2018-2019 Notre Dame Men's Basketball

[Irish YJ]

OMG. A road win about to happen!

Is the game working for anyone on watch ESPN?

It's a weird one. When I looked this morning, ESPN website said the game was on the ACC Network (which I get via Comcast), but it's actually on Fox Sports South (which I've never seen happen before). I'm sure it was streaming on Fox

 

[Henges24]

I’m not entirely sure that Nate has fully learned the defense. Multiple times this year he has looked lost on an island and becomes lost in the movement of the D. Obviously he’ll learn but just 1 of reoccurring handicaps of the team.

Gibbs finally had a great game. Let’s hope this was the one that breaks him out of his slump shell.

Nik- okay, he could use that the rest of the way and over into next year, please.

Got scary at the end there. Good win.

 

[Henges24]

OMG. A road win about to happen!



It's a weird one. When I looked this morning, ESPN website said the game was on the ACC Network (which I get via Comcast), but it's actually on Fox Sports South (which I've never seen happen before). I'm sure it was streaming on Fox

This happened for a game a couple weeks ago. It was on the ESPN app and it said Fox Sports in the corner. Thought it was extremely odd.

 

[Irish YJ]

This happened for a game a couple weeks ago. It was on the ESPN app and it said Fox Sports in the corner. Thought it was extremely odd.

I've watched via the ACCNE several times. Comcast has a built in app on the cable box that streams ACCNE games over the internet (they have built in Amazon and Netflix as well), but this is the first time I've seen it on Fox. I have a reminder set via Comcast to pop up 5 minutes on all screens before any games, so I might not have noticed it before.

Still don't understand though why it was on Fox Sports South. Neither team is Southern. The ACCNE is owned by ESPN, but the ACC does have some sports agreement with Fox. The South thing is still a headscratcher regargless.

 

[RDU Irish]

Fox Sports Go app has been my go to for a bunch of these games. ESPN blackouts and crap have been driving me nuts - I don't remember having any games last two years I couldn't get on ESPN and there have been bunch this year.

Djogo going off was pretty sweet - getting the start makes you wonder WTF Brey was thinking! Crazy like a fox? Would love to know the story behind that and can't wait to see if he can stay loose and free.

As pointed out above - Las on D leaves a lot to be desired. Only played 11 minutes. Harvey only played 21 minutes which is interesting. We might be seeing the rotation tightening up with a fall back to those with best grasp of running the offense and defense? So great to see the team shoot well - especially on the road. Also great to stay unbeaten vs BC in ACC play 12-0, screw those guys.

 

[RDU Irish]

Also love Pflueger tweeting out to ESPN that he really doesn't need to hear about Zion Williamson during the NC/BC game after previously tweeting about not being able to find the game. Welcome to our hell Rex.

 

[ab2cmiller]

I assumed that Djogo's stat line must've been a misprint.

 

[Kingbish01]

Does ND (+3.5) win tonight? Looking for some feedback before I bet them out of boredom.

 

[Irish YJ]

Does ND (+3.5) win tonight? Looking for some feedback before I bet them out of boredom.

Miami's lost a bunch in a row to some good teams. I wouldn't touch this game.

 

[stpeteirish]

Ugly first half between two shitty teams. Our 8-25 shooting is enough to make you wonder what the hell is wrong. Gibbs has really regressed this year and Durham is virtually worthless.

They double team Mooney and he passes it to the open man who misses.

 

[Woneone]

Ugly first half between two shitty teams. Our 8-25 shooting is enough to make you wonder what the hell is wrong. Gibbs has really regressed this year and Durham is virtually worthless.

They double team Mooney and he passes it to the open man who misses.

This...

This is some pretty awful basketball being played here tonight.

Edit: On the plus side, we actually have more combined points than Maryland vs Nebraska at the same point in the game. So, there's that.

 

[irishrb]

Just trash tonight....10 minutes left but they look absolutely horrible right now. 4-22 from threes...ya, let's just keep heaving them up and hope we can hit the backboard.

