We haven’t done a ton of basketball coverage here at 18 Stripes this season. For most of the year, the Irish just weren’t really worth writing about; they were a decent-to-good team in what appeared to be a terrible conference, and as those teams do they ended up on the bubble for this year’s NCAA tournament. Luckily, not enough bid thieves showed up in March to bounce them off of it, and the Irish received the last at-large spot in the Big Dance (although various bracketing rules resulted in them playing in an 11-seed play-in game instead of a 12).
Then the tournament happened, and things changed a bit. The Irish managed to outfight a strong and physical Rutgers squad in a double-overtime thriller to reach the field of 64, then topped themselves by flying to San Diego to play a game about 40 hours later and putting together their most complete game of the season in an impressive win over Alabama to reach the second round. ND ended its whirlwind week last night by battling a tremendously athletic and tough Texas Tech team to a near-standstill before some key missed opportunities allowed the Red Raiders to escape, ending the Irish season short of the Sweet 16.
Over five days, what we thought we knew about these Irish – I gave them next to no chance in the play-in after a pitiful effort in an ACC Tournament loss to Virginia Tech – has swung dramatically, and now what looked like an intriguing 2022-23 team looks, if things go well, to be much more exciting than that.
Who we know is coming back
It’s not entirely clear yet how many of this year’s players will be back. At varying times it’s been said that few or almost all could return. Dane Goodwin, who’s really become a terrific catch-and-shoot sniper on offense, has long since confirmed that he plans to exercise his free year of eligibility the NCAA gave everyone from last season’s COVID-addled campaign.
Trey Wertz didn’t intend to play last year after transferring from Santa Clara until the pandemic led the NCAA to allow him to waive his (at the time) sit-out year a few games into the season. It’s been said he wants to pursue an MBA. His return seems assured, although his playing time situation (as we’ll get to) is unclear as he was clearly #7 in a 7-man rotation and more talent is on the way.
Cormac Ryan, who did sit out a year as a transfer from Stanford in 2019-20 back when you had to do that, is assumed to be returning as a 5th-year senior as well – and thank goodness, because he looked against Alabama like a player poised to take a mini-leap and become a key figure next season.
We’d be remiss if we didn’t also mention freshman JR Konieczny, another South Bend product, and sophomore Elijah Taylor in this space as well, both of whom are expected back. Neither played much this year – Taylor might have but was reportedly dealing with academic issues much of the season – but both could be factors next year as well. Konieczny was only rated 20 spots behind Wesley in the 247 Composite in 2020 (although it’s clear by now people missed the boat on the latter).
Who might or might not be coming back
The aforementioned three players you can pretty much lock in for next season. Beyond that it’s unclear. Nate Laszewski and Prentiss Hubb are both seniors who have the free COVID year available to them if they want to take it, but as far as we know neither has been clear about whether they will. Both will be graduating, and while neither is likely to be an NBA factor, there’s good money to be made for solid college players who go pro overseas and it’s possible either or both might just not want to be in college anymore.
Paul Atkinson Jr. grad-transferred in from Yale and sat out last year instead of playing – he wasn’t eligible because he didn’t choose the Irish until last season, which he couldn’t play because the Ivy League canceled the year, was almost over. There has been rumor of the Irish maybe trying to petition for Atkinson to be given another year due to the Ivy’s not playing last year, but not much has been said about it so we’re thinking that might be out.
The biggest question mark either way is probably freshman Blake Wesley, who was a breath of fresh air for the Irish this year almost from the get-go, notching a big game in defeat against Illinois early on and canning the game-winning shot over Kentucky – a shot that we now know put ND in the tournament – in his first career start.
Wesley is a projected mid-to-late first-round NBA draft pick due to his incredibly athletic frame and game-changing speed, but he had a very rough statistical week in the NCAAs despite ND’s team success. Seeing Purdue’s Jaden Ivey, another South Bend kid and somewhat similar type of player, explode into a top-5 type of prospect in his sophomore year should, you’d think, push Wesley in the direction of staying and trying to build up his NBA stock for next year. Coach Mike Brey has a good history of keeping guys like that around an extra year. But we don’t know yet and probably won’t for a little while.
What’s the future look like?
