a 3 star. Rayman for Colgate averaged almost 15 and shot nearly 40% on treys. He looked very good versus ND.
UConn also has a couple of former 4 star rated transfers (no clue on their academic credentials). Enoch and Jackson.
@What about that Pagano guy?@
Is it fair to say the defense for next season automatically improved with Ryan leaving? Matt Ryan is 6’8 and in over 800 minutes in college he has 4 blocks and 15 steals. Yes, his shooting form was awesome- but he primarily feasted on making treys versus 300+ RPI teams.
I read a comment that John Mooney did not look very athletic as a true frosh. My guess is Luke Maye did not look very athletic as a frosh or soph. He has some skills- shooting, post play, passing. None are great, but they are solid.
He looked athletic enough on that put back dunk versus Fort Wayne.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJAlrRPjx-w
Nice catch! I forgot that play (feels like it was years ago now). Oh how I wish he preserved a year, but oh well. That is a much more athletic play than what Ryan showed in his time in South Bend.
The other source of Mooney optimism was his Billy Donovan offer. While I don’t think it is great to have big expectations for him, I also don’t think it is terrible to be optimistic about him seeing the floor.
That was the last 2 points scored by either Mooney or Burns. They did not score in 2017, mainly because ND had very few games that were not close.
Yea, if Donovan liked him that means something considering similar players he had.
IMO Mooney is more of a 4/5 compared to Abro or Luke Maye, who in college are more of 4/3’s. IMO Burns and Djogo have the versatility to play 3 positions.
As far as players who emerged after not doing much for a year or 2 under Brey:
Russell Carter- played in 11 games as frosh
Hillesland – played in 13 games as a frosh. Very limited player.
Nash- played in 15 games as a frosh.
Abro- played in 15 games as frosh than a RS season
Scott- played in several games as a RS soph, but very limited minutes
Cooley- played in several games as a frosh, but very limited minutes
Grant- I realize he sat out as a frosh with a minor injury, but the consensus was there was very little PT avail.
Burgett- seldom played as a frosh and then saw major minutes as a soph before the heart scare.
Geben- played OOC games as a frosh and then barely played as a soph
Farrell- we all know his story.
Likely a pipe dream, but there actually appears to be players Brey could utilize if we wanted to full court press. Basically everyone other than Farrell, Bonzie, and Geben.
I just can’t see us pressing. Not our jam.
I agree, just a thought how to use the full 10 man roster- albeit in very short spurts as a change up. FWIW I am old enough to remember Digger’s SWAT team led by Jeff Carpenter (who was mentioned in Catholics vs Convicts).
Speaking of jam- it sure would be to nice to see a lob jam, be it on a backdoor cut or a screen and roll.
-Carter averaged 3 pts and 1 average per game as a sophomore.
-Hillesland was a bit better at 6 and 4.
-Nash was 3 and 4.
-Scott was a non factor as noted
-Cooley was 4 and 3.
-Burgett was 3 and 2.
-Geben was 1 and 1.
-Farrell was nonexistent for most of the season.
-Jerian and Abro are the only two who were any good in their first year of actual playing time.
I think you’ve basically reaffirmed my belief that Mooney won’t be offering much for us this upcoming season
Luke Maye averaged 5 points and 4 boards this year. If Mooney is a starter or 6th man averaging those numbers next season, I think we’re screwed.
Luke Maye is the 4th big behind 3 studs: 2 who are seniors and frosh Bradley. He was just named as the Most Outstanding Player of the South Region. Umm that’s kind of a big deal to overlook in your synopsis on him. I’d say, he’s a little better than his overall season averages of 5.8 ppg, 4 rpg that by the way he put in just 14.4 mpg. He is also shooting close to 40% on treys. If ND receives stats per minutes like that next year by Mooney- they will not be screwed.
