2022-2023 Notre Dame Men's Basketball

[Irish#1]

Win and move on.

 

[stpeteirish]

Yeah defense needs a lot of work. Lubin didn’t play much and no one else is going to block any shots so we need to do a better job of keeping guys from getting to the rim

 

[notredomer23]

They’ll be fine once Hammond is back. Also suspect Radford is decent by the game they gave Marquette

 

[arrowryan]

I was able to go to the game.

-Credit Radford. They were athletic and had decent size.
-VAL and Starling are legit. Similar to Wesley, VAL’s athleticism is something this team isn’t used to.
-Laz and Wertz were great.
-Defense needs to tighten up, but it usually does as the season goes on.

 

[irishff1014]

I was able to go to the game.

-Credit Radford. They were athletic and had decent size.
-VAL and Starling are legit. Similar to Wesley, VAL’s athleticism is something this team isn’t used to.
-Laz and Wertz were great.
-Defense needs to tighten up, but it usually does as the season goes on.

Wertz was hitting them deep 3's with ease.

 

[GowerND11]

Radford has like 5-6 transfers in don't they? So they've got veterans everywhere.

 

[CTIDANDREW]

One of those games that no one will even remember in two months time, but would have been a decent deterrent on the resume come on-the-bubble season.
Good on the boys to win, and move on.

Hopefully Hammond will bring another dimension to the offense, and better pick and roll defense, because boy was it easy to score on that setup for Radford yesterday.
No rim protection is going to be an issue all season, but nothing new for a Mike Brey ND team.

 

[Some Irish Bloke]

Defense and rebounding were an absolute mess, but I suspect we will get better defensively as the season goes on; seemed like a lot of communication errors on the screens, which can improve with time with a young lineup.

Rebounding seems like it will be our Achilles heal all year. We are going to have problems with teams with competent big men.

Offensively, we simply missed a lot of open shots. Only shot 36% from beyond the arc, and I'm surprised it was even that high, seemed worse. As many said, I suspect Radford is going to contend in their conference, they're a veteran team and they played us and Marquette well.

Glad we pulled out the win, would've been a tough one to explain come March even though they might be a scrappy squad.

 

[ab2cmiller]

Defense and rebounding were an absolute mess, but I suspect we will get better defensively as the season goes on; seemed like a lot of communication errors on the screens, which can improve with time with a young lineup.

Rebounding seems like it will be our Achilles heal all year. We are going to have problems with teams with competent big men.

Offensively, we simply missed a lot of open shots. Only shot 36% from beyond the arc, and I'm surprised it was even that high, seemed worse. As many said, I suspect Radford is going to contend in their conference, they're a veteran team and they played us and Marquette well.

Glad we pulled out the win, would've been a tough one to explain come March even though they might be a scrappy squad.

Didn't watch the game. Only comment I will make is regarding the 36% 3 point shooting comment. I definitely wouldn't consider that atrocious. Obviously would like it to be higher. But heck a team shooting 38% last year would've basically been on the edge of top 10 in the nation. Last year we shot 38.1% and were in the 11th spot for top percentage.

 

[Some Irish Bloke]

Didn't watch the game. Only comment I will make is regarding the 36% 3 point shooting comment. I definitely wouldn't consider that atrocious. Obviously would like it to be higher. But heck a team shooting 38% last year would've basically been on the edge of top 10 in the nation. Last year we shot 38.1% and were in the 11th spot for top percentage.

Watching the game, there's no way I would've thought they were even at 30%, so I was shocked to actually see the box score say 36%. Agree it's not BAD, but they missed some wide open shots. For a team that's going to live and die by the three (as they should with limited post play), you'd like to see that a bit higher.

Goodwin struggled a bit last night, but I like how they're using him. They had him post up on a few guards and he missed some makeable shots, and the refs let Radford defenders get away with quite a bit on him.

ND has a lot of potential, definitely going to grow a lot together as the season goes on.

 

[ACamp1900]

So apparently, Redford is really good.

……

 

[IRISHDODGER]

So ND evens the score vs Redford with the record now at 1-1

 

[stpeteirish]

Ryan was bad from three Wertz was good so it kinda evened out. I’m not concerned about the three’s they’ll be OK. It’s the defense. It has to get better.

 

[irishandy]

Surprised to hear about the defense as that is handled by Solomon.

Seems like Nate had a good game. Shocked that Lubin didn't play much as I've read he could be a starter.

 

[notredomer23]

Decent first half against what’s going to be a pretty dang good Youngstown State team. Nate looks to me like he’s added some muscle and it’s paying off

 

[Old Man Mike]

Our guys weren't very good on defense. Fortunately, no one on YTown seem to have had the concept even introduced to them.

The best thing that I liked about the team was that they were "strong" with the ball --- meaning they did not let the YTown maniac late game press shake the ball out of their hands. This is one of the least commented upon qualities of a team who can finish games. Mike Brey has some winners in our backcourt there. We just have to get to that stage of games.

... and what did we have, five guys in double figures? Also pretty optimistic point.

 

[laughingirish90]

not impressed at all so far with this as i'm seeing some blowout losses down the road to teams like UNC and Duke

 

[notredomer23]

not impressed at all so far with this as i'm seeing some blowout losses down the road to teams like UNC and Duke

Not sure how you can take this away from two games that they won against decent mid major opponents when ND is down one of its starters. Youngstown State especially is a favorite to win their conference. They came off strong season and are a veteran team that you’d expect to see play any major team tough.

