So it’s been quite a week for this Irish hoops program, hasn’t it? Let’s run through the depressing stuff:
- An embarrassing, unacceptable, nationally-televised, blowout loss to a Maryland team that has since been shown to not be all that impressive, after which head coach Mike Brey admitted that the Terps “broke us”
- A loss to a below .500 Boston College team, the first such loss since joining the ACC, at home no less and in large part thanks to a season-high 15 turnovers
- Robby Carmody’s season-ending ACL injury and Chris Doherty’s announced transfer, leaving the Irish with only 8 scholarship players for the remainder of the season
The Irish were once a mainstay in the NCAA Tournament and seemingly everyone’s preseason pick to bounce back and get there again. Now, they were at the program’s lowest point in what feels like ages. And the whispers that Mike Brey’s tenure may be coming to an end one way or another had turned into shouting.
Brey himself poured gasoline on that fire after the Boston College game, saying this was his “worst week as a coach at Notre Dame” and that he was not “plugged into the vibe” of his team. Though Brey has long been an overly-honest and self-deprecating interview, he absolutely sounded like a coach on his way out.
But still, this is Brey. He’s often found ways over his Notre Dame tenure to turn things around when they look bleak. Maybe, 20 years into that tenure, he can deliver his most dramatic turnaround yet.
Notre Dame 110, Detroit Mercy 71
If you’re one of the few still holding onto hope, Tuesday night was a good night for you. The Irish, yes this incredibly offensively-challenged version, set multiple school records en route to a 39-point victory over lowly Detroit. They scored a Brey-era, non-overtime high 110 points (topped only by a four-overtime game against Georgetown in 2002). They tied school records with 33 assists and 20 three-pointers. Yes, that’s right. This team that up until now has been one of the worst-shooting teams of Brey’s tenure, now owns Notre Dame’s single-game three-point record.
Let's gather up all the notes for everyone for @NDmbb against Detroit Mercy tonight –
20 3FGM – matches school record from vs. Villanova on Feb. 28, 2011
33 assists – matches school record set at Manhattan Feb. 19, 1986. A Purcell Pavilion and @NDMikeBrey era record— Alan Wasielewski (@NDmbbSID) December 11, 2019
Listen, I know it’s just Detroit. I know how bad they are. I get it. But this isn’t exactly the first bad team the Irish have played over the last 20 years. In fact, they usually play at least two or three sub-300 KenPom teams every year.
And, yet, prodigious offensive teams featuring historic shooters like Colin Falls or Kyle McAlarney or Ben Hansbrough or Tim Abromaitis couldn’t hit 110 points. An all-time efficient offense that eventually won the ACC couldn’t hit 110. The ’06-’07 team that averaged over 80 points per game couldn’t hit 110.
The 110 points included career-highs from Dane Goodwin (27 points) and Juwan Durham (16). The 33 assists included career-highs from Prentiss Hubb (11) and TJ Gibbs (8). The 20 threes included a season-high from Nate Laszewski (4) and career-highs from Goodwin (5) and Gibbs (6).
Last night was a serious accomplishment, particularly on the heels of an absolute week from hell. If nothing else, it says something about these players that they could bounce back so dramatically after what may have been the worst basketball week of their lives to deliver such an inspired performance.
The Reset Button
Brey, as he often does and a major part of why I appreciate him so much, opened up after the game regarding what he did differently these past few days. On Sunday, he told strength and conditioning coach Tony Rolinski to “let it rip”, coaching staff included. Watching him talk about it, this wasn’t just your typical over-aggressive high school coach, let’s run them into the ground as punishment for losing nonsense. Brey said that practice was getting stale, as it often does, and indicated they needed to reenergize things and get these guys working together with purpose again. He also said he might go back to it a few times, not just after losses, either.
Interestingly, Brey also spliced some film of some of the team’s worst impulses over the last week. Turning down shots, getting beat on defense, and most damningly, effort plays that they weren’t making. He had the team watch this on their own, no coaches, to figure it out together. When they reconvened for practice on Monday, Brey indicated that it felt a little different, resulting in a really good practice.
