Welcome to exhibition basketball, where the scores are made up and points don’t matter. Mike Brey and his Notre Dame Fighting Irish squad opened the season with an exhibition versus D2 Mercy College Tuesday evening. The Mavericks were run out of the gym by Notre Dame, who piled up the 119-58 victory. Mercy sports a roster without a player listed taller than 6’8”, and the Irish featured four starters listed at 6’5” or bigger. To say the visitors were physically over-matched would be an understatement. Mike Brey’s team enjoyed a massive physical advantage at nearly every position, so this was hardly a test of the 2017 edition of the Fighting Irish. It was, however, a great night to kick the rust off and get on the floor in uniforms against someone other than themselves. Under that lens, the evening was a smashing success. There were a lot of hints in this performance of who Notre Dame can be this season and how they can provide an encore to consecutive Elite Eight appearances.

We’ll get to the debuts and individual performances in a bit, but let’s start by breaking down the overall team performance. The most telling statistic of the evening was 26 assists on 41 made FG’s. The last two Notre Dame squads featured ball-dominant guards who could create offense with the ball in their hands. This led Brey and his staff to infuse a lot of ball screens into the base offense and use pick-and-roll to bail them out in late-in clock situations. Brey also chose to slow the tempo of most games to limit wear and tear on his leading scorers as they logged heavy minutes and bore a heavy burden in the offense. With Demetrius Jackson wearing Celtic green and Jerian Grant (hopefully) donning the red and black of the Bulls, this year’s team has to find a new offensive identity. In many ways, this is going to be back to the future for the Fighting Irish. This will be a team that relies less on ball screens to initiate offense and more on free movement and passing to drive offensive efficiency. Notre Dame’s best scorers in 2017 aren’t ball-dominant guards. They’re sweet shooting wings who are opportunistic in attacking the rim. Both VJ Beachem and Steve Vasturia use their accurate shooting to set up their game off the bounce.

In his post-game comments, Coach Brey talked about Notre Dame’s “culture of passing” and it was on full display against the Mavericks. Here at 18 Stripes, we’re going to take a closer look at Notre Dame’s typical motion sets in future posts. We’ll compare those to the pick-and-roll heavy looks the Irish employed the past two seasons. The most prominent adjustment you’ll see is that the ratio of on-ball to off-ball screens will shift from somewhere around 50:50 in the last two seasons to 20:80 or even 10:90 in this campaign. The other change you’re likely to see is a stark increase in tempo. Up and down the Irish roster are guys who thrive in the open floor. In a senior-driven program, Brey will tune his attack to fit his senior leaders, and both Vasturia and Beachem thrive in an open game with a lot of possessions. After spending last season ranked 328th in Ken Pomeroy’s adjusted tempo statistics, I suspect this edition of the Irish will look more like the 2007 or 2008 teams that were among the 50 “fastest” offenses in the country. This is music to the ears of basketball aficionados, who love seeing crisp ball movement and a very open game.

Of course, like any good Notre Dame fan (regardless of sport) there’s plenty of desire (and reason) to pick at the defense. Every year, we hope to see some glimmers of improvement, but if you’re expecting this team to leap in to a top 20 or top 50 defense, I think you’re setting yourself up for heartburn this season. I did see some of the willing rotation and desire to help that Brey referenced in his post-game comments, but I also saw a lot of worrisome patterns of the past in Notre Dame’s defensive fundamentals. I’ll couch all of this by admitting that it is tough to summon defensive intensity when you spend most of the second half doubling up your opponent. That being said, getting down in a stance is a habit, and one that far too many Irish defenders ignore. You see a lot of guys standing way too upright, and it shows up in inability to contain dribble penetration in one-on-one situations, and challenges in closing out shooters on the perimeter. There are a lot of guys, like Junior Bonzie Colson and Beachem who frequently attempt to make up for allowing dribble penetration with shot blocking over the top. While effective against D2 competition, that might not be the best option in ACC play. If you’re looking for reasons to be panic-y about the defense, the Mavericks hitting 44% of their threes is continuation of a disturbing trend from last year. We can spend another season complaining about these things, or we can accept we are who we are and just enjoy the beautiful offensive display.

Speaking of debates about defense, we can also discuss Mike Brey’s heavy deployment of the 2-3 zone in an exhibition game vs. a D2 opponent. In theory, you have match-up advantages at all 5 positions in this type of game. That would lend itself to challenging guys to get in a stance and stay in front of their guy in a man defense. Of course, exhibition is also a great opportunity to test different defensive looks against live fire, and that’s what Brey chose Tuesday evening. The 2-3 looked particularly potent with freshman T.J. Gibbs and sophomore Rex Pflueger up top and a variety of big bodies along the baseline. I expect the Irish to deploy the 2-3 pretty frequently this season. No one is going to confuse us with Syracuse, but the zone plays in to some of this roster’s strengths while covering up some of their weaknesses.

