Mike Brey Notebook | UCLA Preview

It was, by far, Notre Dame’s best offensive performance of the young season.

Best offensive performance in a year, at least.

It left Fighting Irish coach Mike Brey with just one question.

“Can we continue on a little bit with an offensive rhythm and rising up and knocking down open shots like we did the other night?,” Brey asked, rhetorically, to a group of reporters Thursday at Notre Dame. “Has that helped us a little bit on that end of the floor?

“This will become, because they’re big and they’re physical, this will become hand-to-hand combat at 15 feet and in. Post defense, rebounding and 50-50 balls. We’re going to have to be better at that against these bodies.”

Like Notre Dame, UCLA is 7-3. Like the Irish, the Bruins have lost just one game at home but struggled with the extra element of travel.

Unlike Notre Dame, which has Brey as the program’s all-time winningest coach and is in his 20th year under the Golden Dome, UCLA is breaking in first-year coach Mick Cronin --- hired after the Bruins couldn’t reach terms on the buyout of Tennessee coach Rick Barnes’ contract.

Still, Brey sees Cronin’s fingerprints on this Bruins’ squad.

“That kind of hand-to-hand, grinding; they’re going to switch a lot of stuff defensively with length and a lot of bodies,” Brey said. “And they’re going to grind you. It’s not like they’re really relying on shooting the jump-shot. They’re relying on pounding you.”

Which is why Brey doesn’t want UCLA’s approach to impact what he believes is Notre Dame’s identity.

“It’s a little bit like that is what we do here. If you can ring up 33 assists, that’s kind of amazing,” Brey said of the Irish’s offensive output in Tuesday’s 110-71 win against Detroit Mercy. “I know we shot it well.

“Can we out-offensive efficient our opponents and not foul and not get overly physical?”

REX NO ILL-EFFECTS

Rex Pflueger took a nasty spill in the second half of Notre Dame’s blowout-win against Detroit. He limped off to the locker room with members of the Irish training staff.

He returned to the court; he never returned to the game.

Not to worry, Brey said.

“We’ve put some miles on that leg, and that leg obviously was worked on less than a year ago,” said Brey, referencing Pflueger’s season-ending knee injury last January and subsequent return for a final year. “I think the best thing for Rex is that we have three games the rest of December. There’s some time for Rex to get a little bit of rest and recovery. But he is going to need to re-recover and re-rest before the 18-game schedule. There was no structural thing. He stepped away and it felt a little bit different.”

Pflueger will be available for Saturday’s tilt against the Bruins.

COACHING FRATERNITY

University of Kentucky coach John Calipari was in the stands Tuesday night at Purcell Pavilion, part of a crowd announced at just more than 6,400.

Calipari wasn’t working an advance scout; he was there to see his son, Wildcats graduate-transfer Brad, suit up for the Titans.

The younger Calipari scored 12 points, all via 3s, in the losing effort.

“I did, got a chance to talk to (John Calipari),” Brey shared. “And he came in and said, ‘How in the heck do you make 20 3s? We can’t make any shots.’ I said, ‘Well, we haven’t made any shots before tonight.’

“I even grabbed Brad in the handshake line and said, ‘You’re not going to be crazy like your dad and me and get into coaching, are you?’ And he said, ‘I might.’”

CONFERENCE FEELINGS

Though Notre Dame already is 0-2 in Atlantic Coast Conference play, with a gallant effort in a season-opening loss at North Carolina and a stunning loss last Saturday at home against woeful Boston College, Brey said the team is approaching its next two games --- Saturday against the Bruins at home; Dec. 21 against rival Indiana in Indianapolis --- as league affairs.

“These next two games are really big opportunities for us,” Brey said. “We know we’re 0-2 in the ACC. We’re trying to come out of a hole and the whole bit, but these next two games are like ACC games when you count up all the Power (5) games and throw them all together as ACC games.

“If you can have a respectable record in your Power games, you have a chance to get in the thing.”