You’d be forgiven for not keeping a close eye on the ND basketball team over the last seven months. The same night the Irish knocked off Boston College in the opening round of the ACC Tournament*, Rudy Gobert tested positive for Covid-19, and sports essentially shut down for three months. While the games stopped, there’s still been some interesting hoops news trickling out of South Bend. We’ve got new players! We know some, but not all of our opponents! Scott Martin is in! Ryan Ayers is out! You might have even missed that practice officially kicked off last week. With a little over a month remaining before the seasons starts, let’s review the state of the program.

New Faces

With campus visits and scouting trips on pause, recruiting in basketball (and every other sport) looks very different. The Irish have been conducting “visits” and “campus tours” via Zoom. Even with the major hurdles in place, Mike Brey and the rest of the staff have still been active on the recruiting trail. The first Covid-era commit was from Tony Sanders Jr. Sanders is a 6’7 wing from Miami, Florida who choose ND over Georgia, Florida State, and Georgia Tech. Through the first week of practice, he’s already been labelled the best athlete on the roster. He joins bigs Matt Zona and Elijah Taylor who were already committed to ND’s freshman class.

Just a week after Sanders committed, the Irish inked Santa Clara transfer Trey Wertz. Wertz also considered UNC, Oklahoma, Ohio State, and Virginia. The rising junior averaged just under 12 ppg while shooting over 40% from deep last season. Wertz will sit out the 20/21, before joining Prentiss Hubb in the Irish backcourt in 21/22. Wertz is the second west coast transfer joining Cormac Ryan who is eligible this season after transferring from Stanford. If last season’s practice reports can be believed, expect Ryan to have a major role this year.

Coaching Staff Questions

Irish fans saw an ominous press release the morning of September 21 containing the news that Ryan Ayers would be leaving the program. No one within the program has divulged any details about what led to his exit. No media members have reported anything either. Junior Robby Carmody broke his kneecap the day before this news dropped, but the two events are apparently unrelated. In his place, Brey promoted ND alum Scott Martin to interim assistant.

There’s also been questions about how long Mike Brey plans to stay on as head coach. The last few seasons have not gone according to plan, and with multiple Irish alums in the coaching ranks, there’s no shortage of potential replacements with ties to the program. Martin Inglesby has done good things at Delaware. Chris Quinn, currently an assistant with the Miami Heat, recently interviewed for the Pacers job. Monty Williams went undefeated in Orlando with the bubble Suns, but coaches there don’t seem to last more than a couple seasons. That said, Brey has talked openly about his recommitment to the job and newly found energy this offseason. No one really knows how long coach Brey wants to stick around, but don’t expect a change at the top anytime soon.

Schedule Uncertainty

While we usually don’t know the full schedule until around a month before the season or so, this year has even more questions than normal. NCAA rules allow for 25 games this year with an MTE (multi-team event) just counting as a single game regardless of how many teams attend. Many of those MTE’s have changed locations or been cancelled. The Maui Invitational is now in Ashville, NC. The Battle for Atlantis, normally held in the Bahamas, is now in Sioux Falls, SD. Imagine having plans to go to a Bahamas beach resort over Thanksgiving, but having to go to South Dakota instead (that may be why Duke backed out). The Irish also decided to drop their MTE earlier this month. ND withdrew from the Legends Classic field of UConn, USC, and Vanderbilt. Even without the Legends Classic, we know most of the Irish schedule.

The full ACC schedule has yet to be released, but it should account for 20 games. The Irish will face the other 14 ACC teams at least once, and repeat six opponents. GT and BC are the standard repeat opponents which leaves four unknowns. The 20 ACC games leaves five non-con games to schedule. The Irish inked a three game series with Kentucky in May, and the game at Rupp on December 12 is still on. Additionally, the ACC-Big Ten Challenge is also still a go. We also know the Irish are still planning to play at Howard on MLK Day in January.

That leaves two OOC games for ND to schedule. One of these may be the Crossroads Classic against Purdue. There has yet to be an official cancellation of the annual Indy event. If Crossroads does happen, I can’t imagine the last non-con game being against a major opponent. Brey’s non-con schedules usually include multiple home games against small conference opponents, so expect Chicago State, IPFW, or another local-ish low major team to fill that last spot.

As far as the wider season goes, expect cancellations and postponements at a similar rate to football. The Irish will probably end up with a few games moved around whether due to Covid cases in the ND locker room or their opponent’s. All this uncertainty has led the ACC coaches to propose a full 353 team NCAA tournament (format TBD). This hasn’t been approved by the wider college basketball committee, but don’t be surprised if conference tournaments and the NCAA tournament look very different or take place later than usual. Brey mentioned “May Madness” in an August interview. No one knows what any season will hold, and this one already looks particularly crazy. That said, having hoops is better than not, so let’s strap in and enjoy the ride.

*Raise a 2020 co-ACC Tournament Championship banner in Purcell, please