Sometimes it’s just the opportunity to play legit minutes and quite often at ND that does not occur as a frosh and sometimes it does not occur as a soph (Carter, Scott, Cooley, Farrell are at least 4 who really hit their strides as juniors) I think we all know who will be the opening game starters in 17-18 and we know Harvey will play a lot. Mooney or Burns will have the chance to be a rotation player. My belief is the floor for the one who receives the most minutes will be Hillesland soph production. Unlike Hillesland they will have the potential to improve their numbers in the future- because both have shooting ranges that extend beyond 3 feet. FWIW Cooley averaged slightly less than 4 ppg in 10 mpg as a frosh and he was the 7th man on an excellent team and no one saw that production as being screwed. With Ryan gone, at least one of Mooney and Burns will average more than 10 mpg next season.
I meant for Cooley as a soph, he was the 7th man at 10 mpg. Based on his production in his first 2 years many thought ND was screwed in 11-12. Once he had the chance to play real minutes, it was clear they were not screwed. IMO Mooney will have better 2 years stats than Cooley.
Fair enough. I don’t see it, but hopefully I’ll be pleasantly surprised. Most guys under Brey just don’t break out until the year after they’ve started receiving minutes. Mooney or Burns will have to buck that trend to make an impact greater than Ryan would have made.
Uggghh, not all the surprised about this, but it does hurt a little bit. You’re probably right, Joe, that this may be a mistake on Ryan’s part, and I have learned to trust Brey when my instinct says otherwise, but I also kinda think some of this is on him. Ryan was playing well down the stretch when VJ wasn’t. They are really pretty similar players although VJ is more athletic and Ryan is a bit taller, right? I also think Ryan gets his shot off a bit quicker. Anyway, I’m not saying Ryan should have been starting in his place, but I do think he deserved more PT. Burgett was an interesting case, but he didn’t have anything like Ryan’s shot; that’s an asset that almost anybody will want. I hope the guys behind Ryan make us forget about him, but for now I wish Brey had worked a little harder to keep Ryan.
Ryan is not taller than VJ and this is not on Brey. Brey realizes he can’t go far in March with one dimensional, particularly when the missing dimension is defense. This is a good thing for all.
Brey went to the Elite Eight with two defenses that KenPom rated in the 100s.
It also helped for the second Elite 8 to have the 14 and 7 seeds clear out the 3 and the 2 seeds. When you get NCAAT match up breaks like that, you can get away with a defensive rating in the 100’s.
Brey won the ACC tournament with a defense ranked in the 100s.
Please note my previous comment was strictly about Brey’s second elite 8. We hear a lot about him making 2 straight elite 8’s and it is impressive- but we can’t pretend the WVU and Xavier upsets were not a big reason why. The 14-15 team was much more legit. Yes, I realize that team won the ACCT with a defense ranked in the 100’s, but that team was an anomaly because an incredibly efficient offense made up for mediocre defensive stats. They also when needed, made some big stops (except for UK) We have to be realistic, we many never see another ND BB team with a better chance to win the NC, let alone make a second F4.
The only team I am aware of in recent years with comparable mediocre defensive stats that went further was the Michigan team that lost in the NC game.
I used to make these kinds of despairing comments about ND basketball, but I’m done making them. Even with the NCAAT loss, what ND did this year with what they had coming back was incredible, and a lot of the time they made it look pretty easy (think, for example, their wins vs. FSU and Virginia in ACC Tournament). I honestly thought going into this year that we were gonna suck, that it would be a total rebuilding year. Even the one stretch when we did look bad seemed like a distant memory by the end of the year. Of course I hadn’t factored in the fact that Farrell is actually a good player. Anyway, I think Brey knows what he’s doing, and he’s going to keep building his thing. There’s a lot in the locker room and in practices that we just don’t know. While Brey is an offensive genius, he’s also done a nice of getting some guys (Rex and Vasturia come to mind) that work on the defensive end). I can say all that and still think Brey should have thrown Matt Ryan an occasional bone, enough to keep him invested. This year’s NCAAT draw was brutal, and WV played their best game in the tourney against ND. It is what it is. We’ll be back.
I loved watching VJ play for the past few years, but he wasn’t exactly a defensive stalwart either. Athletic enough to grab a few rebounds and block a few shots, sure, but far from a great one-on-one defender.
Heh Georgetown reached out to Brey about their job, and he immediately told them he has no interest.