ND is going to struggle on the boards and defending this year, but they’re going to be very efficient offensively from the looks of it. JJ and Lubin might not have the potential that Wesley has, but they appear more consistent at this stage in the year than he was. Wertz has also taken a step.

I see this team similar to last year’s in the sense they’re going to win a bunch of games and probably lose some that they shouldn’t. I’m cautiously optimistic they will finish in the top 4 in the ACC again because the play will be even better when Hammond returns.

 

[CTIDANDREW]

Not sure how you can take this away from two games that they won against decent mid major opponents when ND is down one of its starters. Youngstown State especially is a favorite to win their conference. They came off strong season and are a veteran team that you’d expect to see play any major team tough.

ND is going to struggle on the boards and defending this year, but they’re going to be very efficient offensively from the looks of it. JJ and Lubin might not have the potential that Wesley has, but they appear more consistent at this stage in the year than he was. Wertz has also taken a step.

I see this team similar to last year’s in the sense they’re going to win a bunch of games and probably lose some that they shouldn’t. I’m cautiously optimistic they will finish in the top 4 in the ACC again because the play will be even better when Hammond returns.

It's early but Kenpom already has them ranked 59th in the nation, with the 125th ranked D.
Hammond will help the defense out, but they're going to be easy to score against with the lack of front-court size all season.
I think 7-8 in the ACC and a fringe tournament team feels more likely...but I will reserve total judgement until I see them play a P5 team with Hammond.
Michigan State in a few weeks will be a nice test.

 

[Old Man Mike]

On the basis of just this one game watched however, I liked our toughness.
Toughness is the best intangible desired. It usually means that a team is a
tough out. Time will tell of course.

 

[Henges24]

The old guys have been able to hold their own so far, which is intriguing. ACC play they will need to get the freshmen more involved, IMO.

I’m excited for the MSU game.

 

[Some Irish Bloke]

Decent first half against what’s going to be a pretty dang good Youngstown State team. Nate looks to me like he’s added some muscle and it’s paying off

Nate's gonna be a problem for defenses this year. Through two games, he seems like he's going to be THE guy offensively; he's been a lot more aggressive and attacking the hoop.

Love to see this box score, everyone scoring.

 

[arrowryan]

Was at Notre Dame vs Southern Indiana last night. Irish won 82-70.

-The freshmen continue to impress. Really like what they have to offer in the early stages of their career.

-Cormac Ryan is someone that I’ve underrated. He’s pretty dang good.

-Laz with another double double.

-Robby Carmody with his first game minutes in over 1,000 days! His parents were there and were in tears. Congrats to him for battling through multiple injuries.

 

[ab2cmiller]

I don’t understand JR not getting minutes.

I missed the report that the plan is for JR to redshirt this year.

 

[notredomer23]

5 players averaging double figures likely isn't sustainable once Hammond comes back and enters the rotation, but this is a team that doesn't seem like it will play 30-35 minutes of great basketball and have a 5-10 minute ice cold stretch how so many Brey teams have had since the last Elite 8 run. There are enough high level contributors that will be able to step up at any point and end a draught.

 

[Some Irish Bloke]

5 players averaging double figures likely isn't sustainable once Hammond comes back and enters the rotation, but this is a team that doesn't seem like it will play 30-35 minutes of great basketball and have a 5-10 minute ice cold stretch how so many Brey teams have had since the last Elite 8 run. There are enough high level contributors that will be able to step up at any point and end a draught.

Yes, I had a similar thought yesterday. As concerned as I am about the defense and rebounding, if you're going to have to win games in shootout fashion when you get to conference play, it's helpful to have 5-6 guys who are scoring in double digits. Tough to guard all five guys on the court. Hopefully they can keep up this level of play offensively as the season progresses, because I think we're going to have a hard time against teams with solid 4s and 5s.

 

[stpeteirish]

Really surprised at how much Trey Wertz has improved. He was just a guy until this year and now he's a threat to take it to the hole and score while also being capable of hitting a good % of threes. Laz is also improved at taking it to the basket but he still looks clumsy doing it.

 

[RDU Irish]

Watched the non-volleyball portion of last night's game - Lubin and Starling are players and Wertz looking like what I hoped he would be last year. We don't need everyone in double figures every night but knowing just about anyone can pop off some points changes things for us. Still worried about getting pushed around by top ACC competition but then again who isn't.

 

[Some Irish Bloke]

Watched the non-volleyball portion of last night's game - Lubin and Starling are players and Wertz looking like what I hoped he would be last year. We don't need everyone in double figures every night but knowing just about anyone can pop off some points changes things for us. Still worried about getting pushed around by top ACC competition but then again who isn't.

Yep. If a guy like Cormac goes off for 20+ one evening, and you key on him in the following game, just more opportunities for a guy like Goodwin, Wertz, JJ Starling etc. to make some plays.

Nate's gonna be a problem for defenses all year. He's looking really good out there.

 

[RDU Irish]

Let's see how Nate holds up against some teams with size. UNC playing volleyball in the paint on offense while outrebounding us 3 to 1 could go from bad to worse as soon as Nate gets in foul trouble. Southern Indiana got 8 offensive rebounds (we got 5), Youngstown State also got 8 (versus 7 for us) and Radford got 10 OReb (6 for us).