Tuesday night was a lot different. Does it actually mean anything? Certainly not yet. None of us are going to be reminiscing about “The Detroit Game” if this team loses at home to UCLA on Saturday or otherwise stumbles these next few weeks. Better competition and the next sign of game pressure could send this team into another tailspin. And this could still very well be a bottom-feeder team in the ACC this year.
But for one night, at least, something was different. A mental reset for a team that visibly needed it. Some confidence that these players can still shoot it like they did in high school. A realization that more movement, as they did so well all night, leads to better offense. A new level of cohesiveness and sharing the ball to unlock a different ceiling for this offense.
And maybe most importantly, a coach seemingly on his way out, plugged back in and pressing the right buttons to get the most out of a talented group of players.
I can’t convince you that you should care about last night. I expect plenty of ridicule by Saturday night if things go back to what has been this team’s normal. But maybe, just maybe, The Detroit Game was the start of something. Maybe 110 points signals a new trajectory for a team that desperately needs one. Maybe Mike Brey has one more turnaround to deliver. Here’s hoping.
Photo from Notre Dame’s SID, Alan Wasielewski, who provided some great notes on last night’s game on the Twitter account above. A must-follow if you don’t already!
I didn’t include it in the post, but this quote from Brey last night continues what I said above about why I’ll always really appreciate him so much. He’s very honest, even brutally so, he always gives us a window into his and his team’s psyche and process, and he’s really thoughtful about the ‘leadership’ stuff and how to best connect with his guys on a personal level.
“When you’re in the funk and over 20 years, I’ve been in and out of the funk a lot. Luckily, I’ve gotten out of the funk quick enough to stay around 20 years. It’s probably 1/3 teaching, 1/3 challenging manhood, 1/3 giving confidence. Sunday was probably a little more of a challenge. Monday was little more of ‘Let’s go. We’ve got good players. Let’s do it. Don’t turn shots down.’
“I think that’s the balance point at any time with a team, especially when they have their butts kicked last week like we did.”
This year and last year have been two of my least favorite teams to watch. They just can’t pass up terrible shots and hadn’t made any effort to drive in when needed. That said, the passing and movement last night was vintage Brey. They looked MUCH better, and not just because it was a bad team.
Apparently a bunch of scouts were in attendance. Hopefully that wasn’t the reason the team actually started to play as a TEAM. Goodwin came alive in a big way last night and Gibbs finally showed flashes of what he looked like 2 years ago…if they keep it up, I’ll be much happier with the season. It’s bad enough to watch losses, but seeing ugly basketball and poor decisions lead to the losses is much more frustrating. I understand that these guys are getting minutes at an earlier time in the system than what Brey has done in the past. Last year was (I think) the most minutes played by Freshmen on a Brey team, and by a large margin. The fact that most of these guys have still performed like Freshmen this year has been really frustrating.
Hopefully this game marks the turnaround because it couldn’t get much worse.
I am flummoxed. ND kept getting better and did well in the NCAA. Then the last 3 years have been on a big downturn. I thought it would be just the opposite.ND recruited very well a couple of years ago but has nothing to show for it. Why? Also, why do they have only 8 players and 2 injured? I thought college teams had 10 players and not 10. What happened to the other 2? Thanks.
As to the roster, I think a couple things.
First, the season started with 11 scholarship players out of 13 available. Cormac Ryan can’t play because he’s a new transfer, but he still counts. So 11 scholarships for 10 active players. That’s probably one too few. Most coaches like to essentially leave one open at all times, just in case an opportunity arises.
One injury and one transfer, and all of a sudden it’s 8 available players. That sucks, but it’s really not that crazy and happens more often than you’d think. Like I said, Brey should probably have made sure he had one more guy, but then you have the question as to whether or not that’d even be an impact guy already anyway.