This is where things get exciting for Notre Dame. Brey pulled in one of his most talented classes on Signing Day last fall when four-star guard and 247 Composite #30-ranked player JJ Starling inked with the Irish, joining fellow top-100 talent Ven-Allen Lubin and upper three-star player Dom Campbell, both big men, in the class. Starling is widely assumed to be a college-ready playmaker who will see plenty of court time next year, and Lubin and Campbell are certainly also capable of having an impact. Irish fans – and Brey himself, openly – have been dreaming of the possibilities of a Starling/Wesley backcourt ever since. If Wesley does come back, that’s the most talent in a Notre Dame backcourt since…ever?
Meanwhile, for Brey himself, this year represented something of a renaissance. Last year wasn’t the first time Brey’s often unanimous (if tepid, if you look at the attendance numbers) fan support wavered – there were audible chants to fire him at one point – but it was the first time in over a decade that his future at ND seemed murky. However, he never showed any public signs of self-doubt, and he was rewarded with a successful finish to this season that will likely erase any memories of the rough November that preceded it. He also got in a couple more of those Brey moments that make him such a hit with College Basketball Twitter.
An update on that Irish whiskey 👇 https://t.co/EizIXJLoQz pic.twitter.com/6jtiZY1fzf
— Notre Dame Men’s Basketball (@NDmbb) March 19, 2022
Now he’ll have an exciting roster led by at least a few NCAA Tournament-seasoned veterans and including a couple of intriguing young talents. The makings are there for the Irish to be excellent. There’s no way of knowing how it will shake out, but this week reminded us again that with Notre Dame hoops, almost no scenario in either direction can be ruled out.
The Texas Tech game was tough. There were a few times I couldn’t help but think the refs were actively ignoring Tech infractions. I suppose that is the problem with replay, what seems so obvious can be missed in the instant it occurs, but that is nothing new. It was an exciting game, and hopefully with the new talent influx sets the team up for a deeper run next year.
Officiating in this tournament as a whole has been pretty brutal. Really, from what I’ve seen and read about from the other games, the couple of big misses in the TT game barely registered.
That is why basketball is unwatchable. Almost every call is subjective and ticky tack. These are grown-ass men getting in trouble for leaning the wrong direction towards other grown-ass men. Give me football, hockey, or even baseball for that matter.
If the calls are that important, implement a penalty box. If they are not that important, then don’t waste my time calling them.
It’s a real bummer that Atkinson can’t come back. Outside of Wesley, he would arguably be the most important player to return next season. Brey has shown he has 0 confidence in Matt Zona, and Nate Laszewski, for as great as he has been at times, simply isn’t strong enough to guard many true centers. Brey will absolutely need to be searching hard for a 5 in the transfer portal.
If Wesley returns, I would be fairly surprised if every other eligible guy from this year’s rotation returns. Hubb would seem to be the odd man out. I think there is a world where Hubb could make good money overseas if he can put together one outstanding year, and a transfer would make a ton of sense for him. If Hubb were to leave, I would love to see Brey go for 2 bigs in the transfer portal, unless he is ready to get Lubin on the court as a freshman too.
A lineup of Wesley/Starling/Goodwin/Laszewski/Transfer Big Guy, with Ryan, Wertz, and Lubin off the bench; that’s a solid lineup, with real upside potential across the board.Wesley, Starling, and Laszewski all have NBA ceilings. Goodwin has high-end international player potential. Transfer Big Guy wouldn’t need to be nearly as good for us as Atkinson was this year. Off the bench, Ryan would start for 50%+ of ACC teams. Wertz has shown the ability to knock down 3s if he takes them (if only he had Hubb’s confidence in his own shooting abilities). Lubin would be a major wild card there, and Brey has shown he is fine going with a 7-man rotation, with no backup big.
I wouldn’t expect that team to finish 2nd in the ACC (the ACC was fairly bad this year), but I would expect that team to end up with a higher seed in the NCAA tournament. But all of this hinges on Wesley returning. Without him, I don’t see us getting back to the tournament next year.
There are two problems with your 8. It forgets Taylor and JRK. The second and bigger problem is when has Brey ever played more than 7? It is why they wear down as the season goes on, and they only really show two looks. They become very predictable depending on the 7.
Brey has gone 8 plenty of times. And JRK is too skinny to start playing in the ACC next year unless he gains significant mass, in my opinion. Unless we get evidence that Taylor will be eligible, I’m not going to have faith that he is going to be available.
I think there is a 100% chance that Ryan is a starter next year. Brey loves him, and the offense was noticeably/statistically better when he was inserted into the starting lineup. He’s probably the surest guy to start at this point in time.