 

[ab2cmiller]

Unwatchable

I give up. I had to turn it off.

 

[Henges24]

Oof. Man I knew they’d be bad this year but this is pitiful.

 

[arrowryan]

I don’t care how young this team is, you can’t defend most of the performances this season. The team is straight garbage.

 

[stpeteirish]

But they keep telling us that we have the whole team coming back next year. But will they still suck? I don't see any body getting better and quite a few are getting worse.

And zero incoming recruits. Brey's in denial re his existing talent, IMO.

 

[irishrb]

This team has too many top 100 recruits to look this bad. Even the announcers were questioning their desire to play tonight. Not a good look for the Irish tonight.

 

[Woneone]

This team has too many top 100 recruits to look this bad. Even the announcers were questioning their desire to play tonight. Not a good look for the Irish tonight.

I'm making this a longer post because it's therapeutic after that butt-whooping, so I apologize.

This game was really bad, but I don't think this is some sign of impending doom moving forward, specifically next year or the year after.

Using a horrible house analogy, the foundation of the Mike Brey offensive "House" is spacing. Spacing is a two faceted concept: The spacing between the ball and offensive options, and the spacing between the on-ball defender and help.

This image is from the 2015 ACC Champ Game

<blockquote class="imgur-embed-pub" lang="en" data-id="a/3do8byY"><a href="//imgur.com/3do8byY"></a></blockquote><script async src="//s.imgur.com/min/embed.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Look at how UNC has to defend us. Why? Because we can shoot. That right there is where all the motion and spacing and whatever else in Brey's system really falls apart, if you can't stretch the spacing, you're going to be much more limited in what you can do.

Here is a random possession in the Miami game today. I literally opened up WatchESPN, fired up the game, and this was one of the first three I saw:

<blockquote class="imgur-embed-pub" lang="en" data-id="a/7XMgmMY"><a href="//imgur.com/7XMgmMY"></a></blockquote><script async src="//s.imgur.com/min/embed.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Jesus, I know Hubb has initiated the offense (by "initiated", I mean dribbling straight into a defender and picking up his dribble I guess), but Miami is basically playing a zone on one half of the mid-line, almost completely ignoring the weak side. I'm sure there is a defensive breakdown here, but spoiler, we didn't score (or I'm pretty sure we didn't, could have been a Laz put-back).

By allowing teams to sag so much from our perimeter players, it makes defending ball screens, side-line pin downs, any of the staples of Brey's offense much more easily defended.

The foundation of our house isn't just cracked, it's freaking broken into pieces.

Now, that said, I can't imagine this team will be so poor offensively next season. I've said my piece about Hubb, but I expect him to be better next year. I expect Goodwin and Laz to be better. I expect TJ and DJ to be better. The question will be how much.

Will we go from a poor shooting team to an average one? Then I think we're on the bubble. Poor to good? Things could be much better.

Guess it can't get worse...

 

[NDMIA]

I'm making this a longer post because it's therapeutic after that butt-whooping, so I apologize.

This game was really bad, but I don't think this is some sign of impending doom moving forward, specifically next year or the year after.

Using a horrible house analogy, the foundation of the Mike Brey offensive "House" is spacing. Spacing is a two faceted concept: The spacing between the ball and offensive options, and the spacing between the on-ball defender and help.

This image is from the 2015 ACC Champ Game

<blockquote class="imgur-embed-pub" lang="en" data-id="a/3do8byY"><a href="//imgur.com/3do8byY"></a></blockquote><script async src="//s.imgur.com/min/embed.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Look at how UNC has to defend us. Why? Because we can shoot. That right there is where all the motion and spacing and whatever else in Brey's system really falls apart, if you can't stretch the spacing, you're going to be much more limited in what you can do.