We can all agree that a first-game match-up vs. a D2 school isn’t necessarily a data point upon which you can confidently project an entire season, but if you’re an optimist, there’s a lot to like in Tuesday’s performance. When you run down the roster, let’s look at what we got from guys…

V.J. Beachem

I have this dream where the Good Lord smiled on V.J. in the womb and decided to gift him with the most pure and beautiful jump shot in history. The senior wing’s stroke looked as gorgeous as ever. Beachem was 5-8 from behind the arc and 3-4 from the charity stripe for 18 points in a tidy 23 minutes. Also encouraging for V.J. were four defensive boards. The Irish will rely on all 5 guys working the defensive glass this season, and having one of their senior leaders working back to clean up misses and close out defensive possessions sets a great tone.

Steve Vasturia

If anyone was kicking off the rust Tuesday, it was senior Steve Vasturia. The only starter not to crack double digits, Vasturia was 3-7 overall from the floor (1-2 from deep) and hit both his FT’s. Knowing Vasturia is going to be counted on to do a lot of work with the ball in his hands this year, his four turnovers are a little worrisome, but easily attributed to settling in with new, inexperienced teammates on the floor. Onions is going to be just fine.

Bonzie Colson

Bonzie was the dominant force on the floor in the game’s opening minutes. He scored most of his 14 points in the early parts of the game, and was incredibly efficient, going 5-8 overall (including 1-2 from three). Colson cleaned up 6 defensive boards and logged 3 steals. It is time to get excited about expanding Colson’s role in the Irish offense. He flashed a nifty mid-range game that will make him an incredibly difficult match-up for opponents. If you come at him with a lumbering big, he’s going to pull him away from the basket and abuse him with quickness and movement from 15’. If you decide to guard Bonzie with a smaller, quicker defender – he’s more than happy to back you down on the block and pound you. If the Irish really do pick up the tempo, look for Brey to try to run opposition bigs off the floor to get Bonzie that smaller match-up. This worked great at NC State and versus Okafor in 2015.

Matt Farrell


The junior point guard put in a solid performance. In addition to being named the player of the game by UND.com, Farrell also took advantage to flash a little above-the-rim athleticism. Farrell did a lot to prove his doubters wrong and validate his coach’s confidence in the 2016 NCAA Tournament. Farrell brings gym rat swagger to the squad and will start the season as the primary ball handler. If he keeps putting up double-doubles with a 10:1 assist-to-turnover ratio, that’s likely to continue. There are going to be nights where Farrell throws a couple of passes in the stands and frustrates his coach, but overall, it was a very solid 29 minutes for Notre Dame’s current trigger man.

Martinas Geben

Poll most Notre Dame fans about things that worry them in the 2017 season and the contribution of junior center, Martinas Geben, has to be near the top of most lists. At 6’10” and a slimmed down 255 lb frame, the Lithuanian national seems to be moving fairly well. Offensively, he finished his opportunities, going a perfect 5-5 from the floor and 2-2 from the line to ring up 12 points to go with his 9 rebounds. Unfortunately, Geben saw his minutes limited after picking up 3 quick fouls. He was the only starter under 20 minutes on the evening. To his credit, Geben didn’t pick up a single foul after that initial stretch, and his head coach made it clear in post-game comments that they expect Geben to get in there and mix it up physically. There’s enough confidence in the bigs behind him that they’re not asking Geben to play conservatively. He’s in there to scrap, defend, rebound, and set great screens. He did a lot of that on Tuesday. My concern for Geben is when the game gets a little faster and competition more physical. He has a tendency to get rushed on offense. Ryan Humphrey should be employing the old John Wooden saying with Geben: “Be Quick, but don’t hurry.” Under the rim, I’d love to see Geben widen his base a little bit. When his feet get together, he can get pushed around. He’s a big, strong guy, and Irish fans are hoping he can use that to ND’s benefit in ACC play.