It was pretty clear that Taylor was working his way into the rotation until his grades caught up with him. I don’t think Brey is as militant about 7 as people think, but he trusts who he trusts, and everyone else is out.
We might be surprised at how many players decide to move on. 5th year seniors aren’t exactly the norm in basketball, and actually playing for 5 years seems genuinely strange to me. I can understand any/all of them choosing to move on. Even Dane started to hedge on his earlier commitment to come back for it.
As for Wertz, I could understand him wanting to be a surefire starter somewhere, but I’m not sure if he is allowed to transfer and play right away since technically he already did that once (even though it was for the weird COVID year – do we really think the NCAA would grant him such a waiver?). Who knows.
There is so much uncertainty that it’s impossible to make any meaningful predictions right now. I guess I’d say Ryan-Wesley-JJ-Goodwin-Taylor/Transfer with Taylor/Transfer, Trey, and JR off the bench.
I will also say that not making the tournament again (5 times in 6 years) with or without Blake would be straight up unacceptable. Ryan/JJ should be a killer backcourt and there is finally a good mix of size and skill on the roster that needs to come to fruition. Between Zona/Taylor/Campbell/Transfer, there really is no excuse not to find a stout big man rotation that at least starts to negate some of our biggest weaknesses (even if they aren’t themselves go-to offensive threats quite yet). Brey also needs to find someone useful in the transfer portal every season because that’s just the reality of the game right now.
Taylor played 6 minutes in a game where Laz picked up 4 fouls and the opponent’s offense revolved around a massive human being. He got 3 minutes in a game we lost by 16 points. In those 9 minutes, he picked up 6 fouls. (He also played 2 minutes in a 30 point win over a DII team). Are we sure he was playing his way into the rotation? He’s 6’8″ and doesn’t seem to have a good enough jump shot to play the 4 in a Mike Brey offense.
I’m extremely concerned about our 5 situation. I’ve already noted my concerns with Taylor (not to mention his potential ineligibility), but Zona is extremely slow. He doesn’t look like a high major impact player. Dom Campbell will be a true freshman, who is also 6’8″. Not saying it’s impossible to find a starter out of those 3, but that’s an absurd amount of inexperience for Brey to suddenly start to trust.
In regards to losing players, I wouldn’t be shocked by pretty much any player on this roster moving on other than maybe JRK, since he’s a hometown kid. Anybody else who wasn’t in the rotation this year might just want a fresh start. Wesley might go to the NBA. Laz/Ryan/Goodwin might want to try their hand overseas. Hubb might just recognize that things haven’t worked out here as hoped. Wertz might be tired of being the 7th man (and possibly getting less playing time next year if everybody else comes back plus Starling). I sure hope they all come back plus a transfer big, but who knows. Brey has a very interesting offseason ahead of him.
I hear ya on Taylor. For me, it was somewhat reminiscent of the way Brey talked about Bonzie his freshman year. Brey would say a lot of complimentary things about how he was coming along and forcing him to think about playing him, but he was still so reticent to do so until he had to.
With Taylor, he was saying a lot of the same things and then at Illinois was more or less forced to play him (and Taylor played pretty well). Then fast-forward to Nate’s injury, and that would’ve been a clear moment where Taylor would’ve played some real minutes in the way that Bonzie simply had to when Zach Auguste was suspended for a game.
I, too, am worried about him regaining his eligibility (and you always hope that a guy is willing to come back as opposed to go somewhere else), but I do think that if he’s back, he’s likely the leader in the clubhouse to start in the post. He may be a bit shorter than Nate/Atkinson, but he’s also the heaviest player on the team but still a very good athlete. I think he can hang better down low than most of the bigs we’ve played in recent years.
Pretty much every team, every year has to fill at least one starting role with someone who’s very inexperienced. It’s just not a sufficient excuse for me to write off a season. The coaching staff has to make it work and play to the strengths of the guys they have, especially with such a high-potential backcourt.
Andy alluded to it in the post but we really haven’t been keeping up with hoops very well on this site. We are very sorry about that. There have been some pretty significant life changes among the core hoops writing team that have eroded our free time to do this, and honestly the emotional rollercoaster of following this program the last few years (and the profoundly unenjoyable conversations around it) have been huge deterrents in committing much time writing about it.
That said, being the eternal optimist/idiot that I am, I think next year could really be a fun one for this team. We’ll try to regroup and bring a little more on the hoops side, probably not game-by-game, but with some regularity so that our community has some place to take it all in and talk about it.