Here is a random possession in the Miami game today. I literally opened up WatchESPN, fired up the game, and this was one of the first three I saw:

<blockquote class="imgur-embed-pub" lang="en" data-id="a/7XMgmMY"><a href="//imgur.com/7XMgmMY"></a></blockquote><script async src="//s.imgur.com/min/embed.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Jesus, I know Hubb has initiated the offense (by "initiated", I mean dribbling straight into a defender and picking up his dribble I guess), but Miami is basically playing a zone on one half of the mid-line, almost completely ignoring the weak side. I'm sure there is a defensive breakdown here, but spoiler, we didn't score (or I'm pretty sure we didn't, could have been a Laz put-back).

By allowing teams to sag so much from our perimeter players, it makes defending ball screens, side-line pin downs, any of the staples of Brey's offense much more easily defended.

The foundation of our house isn't just cracked, it's freaking broken into pieces.

Now, that said, I can't imagine this team will be so poor offensively next season. I've said my piece about Hubb, but I expect him to be better next year. I expect Goodwin and Laz to be better. I expect TJ and DJ to be better. The question will be how much.

Will we go from a poor shooting team to an average one? Then I think we're on the bubble. Poor to good? Things could be much better.

Guess it can't get worse...

Of the 11 returning scholarship players, I think 7 have the green light and are good shooters. Doherty, Juwan Durham, and DJ Harvey shouldn’t shoot. Djogo has been good from 3 this year but idk if he’s actually a shooter or if he’s been lucky this year (small sample size). As long as all 7 shooters are healthy and pick up their slack then they should rebound nicely. Pfleuger is an elite shooter. Mooney is making them at an insane rate (44% for his career). Goodwin has the makings of a big time shooter already. Carmody is a good shooter along with Hubb but they’ve had awful shooting performances this year. Gibbs is a 37% shooter for his career which is great and Laszewski is getting more and more comfortable with his pick and pop shot. Brey just can’t have 4 freshman contributing big time because his player development takes time and the ACC isn’t exactly an easy league to transition to. Pfleuger, Gibbs, Mooney, Djogo, and Durham will be 4 & 5 year college basketball players on next year’s team. Sometimes it just takes an extra year to figure it all out. Brey can’t stand players complaining about minutes at the end of the bench but he’s got to fill out the roster of scholarship guys in order to stay old in the ACC.

 

[Ndaccountant]

What I imagined the bench coaches were yelling at Brey during the game....

 

[FightingIrishLover7]

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/boxscore?gameId=401082755

Went back to look at this box to compare to NDs.
VT: 47
NCST: 24

The biggest shock was, NCST went on to score 96 on Tuesday against UNC (gave up 113 though lol).

72 point improvement offensively though! Lol

 

[RDU Irish]

We shot 50% from three on Saturday in Chestnut Hill - six guys contributing to 10-20 from 3. Turn around and shoot 14% last night on 4-27 . Not like it was contested stuff - piles of wide open shots just sucking it up. Gibbs just seems to continue to get deeper and deeper with his shots - should be working to 40% not 20% on his average. For a bunch of top 100 recruits I really thought we could count on at least one to show up every night and rise to the occasion. Oof.

Durham had 8 points and 4 rebounds in 12 minutes. 12 minutes in a complete clusterfvck team performance for the most productive guy per minute by far last night? I was worried about this team holding up to a mid-week trip to Miami but thought they might actually build on a decent BC trip.

Who TF is calling Pflueger and elite shooter? I'm as big a Rex fan as anyone but he is not an "elite" shooter. Plenty able to make people pay and keep teams honest to spread the defense, IMO, which feels like a hot take given the shade thrown his way over the years. Thinking he was going to be our go to scorer this year or next is grossly misguided. TJ and DJ are the guys that the team needed to step up their offensive game and when that idea fell flat on its face we are back to the drawing board.

 

[Crazy Balki]

We shot 50% from three on Saturday in Chestnut Hill - six guys contributing to 10-20 from 3. Turn around and shoot 14% last night on 4-27 . Not like it was contested stuff - piles of wide open shots just sucking it up. Gibbs just seems to continue to get deeper and deeper with his shots - should be working to 40% not 20% on his average. For a bunch of top 100 recruits I really thought we could count on at least one to show up every night and rise to the occasion. Oof.

