Mike Brey Notebook: North Carolina A&T

The 2016-17 season is still young, but Notre Dame head coach Mike Brey saw his squad move to 8-0 on Sunday with an easy 107-53 win over North Carolina A&T. The competition might not have been the best, but Brey has seen his team play tough and that’s due to the confidence of where the program is at right now.
 
“One of the things I like about them is that we have become a mentally tough group,” explained Brey. “I think when you’ve been part of back-to-back Elite 8s – it’s funny when people mention back-to-back Elite 8’s, we kind of threw in a ACC Championship in there. Let’s just throw that in there.

“That gets you to believe. How we have won games with this nucleus and stealing wins, they always believe they have a chance. Obviously the Northwestern game was the best example of that. They almost like being in those situations.

“Experience has helped and I think we have more of a collection of mentally thought guys than we have had in the past. There are more of them on a 14-man roster than we’ve had before.”  

STAKES RAISED

Notre Dame has cruised through the first eight games of the year, but over the next few weeks the Irish will get tested. Villanova and Purdue loom over the next few weeks, but first the Irish get to host a pesky Fort Wayne team that knocked off Indiana a few weeks ago.

“I love what’s coming at us,” Brey said of the schedule. “I just told our guys that we can’t get ahead of ourselves on what’s going on next Saturday. Fort Wayne is really good. They might be the best team we’ve played and it’d be a great RPI win for us.

“I think we need what’s coming and our guys are excited about it. I’m excited about evaluating us up until Christmas with what’s coming at us.”

FREE THROWS

The Irish entered the game as ranked as the No. 2 team in the country in free throw shooting at 84.5 percent and that will rise as the Notre Dame went a perfect 14 of 14 from the foul line on Sunday.

“It’s great, because you have (John) Mooney get in there,” stated Brey. “Those guys come in kind of cold and he goes in and knocks down two. I think that’s a little contagious now too. Watching us this summer when we were doing some free throw stuff, I thought we could be really good. We’re better than we thought and now there’s amazing confidence.

“If we miss, I bet the crowd will just walk out of the building.”  

BENCH

Brey has seen his bench production increase of the past few years, but this bunch might be special. That was evident on Sunday, as the Irish bench outscored the Aggies 45-2.
 
“Not like this group,” Brey said of if he’s had a bench like this one. “No. Never, maybe never in my career. You come off with Rex (Pflueger) and TJ (Gibbs) with the edge they are playing with right now. (Austin) Torres gives you that too and even Matt Ryan. He sticks his nose in there and rebounds and flies around a little bit in there.

“Rex, TJ and Torres give you a great energy boost and defensive boost when they’re in there.”  

GEBEN

Maybe the only negative from Sunday’s win was starting center Martinas Geben fouled out again after just 14 minutes of play. Geben was productive with five points, four boards and two assists, but Brey wants to see his big-man stay on the court just a tad longer.

“He’s frustrated and I need to get to him,” explained Brey. “I talked to him a little bit on the bench. He’s got to give himself up a little bit. He’s our physical guy, but I don’t want him to back off. Some of them he could have just – he didn’t have to chop a guy, but we need him to be physical. I think we’re going to have to ride with that.

“He gives us a presence down there and did it the other night. Guys bounce off of him and you kind of mark your territory a little bit. He got his fourth and I didn’t want to take him out. He’s doing what we asked him to do. I still would like to see him get a little closer to 18 minutes, because he gives us great stuff.”

With the two assists, Brey is proud of how Geben’s game has evolved and knows it will come into play later in the season.  

“He’s really passing the ball well,” Brey said. “The guy is moving the ball. He just finds people. I don’t want him to be discouraged because we need him. What’s neat is that we’ve been able to put someone else in there and they’ve been able to continue to give us a presence.”  

DEPTH

With 11 guys scoring on Sunday and seven of them in double-figures, Brey also feels good about the depth of his team heading into the key stretch of the season.

“We’re deeper and we feel good about nine guys,” said Brey. “Really Elijah (Burns) and Johnny have been great in practice, but it’s hard to get them in there. We feel good about nine guys and you want to get them all through in the first half to see where the wind is blowing.

“Against Iowa we didn’t play as many guys, because some of those bench guys weren’t in as good of a rhythm. When we can get them in there, especially a TJ, Torres and Pflueger, they give you such a lift defensively. They kind of wear a team down and wear other good players down.”

DEFENSE

While the storylines have been about the Irish offense, the defense held North Carolina A&T to just 30 percent from the field and 21 percent from three-point range. Brey believes this year’s team is one of his stronger teams defensively and it’s something the Irish can rely on against better teams.

“We’ve been consistently keeping people under 40 percent field goal shooting,” said Brey. “We really know how to play and rotate to help off of each other. I think we can keep people to one and done when we really concentrate on it.

“They think they are and you have to have some of that. It’s really helped us. We’ve rallied to be a good defensive group. The group that starts has improved as a defensive unit.”