Mike Brey Notebook | Fall Practice
Notre Dame basketball coach Mike Brey spoke on Wednesday afternoon.
On season coming up fast:
“Given how you’re opening this year with a league game and of that magnitude, it does kind of go ‘Wow. Here we go.’ Who’s our second game?
“It’s coming at you. October 15th was always in everyone’s body clock as the first day of practice. Back then, you couldn’t see your guys in the summer, couldn’t watch them play pickup and couldn’t work with them. There was a buzz about the first day of practice. Our first day was October 1st and there really isn’t a buzz anymore because you practice year-round. You’re doing stuff in the summer and you seem to go year-round.
“That can be good and bad. For us, it’s good. We’ve got a lot of young guys we’re trying to grow up.”
On practice to this point:
“I told someone at the ACC Media Day we’re older, healthier, better, but what does that mean in the league we signed up for? The other side of that is the league lost a lot of guys. I feel our timing to make a move back into the mix is right there for us.
“It struck me one day in July, I walked off and we looked a little older. There aren’t any new faces out there. Cormac (Ryan) is out there, but he’s not involved yet because of the hernia surgery. Everybody has been in our system and culture.
“This group has taken good ownership of itself. They had their backsides handed to them all of last year. There is no question going through some of the stuff they’ve gone through with Rex Pflueger and his mother’s situation – that’s done some things to our team dynamic that you couldn’t orchestrate team-building like that. God forbid it was for such a sad event, but it’s kind of done some interesting things to our group. They had to be together on some stuff.”
On the passing of Rex Pflueger’s mother:
“Our guys were there with him going through it. All the rest of them, their mothers are with them and went through it all with him starting last January when she got the bad news.
“We made the quick decision to come back for a fifth-year when he got back. He was unsure about it and I felt he needed to be with us. He’s been great. Everything that’s been thrown at him, he’s handled it amazingly. We try to be there with him and there for him.
“I talk to him more about non-basketball stuff than basketball.
On health and return of Pflueger:
“He’s probably a couple weeks away still physically. He’s not doing any 5-on-5 and I’ll be darned if we rush him to November 6th. When he’s cleared, I don’t think he’s a guy who will be playing 32 minutes. How many minutes can he really give us? Right now, I’m not really going to count on any of it. It’d be great if he can play 15 at North Carolina, but he may be at zero as he might not be able to do it.
“I don’t think he’ll be a 30-minute guy and he knows that. I took November 6th off of him. I told him if he wasn’t ready to do this, we’re not doing it. He said you’re right and I said there is a lot of games after that and from December 1st on.
“He’s doing everything. Shooting, moving, cutting and sliding. The last piece is exploding and coming down. There are some eggshells there. He was a guy who could really explode. The sliding and running, I don’t see any problem there. We’re going to need him, but we have to be smart about it.”
On being projected No. 7 in the ACC:
“I took Juwan (Durham) and Johnny (Mooney) down there with me. I felt Rex and TJ (Gibbs) didn’t need all of that. John for obvious reasons, but for Juwan to maybe build some confidence and he’s played well the first 10 days of practice.
“My staff came in and said, so-so picked us. I don’t want to hear anything about preseason. All I know is we have a lot of work to do to climb back into the mix.
“I hadn’t registered all the guys who have left the league, so you do feel the door is open. It’s kind of been a chip on the shoulder.”
On if No. 7 seems about right:
“I guess if you do the math and really drill down on who has left the league, it probably does give you a chance. A lot of people came up and said you have everybody back. I was like ‘Keep talking me into it.’”
On letting his team dream big:
“I don’t think I’ve talked to them about it. I’m sure they do. John’s message was very clear when we were down in Charlotte about getting back to the NCAA Tournament. We’ve missed it. I’ve talked about the day-to-day sawing of wood and grinding to get better. We have some guys who had to get older and stronger. We’ve made progress in that area and I’m not trying to get ahead of ourselves.”
On point guard Prentiss Hubb:
“He had a summer to play basketball and work on his game. He moves confidently and has become even more vocal. He’s a really gifted young guard and maybe one of the best in the league. I think he could really jump up there because he’s had that summer and year of basketball work.
“He and TJ have been pretty darn good. They know each other and have played a lot together now. The results weren’t always what we wanted, but a lot of guys played a lot of basketball last year. You can see more poise and tempo because they were thrown into it.”
On who has matured the most physically:
“I’ve seen out of (Robby) Carmody what I remember before the injury – the explosiveness, toughness and physicalness. He’s shot the ball well through 12 practices. When he’s a downhill physical driving making plays tough kind of guy, I forgot his game because it’s been so long. It’s been great to have him back. He’s been ready to roll.
“Nate (Laszewski) probably has 12 pounds on him and he’s able to handle defensive rebounds better. It was hard to suck them in and he’s able to do that better.
“Dane (Goodwin) played a lot for us last year. He got a lot of minutes. He’s not turning down as many shots. He’s still turning down a few, but not as bad. He needs to step up and shoot it.
“Chris Doherty is just workmanlike. He’ll do his thing and beat you up. We ended practice with those five young guys versus the old guys and that was pretty heated. We may come back to that.”
On starting the season at North Carolina:
“It sounded great two years ago in our league meetings as the best basketball conference to open with league games and also generate some eyeballs to the ACC Network. It sounded like a good idea until about June when your schedule comes out and you look at it.
“At the end of the day, it’s great. It has your players attention more because in three weeks, we’re headed to Chapel Hill. I’m sure I’ll drop that a bit over the next 10 days.”
On teams to look out for in the ACC:
“You have the Carolina and Duke thing. It’s always been there. Virginia has joined that now. Those three have really kicked it to one level. I was sitting with Jim Boeheim in the summer recruiting and we were talking about the league. He said, ‘You know we’re playing for fourth.’ He never mentioned those words, but there’s something to that.
“If you go back, those three and Louisville might be at one level. After that, there’s a little bit of a crapshoot and that’s good for the Irish. We’re trying to get back in there.”
On forward John Mooney:
“I still wish he would walk around more daily as one of the best players in the league. He’s still a bit unselfish sometimes. As far as if he 28-30 minutes, he’s going to have a double-double. It’s almost machine-like. He has a lot of respect from the league.
“He can’t turn down shots for us. We pass it and move it. We had 100 more assists than turnovers last year, but we were a little gun shy to step up and take it.
“When you go to Media Day, you know how much respect your guys have. He carries a lot of clout with the other coaches. We might take him for granted as he rolls out of bed and goes 15-12 like it’s nothing.”
On Juwan Durham:
“It’s Johnny and Juwan. Juwan has been impressive these first 10 days. I feel like we’re turning the corner where we can depend on him on a daily basis. He’s physically feeling better. We’ve addressed the feet, the bone bruise and all of that. I like where he’s at. It’s confidence for him and that’s why I brought him to Media Day. He was walking around with Johnny. We’re invested and that’s how we’ve been going with it.”