T.J. Gibbs

When asked about his freshman guard after the game, Mike Brey pointed out that he might miss a shot at some point, but Gibbs didn’t on Tuesday. He was a perfect 4-4 from the floor (2-2 from deep) and 6-6 from the charity stripe. He put up 16 points and 7 assists in 19 minutes of work – the most for any non-starter. With all the appropriate disclaimers of an exhibition game vs. D2 competition, it is OK to get excited when a freshman steps on the floor and plays a perfectly efficient 19 minutes without a single turnover. Physically, Gibbs looks ready to contribute right away. Mentally, he looks as solid and as comfortable as can be. Brey deployed Gibbs in a variety of ways. He let Gibbs run the show for stretches, and in other segments, he partnered Gibbs and Farrell in a “2 handler” back court that proved very effective. Obviously, the shooting line is what jumps out about Gibbs’ night, but it would be a mistake to ignore his 3 steals and 2 defensive rebounds. Gibbs is a willing and active defender who looked fantastic at the top of the 2-3 zone, where he consistently created havoc for the Mavericks. I want to tamp my enthusiasm about this kid down with some pragmatism, but even his coach compared him to Tory Jackson, calling him a gamer, competitor and shot-maker. Be still my heart…

Rex Pflueger

Speaking of defense, the sophomore swingman from California picked up where he left off on that end of the floor. Whether it was in man-to-man or in the 2-3, Rex Pflueger raises the Irish defense whenever he’s on the court. After last year, Irish fans learned to expect this from Rex. His five defensive boards were tied for second best for the Irish on the night. The big question for 2017 is: what can Rex bring to the offense? Tuesday didn’t provide any definitive evidence, but Rex looked extremely comfortable with the ball in his hand and much more aggressive hunting his shot. He shot fairly well (2-2 inside the arc, 1-4 behind it) and rang up 6 assists on the evening. If I’m on the Irish staff working with Rex, I’m encouraging his aggression, but I’m also asking him not to settle on the three so often. He didn’t shoot a single FT versus a physically outmatched opponent. I hope the #FreeRex hashtag this year includes him dragging some guys to the rim with his impressive athleticism.

Elijah Burns

This wasn’t the sophomore’s first ND exhibition game, but he hasn’t had the uniform on in nearly a year, so it was good to see Burns get some good burn in this game. In 13 minutes, the sophomore big was a perfect 3-3 from the floor and 2-3 from the stripe with 4 rebounds to go with his 8 points. He showed some nice bounce on a tip-dunk and drew praise from LaPhonso Ellis, who was on the call for ND radio. Of anyone on the roster, Burns should benefit from the Ryan Humphrey hiring. If he’s smart, Burns should put a highlight tape of Ellis and Humphrey on repeat in his dorm room and do his best to model his game and effort behind 2 of the better bigs in modern ND basketball.

John Mooney

The Florida Freshman also saw 13 minutes in his first appearance for Notre Dame. LaPhonso was quick to draw comparisons with Rob Kurz after seeing Mooney’s wide body, great screens, and deft shooting touch. When Brey took to the podium after the game, glowing about his young guys, Mooney was a big reason why. His 13 points and 7 boards were delivered with relative ease. He stepped right in to the mix and looks ready to go from day one.

Austin Torres

The 3rd senior on the team can often become a forgotten man, until he steps in and makes a big block, grabs a key board, or rattles the rim with a thunderous finish. Torres only saw 11 minutes on the night, but he brought his trademark hustle and enthusiasm, running a defender down from behind for a steal. As Ellis pointed out on the broadcast, Austin won’t be asked to log heavy minutes, but when the Irish need a big body to help them rebound or get key stops, he’ll be there.

Nikola Djogo

The Canadian freshman made his debut along with his touted classmates on Tuesday. The 6’7” guard looked thin, but certainly bouncy in his 9 minutes on the floor. Djogo was 2-5 from the floor, so he wasn’t shy with the ball. Unfortunately, Djogo also showed some youth in his 2 turnovers. He has a nice stroke, but looked a little rushed and seemed to suffer some opening night jitters. The good news for Brey and Irish fans is that Djogo is unlikely to be called upon for big contributions in 2017. His role will expand greatly after Vasturia and Beachem depart at the end of the year.

Matt Ryan

It was sad to see the sophomore sharpshooter out-of-uniform for opening night, but it was smart of Brey to keep him under wraps and get Ryan back to 100%. One of the more encouraging stats was Notre Dame’s 48.1% shooting from behind the arc. Achieving that without Ryan in the line-up serves notice to future Irish opponents that they’re going to have to guard the entire floor. With Ryan’s marksmanship in the line-up, Notre Dame’s three-point offense becomes even more formidable and should open up driving lanes and space to operate. Get well soon Matt!

Conclusion

So do you think we’re excited about basketball yet? I just wrote (and you just read) over 2,700 words on a preseason exhibition vs. a D2 opponent. Stick with us here at 18Stripes as we start ramping up our hoops coverage. I’ll be putting out an overview of ND’s offensive transformation and motion sets in the coming weeks. We’ll also be covering recruiting stories, looking around the ACC (and the country), and taking a closer look at ND’s schedule in the coming weeks.
Stay tuned…

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Mike Brey Press Conference