I can’t blame you guys, it’s been a brutal couple years for Irish basketball.
By player:
Hubb- oversees likely. Could transfer to a mid major where he could chuck at least 15 shots per game.
Lasz- hard to say. Unless he is the only option at Center, he will not put up big numbers with the expected guards back.
Ryan- most believe he will be back, but he turns 24 in the fall.
Dane- thought it was given he would play a 5th.
Atkinson- he mentioned in the Rutgers press conference that the possibility exist he could play w seasons at ND.
Wertz- said he wants an MBA. Does he want it more than doing a grad transfer where he can play 32 mpg.
Wesley- expect him back. He would almost certainly be a 1st rounder who would be on a G League roster next season. Not even close to sniff an NBA rotation spot.
JR- curious if Brey mentioned him sitting out this season
If he does not get stronger or crack the rotation next season would he sit out to have 3 seasons left. He is really needed in 23-24.
Starling- expected to be a day 1 starter.
Lubin- IMO the wildcard next season. Unique roster player.
Campbell- does he need a year for conditioning.
Taylor- he looks like someone who will work both boards hard.
Sandeers and Zona- do not see PT next season. Sanders might be able to be a rotation guy in 23-24. Zona looks like someone who should transfer to Delaware.
Wade- prefered walk on who will have change to play next season.
Morgan- better than normal walkon. Can make free throws.
A bit of an anti-Brey rant here. I am no fan of Mike Brey. I used to make a point of watching the games, now I don’t pay attention. I think he is, at best, a mediocre coach. I also find his shtick annoying. When he came in Mens Basketball was probably the second most important program at ND (I think WBB had passed the men at that point), and other than a few bad years, a successful program. We were a Top 15 program in wins all time when Digger left. Nowhere near that now. At this point, it is obviously football, probably WBB second, then we have baseball, hockey, lacrosse, men and women’s soccer in some order ahead of MBB. Of course, fencing has won more NCs than all of our sports combined, but they get no love so we will skip them for these purposes. Whether Brey plays 7 or 8 (I stand by my earlier comment of 7), the fact is he coaches with an incredibly short bench. The analysis in the article for a successful next season depends on an unidentified (and maybe never to arrive) transfer, the desire of a 24 year old to return for one more season, and then a couple of sixth years. That is not a recipe for success. It is a recipe for another mediocre season. We were benefitted by an incredibly weak ACC schedule. We got a good win against Alabama (helped by an in game injury), but were very lucky to beat Rutgers. I remember reading somewhere that Swarbrick said Brey had earned the right to stay as long as he wanted. Hopefully, my memory is failing. I don’t see a single national championship banner hanging anywhere in the ACC with his name on it. Two elite 8 runs were peak Brey. Without a national championship, in my opinion, you can’t even begin to discuss whether he (or any coach) has that status. Thinking about it, has Jack ever actually fired a coach in his tenure? Perhaps the women’s volleyball coach last year. I can’t remember. Obviously, Kelly was a divisive person and left in a bad way. However, if he put out football teams as consistently mediocre as Brey does he would never have lasted as long as he did. Kelly was not a warm and fuzzy guy. Brey is. That is why Brey is still at ND long past his expiration date. Brey consistently produces the equivalent of 8-4 or 7-5 teams with two 10-2 season thrown in. Over 20 years. In fairness to Brey, I think you can say he has left the program better than he found it, but unlike football which was sliding to irrelevancy and losing its luster, we have managed to get a little better and lose both relevance and luster. Please end this nightmare. All of our recent coaching hires have been young up and comers. The jury is out on Freeman (obviously). Ivey seems to be getting her… Read more »
Digger left in 91 and Brey started in 2000. Pretty sure men’s basketball was not a top 15 program when he took over in 2000 and so it’s tough to blame Brey, as if he is the sole reason ND is not a top 15 program.
So sure if the standard is top 15, then of course Brey hasn’t done that. What should be a relatively reasonable standard for men’s basketball? I don’t follow it so closely but I would imagine a lot of the top recruits don’t intend to stay in school for 4 years (and so aren’t keen on the academics) and would be particularly turned off by ND. Is that true? It would certainly make it much harder to be a consistent top 25 program.
Those nine years are roughly the equivalent of the Davie-Willingham-Weis years between Holtz and Kelly. I will grant you we were probably not Top 15 all time in wins when by the time Brey came on, but we have fallen further since.
