A few days ago, Wednesday night’s tilt against NC State was notable really only for Mike Brey’s first chance to break Digger Phelps’ record for most wins as Notre Dame Men’s Basketball Coach. By the end of the night, there was a celebration to be had, but other story lines are demanding attention too.
Coach Mike Brey breaks the Notre Dame Men's Basketball all-time wins record! Watch Live! https://t.co/YIht4WoyT5
— The Fighting Irish (@FightingIrish) January 4, 2018
#BreyChase Complete
First things first. With this win, Mike Brey, in his 18th season as head coach, takes over sole possession on the wins list with his 394th win for the Irish. Only 3 coaches have been at the helm of the same power conference team for longer than Coach Brey has, and their names are somewhat recognizable: Izzo, Boeheim, Krzyzewski. Obviously that puts him in rarefied air, but it’s even more impressive when you consider where the program was when he took it over in 2000 and where it was during stretches of his first 8-10 years with the program.
He endured suspensions to key players, untimely injuries and Cinderella upsets, to the point where people thought he’d never get the program over the hump and to postseason success. In his 18 years, he’s adapted with his teams, reinvented his teams’ styles, adjusted to new conferences and eventually found postseason success, culminating in the best 3-year run in program history. On top of it all, he’s done it while garnering the respect of peers, players and media alike. Just one example: Last year, he was among the top coaches in a “Cleanest Coach in Basketball” survey.
Your guys were with you tonight @NDMikeBrey
Congratulations from your hoops family. pic.twitter.com/BkUowuFw9o— Notre Dame MBB (@NDmbb) January 4, 2018
Brey has his best recruiting class on the way and looks like he’s still having fun on the sidelines, so it remains to be seen how many more he can add to the tally. Regardless of the eventual number, we tip our cap to Coach Brey — thanks for taking us on this wild ride!
The Injury Bug
The other story line from Wednesday evening was the news released on Tuesday that National Player of the Year Candidate Bonzie Colson had broken a bone in his foot during the Georgia Tech game and would miss approximately eight weeks of action. Questions abound on how Brey would change things up and attempt to attack without his start player. Would he go to the burn offense like in 2010, slowing the already molasses-like Irish attack down even further? Or would he open the flood gates, dole out bench minutes like candy and speed the game up?
Speculation will have to continue into next week, because another twist was thrown into the plot at the end of the first half. That’s when the second senior captain, Matt Farrell, hit the deck with a twisted ankle. He headed to the locker room for the remainder of the first half and testing it at halftime quickly led him to decide he was done for the evening. For those counting at home, that’s two senior captains gone in about 24 hours, all before halftime of the 2nd ACC game of the year.
The good news for the Irish is that, at least for one night, it didn’t matter. Freshman DJ Harvey was the early recipient of Colson’s playing time and looked sharp early, knocking down threes on command and ultimately finishing 6/9 from the floor for 17 points. T.J. Gibbs assumed the rest of the point guard duties with Farrell down and notched 22 points in 38 minutes. The defense clamped down, getting hands in passing lanes consistently and Torres took multiple charges. The 12 point halftime lead grew in the early part of the 2nd half, as NC State couldn’t find a way to score (16 of 42 from the field all together, with 15 turnovers) and all of the scholarship players were able to get significant run and the walk-ons were able to insert their names into the box scores, each posting a 2-trillion in Coach Brey’s milstone game.
A lot is to be sorted out over the next few weeks, no doubt. In the meantime, even just for one night, the kids on the roster staved off any panic about missed bids or the bottom completely falling out, and now the team can celebrate their coach’s big milestone!
What’s Next?
Next up for the Irish, things will get a little tougher, especially coming off Wednesday’s celebration. The Irish will head on the road to take on Syracuse in the Carrier Dome, a house of horrors in years past. Additionally, Mike Brey confirmed that Matt Farrell is doubtful for Saturday’s game, making the task even tougher. Following Syracuse, the Irish head to Atlanta for a rematch with the Yellow Jackets for what could be a pivotal early season win to nab before the schedule toughens up for the remainder of January.
Special night with a special group. pic.twitter.com/AsEYjxzVdD
— Mike Brey (@NDMikeBrey) January 4, 2018
I know it was just NC State, but I am more optimistic after that game, especially the way we played after Farrell went down.
Thanks for the write up.
I’m kinda doing a self-imposed 24 hour rule on this one and enjoying the great vibe and feeling before worrying too much about the future. That was a great program win and guys should be feeling good about themselves in that locker room. As fans, we worry that NC State is probably more abysmal than their ratings suggest, and they certainly didn’t come to play, but that’s for another day.