Durham had 8 points and 4 rebounds in 12 minutes. 12 minutes in a complete clusterfvck team performance for the most productive guy per minute by far last night? I was worried about this team holding up to a mid-week trip to Miami but thought they might actually build on a decent BC trip.

Who TF is calling Pflueger and elite shooter? I'm as big a Rex fan as anyone but he is not an "elite" shooter. Plenty able to make people pay and keep teams honest to spread the defense, IMO, which feels like a hot take given the shade thrown his way over the years. Thinking he was going to be our go to scorer this year or next is grossly misguided. TJ and DJ are the guys that the team needed to step up their offensive game and when that idea fell flat on its face we are back to the drawing board.

I can't imagine why people expected DJ to step his game up when he was spending the entire offseason rehabbing his knee.

 

[Woneone]

I can't imagine why people expected DJ to step his game up when he was spending the entire offseason rehabbing his knee.

There's rust, and then there is catching a live ball while standing out of bounds because you just don't seem like you're that invested in the game.

 

[FightingIrishLover7]

There's rust, and then there is catching a live ball while standing out of bounds because you just don't seem like you're that invested in the game.

There's rust, and then there's also mental rust. Both seem to be effecting him (and possibly Prentiss).

Two sides of the same coin. I, for one, expected this from him this season, unfortunately.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

 

[RDU Irish]

I can't imagine why people expected DJ to step his game up when he was spending the entire offseason rehabbing his knee.

Improving on a 0.5 assist/turnover ratio, 29% three point shooting, granted assists are hard to come by when the entire team shoots like hot garbage all season.

 

[SoDakDomer]

I don't want to pile on but these guys are in the running for the worst team in the Mike Brey era. I'd say they are for sure the most underachieving. I wasn't expecting much coming into the season due to the youth, but the lack of shooting is astonishing. Mooney has been a pleasant surprise. TJ has been bad. DJ has been bad. Hubb was terrible to start but has played better lately. Lasz looks like a baby fawn whos just getting his legs under him. The other freshman really haven't done much good or bad, and Durham has been good when playing. If we could just make a few shots this team would improve significantly. We don't have players this year that are great at creating off the dribble, and we really don't when opposing defenses have no respect for any shooters on our team.

 

[FightingIrishLover7]

I don't want to pile on but these guys are in the running for the worst team in the Mike Brey era. I'd say they are for sure the most underachieving. I wasn't expecting much coming into the season due to the youth, but the lack of shooting is astonishing. Mooney has been a pleasant surprise. TJ has been bad. DJ has been bad. Hubb was terrible to start but has played better lately. Lasz looks like a baby fawn whos just getting his legs under him. The other freshman really haven't done much good or bad, and Durham has been good when playing. If we could just make a few shots this team would improve significantly. We don't have players this year that are great at creating off the dribble, and we really don't when opposing defenses have no respect for any shooters on our team.

underachieving?
You do know what the preseason projections were, right?

Then factor in Elijah, Rex, Robby (and some Durham).

Yeah, not sure how anyone had "expectations". This season was heading this way, and the events that have unfolded solidified that.

Very similar to 2007 ND football. Just not enough there/experienced enough yet.

 

[arrowryan]

I knew they would be bad this year, but not this bad. They're straight up awful.

 

[FightingIrishLover7]

I knew they would be bad this year, but not this bad. They're straight up awful.

(not singling you out)
Why do people keep saying "I knew this year was going to be bad, but..."

So, if entering the year you are expecting bad, THEN we lose Rex, Elijah, Robby (some Durham)...

Shouldn't you adjust your expecations based on that?

Meaning: Bad (preseason) - transfer/injuries = awful.

I expected "awful". I actually wasn't sure if this team would win a SINGLE ACC game. They are too thin, too inexperience, too overworked to compete in the ACC at this time, period.

Now, add the fact they are "playing for nothing" (they're actually playing for practice) the players are demoralized.

Resulting:
Bad (preseason) - transfer/injuries + demoralization = really, really awful

That's where we're at. 2007 ND football.