I don’t think we can, or would, compete for the obvious 1 and dones. We will never be the recent Kentucky teams (prior to Covid) where everyone left by sophomore year. However, we do need something approximating that talent. I think the better example is why can’t we be Gonzaga? Villanova? They consistently win in the tournament with experienced squads and beating the one and done squads. We could compete in the ACC with that too.
The rant is in part started from sports talk radio this morning and a discussion of the new Maryland basketball coach. The announcer (as much a Terp homer as exists) was saying that the Maryland job was viewed as a Top 15 job in the country by coaches. He had a couple people on who backed him up. I don’t necessarily agree with him, but it did get me thinking that they are certainly more relevant in the MBB world than we are.
As a lawyer, I joke that there are about 20 law schools in the top 10. If you take that approach to the Maryland job, he is probably right. At one point, the ND job and the Maryland job were probably roughly even. They moved past us during the Williams- Brey years by a long shot. Brey came to us from Delaware. The last two coaches at Maryland came from power MBB conferences, Big East (Seton Hall) and Big 12 (Texas A&M). If Brey left tomorrow, could we get a coach from that kind of program? I am not sure. That is a problem.
As for your comment about kids being turned off by ND, isn’t that the same approach as Kelly saying there are aisles that ND can’t shop in? The same approach that Freeman rejected, and really all of our other programs reject?
I just hope DePaul or St. Johns is not in our future.
I think the comparison fails with football (and every other sport) because basketball players have an opportunity (and often take it) to leave very early. That seems to change the dynamics between football (who even if players leave early can still graduate) and basketball players. I would be curious to see some data on how early kids from the top 50 leave to go pro (or how many of them leave after 1 year, how many after 2, etc.).
You may be right, but I would be willing to bet the portal will make football look a lot more like basketball. The players won’t be hitting the NFL, but they will look for better playing time. In basketball, one great player can carry a team pretty far. That isn’t true in football.
But at least for football high schoolers know they are going to have to take classes for a solid 3 years at least no matter where they go (sure the quality of those classes are different). That’s just not true for so many in basketball. I get the sense that many really think they might be in it for a semester or 3 at most. Many of the one-and-done’s I’m sure pull out of school by April and so don’t even finish a 2nd semester (and this affects their mentality checking out schools even if they end up staying longer than they think).
I’m not sure what your point is about in basketball one great player can carry a team? That seems to support the argument that it’s harder for ND because it’s harder to get those top 50 players [or top 25 is maybe a better measure] half of whom think they are gone in a year.
We can’t be Gonzaga because Gonzaga plays in a joke of a conference. I’m sick of Brey too, but you have an unreasonable expectation for where this program should be. Gonzaga and Villanova have 0 other sports on campus that have any expectations. As long as ND Football exists, the basketball program will never get top billing on campus.
If Brey were to leave, I wouldn’t be sad at all. But they will never force him out after a season where he finished 2nd in the conference (in a down year, yes) and made the NCAA Tournament. Just not going to happen.
It’s not unreasonable to be better than THIS. And the football excuse is such a canard. No reason on earth we can’t at least aspire to be great at both.
Everyone is talking up the incoming recruiting class. Why was that so difficult? If Brey can land a top-30 player and two more in the 75-to-100 range, why can’t we do the same most years? IMO, the fact that you have a bunch of recruits who would prefer to be one-and-done shouldn’t hurt ND. Focus on the ones who are actually interested in getting an education and go get them. This isn’t football — we don’t need 20-25 annually. Just 3 a year, maybe occasionally 4. And we’ll still have more continuity than other programs, who are constantly plugging new pieces into their rotation.
Mostly, Mike Brey is just a lazy guy who loves coaching at ND because no one has any expectation that he’ll actually win big. And the excuses made on his behalf for the things that ND can’t achieve do nothing but enable him. That’s the reason we have been stuck with this lukewarm basketball coach for nearly a quarter-century now. It’s completely insane.
Notre Dame had missed the tournament for ten straight years prior to Brey, which I think is informative. I think he has very plainly done a lot of good for this program relative to where it was and found a way to win a lot of games despite some obvious institutional disadvantages relative to the college basketball powerhouses.
That said, there is a fine conversation to have about standard-setting and whether Brey has overstayed his welcome. We’ve certainly had them a lot over the last few years.
Some other things to consider in response:
In the modern college basketball environment, I would argue there is no “recipe” for assembling a contender. Transfers are obviously a larger piece of the puzzle, and there are literally hundreds of transfers to come in the coming months. It is entirely reasonable for an aspiring contender to still have a piece they need to get from the portal.