How else did it get to that point? Most notably, the transfers out. Matt Ryan would be a senior, DJ Harvey would be a junior, and Chris Doherty just left. You could argue they should have covered for Ryan’s departure by now, but Doherty just left, and they tried a grad transfer to make up for Harvey and couldn’t bring him in (and honestly the kid made a huge mistake going to UNC). Other than that, there’s not a ton you can do in one offseason because there just aren’t a ton of decent guys available.
This is a college basketball reality now; whereas guys sticking around and figuring out how to play has been core to this program’s identity, it’s just less likely in today’s world. Brey has to adapt and expand his recruiting net even when he thinks he’s comfortable with his roster.
Much has been made about the empty 2019 class, which I don’t think was a crazy decision on Brey’s part. But I do think he should have played it safe and tried to get one of two guys who went mid-major but Brey would’ve likely had the inside track on:
Tre Mitchell: PF who went to UMass and is off to a very productive start. I’m not sure how useful he’d be this year, but another body would help.
Chris Ledlum: SF who went to Harvard. Truly excellent athlete, I’m shocked he went Ivy League. Off to a so-so start, but could certainly have provided energy minutes off the bench this year and developed into someone really good down the road. Not sure he’s a good enough shooter for Brey’s liking.
tl;dr I think people are a bit overboard with the criticism. There’s a lot of bad luck here. Brey should’ve brought in one more guy by now. I’m not sure any such guy would have much of an impact on this season, but it’d be nice to have another guy available.
There’s a ton of bad luck, but there also needs to be a correction. In the past 36 months, more than 50% of the time they haven’t been able to practice 5 on 5 with all scholarship players. And when they had, Djogo was playing PG for the 2nd team. Grabbing Cormac Ryan was huge in that regard. But I think the lack of competition in practice the past few years has been brutal. They used to talk a ton about how much Matt Farrell pushed Demetrius Jackson in practice and helped him grow as a player.
At the same time, these guys just can’t shoot. I don’t know how else to put it. They certainly don’t have the quality of ball movement that the teams with 3 NBA players on it had; but they are still getting a solid number of open shots. They just can’t put the ball in the hoop. If you can’t hit jumpers when you’re open, you’re going to break Brey’s system (see Harvey, DJ). Unless we want Brey to go back to running the burn, the only thing that is going to turn this team around in the short term is knocking down open shots. Hopefully this last game will help to make that happen, but I’m doubtful.
I, again, don’t think that situation has been that rare in Brey’s tenure. He often does not have a third ball-handling guard on scholarship. Looking back on some of the rosters, sometimes he has a Jonathan Peoples or a freshman like Gibbs or Pflueger. But it’s often been guys like Alex Dragicevich or Joey Brooks or walk-ons like Pillar, Kopko, or Crowley who aren’t exactly great previews of BE/ACC point guard play. I also don’t think playing against someone as long and tall as Djogo is necessarily a bad thing for developing an offensive game, which has clearly been Gibbs’ problem.
In any case, yes, the skepticism is certainly warranted than anything remotely approaching this level of shooting continues. Saturday against UCLA feels extraordinarily important, at least far more important than we probably ever would’ve imagined before the season.
Minor nit, had Matt Ryan not transferred he would have been a senior last season. Elijah Burns could have been a 5th year senior this year. Last I looked Matt Ryan is chucking 10 treys per game for Tennessee Chattanooga.
Holy shit, I thought this was a wild exaggeration; he’s literally shooting 8.2 threes per game!
I think you are spot about Tuesday night just looking different. Sure, it’s easy to handwave anything that happens against Detroit as more or less meaningless. I’m sure plenty of people just decided to skip watching this game. But this was the team that put up atrocious shooting numbers against cupcake opponents in November suddenly looking very dangerous. Those horrible droughts we always fall into were just completely avoided. I really think Brey giving the guys film of their bad tendencies and having them discuss in themselves sounds brilliant. Despite a lot of the negative energy around the team, they’ve never struck me as a group of guys who have lost belief in each other. If they can initiate some changes by moving with more purpose on offense, I think that can really be a meaningful change for the rest of the season.