This was a straight up mauling on both ends. It was the fastest tempo game Notre Dame played against a top-100 opponent this year, and that seemed to favor the Irish. The Wolfpack press was only a factor a few times, and ND attacked it successfully far more often than it turned them over. It was ND’s most efficient offensive performance since the Delaware game, even with one of the country’s most efficient players in street clothes. They went for 1.257 ppp driven by 62% eFG, 17% turnover rate, a whopping 36% OREB rate, and 45% FTA/FGA. Compare that to the defensive work done by Brey’s team. NC State managed only 0.829 ppp driven by 42% eFG shooting, 21% TO rate, a shockingly low 27.9 OREB rate, and only 25% FTA/FGA. Stats don’t lie. The Irish were 7 point favorites in Vegas, but 30 point bosses in South Bend.
As easy as it is to shout that Keatts’s squad is terrible (and they are), the Irish managed to keep them to their least efficient offensive and defensive performances of the season. That’s a good thing.
If you’re going to do what ND did without who they were without, you need a team effort, and ND really got it Wednesday. All nine available scholarship players went for 12 or more minutes. Every single one of them scored, every single one of them had a defensive rebound, and all but 2 had an assist. It really felt like the return of the “culture of passing” on Wednesday.
TJ Gibbs was phenomenal. 22 points, 7 defensive boards, 5 assists and a steal. Martinas Geben continues to roll with a tidy 10 point, 13 rebound double-double.
Cheers to Coach Brey. Here’s to having his guys ready when they could have been down, and here’s to him keeping them rolling when Farrell went down. ND was up 7 when Farrell went down in the first half. There’s no universe where ND is better without those two guys, but the fact they didn’t hang their heads and handled their business is awesome.
Gibbs was fantastic, and he was still 6th on the team in FG%. That was an amazing offensive performance from the team.
Matt Farrell started off the season slow, and he’s really come on lately. Hopefully this is only a minor setback for him.
I’ve seen it mentioned before (I think on 18Stripes) that maybe Farrell’s slow start was due to the fact that he was practicing against Djogo all offseason, rather than a true PG. I’m starting to buy that more; Djogo was really the only player who didn’t look good last night (other than Mooney’s jumpshot), because he just can’t keep up defensively with smaller, quicker players. I still think there’s a role for him, stepping in at the 3 off the bench.
But what really made that stand out to me was Harvey. Yes, his offense was obviously fantastic. But his defense was really impressive too. There were 1 or 2 plays where he kind of fell asleep off the ball. But every single time he was switched onto a smaller man, he did an incredible job of staying in front of his man. There was a possession where NC State’s PG spent about 20 seconds trying to dribble past Harvey, and he got absolutely nowhere. It was really noticeable when Djogo was in instead of Harvey; not because I’d expect Djogo to be able to stick with a much smaller, quicker PG. But because Harvey was somehow doing it so incredibly well. If he can be versatile enough to guard the 1-4 positions reasonably well, he has the potential to be an absurd talent down the road. I had absolutely no idea that kind of defensive performance was in his arsenal.
Harvey was beefy on the block too. Yurt sucks, but he didn’t get anything easy against DJ with a massive size advantage. Perhaps DJ can continue the tradition of surprising undersized 4’s on the defensive end.
Brey said Farrell is “very questionable” for Cuse, and they’re preparing to play without him.
Here’s the other thing about Harvey: He MOVED last night. He didn’t stand and watch and he wasn’t passive with the ball. I might watch the replay because I followed the ball a lot, but Brey talked about a sharp uptick in off-ball movement. That’s really important, especially with the zone coming up. We can’t just stand around and throw perimeter passes against them. It has to be pass & move.
I didn’t mind Djogo. My thing with him is that he’s so quick he tries to jump everything and he needs to just settle in, maintain his cushion and defend. A few times he “over jumped” to cut off his defender and got crossed up to easily. You have to be patient on defense too, and he was just running a little over-clocked on both ends. I thought he played much better than Mooney, who seemed to struggle on both ends. Burns also seemed to be turning things over in his head too much. I’m glad he’s getting minutes, because perhaps he’ll settle down and just play.
The guy who was insanely good was Torres. Picked up 2 big charges, finished at the rim, moved well, and even made a f’ing FT. Brey said you’re going to have to see more of Torres. I hope Burns steals those minutes over time, but if Austin plays like that, he’s a valuable asset.
Well that one was fun.
#395 feels pretty good too. I can’t believe the same guys who looked so, uh, unhelpful a few weeks ago came together and beat Cuse *at the Carrier Dome* *without Farrell or Colson*. Truly, unbelievable.
51-49?!?! Did Brey decide to go to the Slow Burn?
More like they turned into Virginia with all the defense.
No slow burn, just poor shooting by both teams. But what a gutty performance. Totally dominant on the boards, especially offensive end. Great win!