Whatever his age is, Cormac Ryan will simply be a 5th-year senior who sat out a year due to transferring. It’s no different than Ben Hansbrough when he was Big East POY or, say, MaCio Teague who started every game and was the second leading scorer for national champion Baylor last season. I don’t really understand what is so objectionable about counting on a 5th-year senior.
The depth/minutes angle is always lost on me. Virginia just won a national title playing 6.5 guys. Villanova did nearly the same thing the season before. This is, in my view, the most tired narrative among ND fans about Brey because 1) his most successful team by far was only 6.5 guys and 2) there are plenty of other very successful coaches who do the same thing.
Beyond all that, I think we would all say that the biggest reason for hope for next season would be a backcourt pairing with genuine NBA futures in Starling and Wesley. Maybe you don’t believe in them. Maybe you don’t believe in the pieces to fill in around them. That’s up to you. But nothing about this recipe is that unusual or unlikely for a truly successful season.
I don’t believe in Brey being able to maximize the talent and take that backcourt anywhere except the Round of 32. With luck, maybe he gets to the Sweet 16. Is there anything you have seen from Brey that says he can win an NC? Isn’t that our goal?
I just looked it up, we are #8 in all time wins, and #12 in all time win % as of March 2022. Do we feel like that kind of program? Do we even feel close to that kind of program? My friend gave me bad stats as of the end of Digger’s reign.
The problem with a small bench is that it leaves no margin for error. One injury and your team is done. Completely done. You also don’t recruit well because the best players want to actually play not sit on the bench and hope their time comes.
I just don’t think we can rely on the portal for the reasons that have been well documents in our football discussions. Academics matter. We either need grad transfers or underclassmen from good schools. We shall see if he can fill the recruiting/development holes with a transfer this year. He may get lucky.
I certainly have doubts about the pieces around them, like the entire frontcourt. Maybe Lubin and Campbell will step in as freshmen, but the history of freshmen with Brey isn’t all that good.
I think we have seen peak Brey. I don’t see it getting better, but I grant it could get worse. I think it is worth the risk. While Virginia won a title playing 6.5 (I thought it was more but didn’t pay attention) the year before with the same 6.5 they became the first #1 to lose to a #16. You can win that way with stifling defense and enough offense to score 60. You better not have an injury or play a team that can run.
We had this same argument about Kelly. He has forced our hand, and we will see if Freeman is better. It will take at least two years to see. I was very concerned about Ivey after 1 year, but feel a lot better now.
Maybe I just shut up, and wait for Brey to walk away. I doubt he wants to stay all that much longer either.
I wouldn’t get your hopes up. After last offseason or maybe the one before, the south bend tribune had an article about how he had rediscovered his love for the game and had his passion back. I wouldn’t be shocked if he is here another 5 years. Personally, I hope Wesley and Starling pull off a miracle run to the elite 8 and Brey goes out on a high note. But I doubt it.
I understand your overarching feeling that Brey has peaked. It is very plausible, perhaps even likely, that that’s true.
Personally, I really want to see him through however long JJ’s career is at ND. JJ is a special talent that is perfect for Brey’s offense, which can be thrilling when it’s really operating at its peak. The pieces around him seem promising and give us much-needed size (JR, Lubin, Campbell), plus Brey has shown an adeptness at using the portal for quality rotation guys if not better (Cormac, Atkinson, Wertz), and I’m hopeful for this next class with some quality in-state guys (Holloway, Booker) that ND is in on.
Plus, I really like the new assistant staff, who all complement each other better than we’ve seen in quite a while and seem to have some recruiting chops.
It just feels like this is all pointing in the right direction to me, so I think the next two years could be really fun! I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
I think I’ve seen it suggested more than once, if it wasn’t for the assistant staff, these players wouldn’t be performing anywhere near where they did in March Madness and some of their other games, and recruiting in roads wouldn’t be what they are. It may be Brey’s offense, but I’m wondering if it is time to change the direction and energy in the program like the football program did (albeit, unintentionally).
What happened at ND during the Dark Ages of the 90’s may have once been relevant to Brey, but it’s ancient history now. We play in arguably the most prestigious conference in the nation, get plenty of airtime and have attractive facilities, so whatever institutional hurdles had to be overcome have long since been crossed. It’s well past time to judge Brey on an apples-to-apples basis compared to peers.