The UCLA game now feels particularly big to me, because if we turn back into a pumpkin, this will be seen as a blip and nothing more. But if we can tack on one more offensive performance anywhere in this ballpark against a P5 school, I’ll be ready to buy back in. In the words of Michael Scott, “I am ready to be hurt again.”
Great article Alstein, and I admire your optimism. I’ve avoided writing about this team for the last season and a half because I mostly became tired of feeling so damn negative about them. I just don’t see a way that a win over a team in the 300’s in KenPom erases the fact that Notre Dame has been non competitive when they’ve faced teams at an ACC-level of play (and Boston College). I was somewhat withholding judgement until I saw what they could do against UCLA. I didn’t really see anything in that game that gave me great faith that this team can win more than one or two ACC games. UCLA never really gave the look of a team that wanted to be there and compete. Compared to the intensity BC brought to that game, this looked like a charity scrimmage. For some unknown reason, Cronin sat in a 2-3 the entire night and invited the Irish to continue to bomb away. The 15-39 performance was tied for the 3rd best this season. It is worth noting, that’s the first > 30% night from deep against a team in above KP 129. I don’t see ND making 35+% from deep against athletic teams that want to get out and guard. There just isn’t decisive enough ball and man movement on offense to inspire confidence that they can score consistently against competent defense. When is the last time you’ve seen this team effectively back cut somebody? How about a ball reversal after a kick out? Far too often, they’re taking two lateral dribbles, ball faking and making a backwards pass 19′ from the rim. That’s not good offense, and too terribly easy to defend. If ND needs generate open shots to actually, you know, make shots, then the overall offensive execution has to be better. ND went 9-24 (38%) from inside the arc vs. UCLA. That’s after a shockingly bad 11-37 (30%) at Maryland. Their season 2FG percentage of 48.4% is 190th in the country. It helps to feast with 70% nights against Robert Morris and Detroit, but it is hard to ignore the numbers against Maryland, Marshall, and UCLA. This team doesn’t generate enough easy/good shots to shoot well. The next time you watch, count the number of times you see a guy making a good, hard cut vs. jogging to the next spot. Ball and player movement changes the shape of the defense and leads to easier shots. The sad thing is that I see some of the best individual and team defending in the Brey era. They finally have a team that can put together some stops, even if they struggle to stay in front of truly elite athleticism. They have good “layers” to the defense with weak side help and rim protection when Durham is in the game. It is just a damn shame that they can’t shoot (or generate good shots). Brey has long preached the importance of getting “kills” (3 consecutive defensive stops). Sadly,… Read more »
While we disagree on whether this past week means much, I do largely agree that it more or less just punts the expectations game – or whether we should have any expectations – until Saturday against IU. That game, more than these last two (or even the two before that), is likely to be the bellwether for the rest of the season.
Coming to this post a bit late, but I’ve been wondering…
Can the last couple of years really just boil down to the departure of Martin Ingelsby? Delaware has steadily progressed under his leadership and is currently sitting at a healthy 10-2. Was Brey’s success more attributable to Ingelsby’s coaching?
Guard play has noticeably declined. I realized he had some injuries but Farrell declined as a senior.
The current guards seem to have no clue how to run a pick and roll.
I think it’s possible that Ingelsby was one of the major keys for success over the last decade and that this team really misses him. I do think he was one of the sources of offensive innovation and evolution over that time in which this team adopted much more of an NBA-like offensive approach.
That said, Brey had plenty of success that predated Ingelsby’s coaching days, too. I think it would be overstating things quite a bit to say that it was more Ingelsby than Brey this whole time. I suppose one data point is that this team was a twisted Bonzie Colson ankle away from winning the ACC again, and that was without Ingelsby.
But it’s definitely worth monitoring over the next couple years to see if this team can ever quite get back over the hump. It’s also probably fair to say that there is something missing from the Ayers-Humphrey-Balanis trio that is just not offering the same value as Ingelsby-Solomon-Balanis did.