I’m sure at least a few of you have seen Kayo’s discussion of the ND basketball program. It’s a pretty good analysis. However, I think he misses the point. He compares Brey only with Big East coaches, and discusses how many limits there are on ND compared to other Big East coaches. But he failed to also compare the program to our so-called “aspirational peers” who have the same or similar academic restrictions. He also failed to truly lay blame on Brey for not landing classes that could have kept momentum after we had gone to the tournament a few years in a row. What Kayo does is justify a slightly better than mediocre program. The team was clearly below mediocre in the 1990s and Brey has gotten it back to some respectability. He has made sure the team is always going to be a postseason team. However, he has not set up a program that will consistently go to the NCAA tournament, and he has failed to set up a program that can do anything once it makes it to the NCAA tournament.
I understand the academic restrictions that ND faces, and the fact that it is harder to recruit to ND because the facilities aren’t great (the arena is much better looking now but they still need a practice facility and updated locker and player lounge to compete on some of the WOW factor with recruits). Still, there is a higher amount of players than Kayo acknowledges who are willing to come to an ND like program. My guess, without seeing the numbers, is that while some of the guys who go to the Big Ten and Pac-10 programs would not qualify for ND, there are others who would. I have a feeling that at least some of the guys at Purdue or Wisconsin, at least, would qualify. My guess is that some of the guys at Illinois and OSU would, as well. Part of that is that many of those guys aren’t the inner city Derrick Rose type players. Many of them are guys who will be 4 year players, quite a few of whom know that they may not make it to the NBA. I’m guessing there are some programs in the Pac-10 that are at least somewhat similar. I stress those two conferences because overall, the schools in those conferences are considered to be better academic institutions than some of the other conferences. We can also look at other big time private schools. This means you have to look at Duke, Stanford, Wake Forest, Vandy, Northwestern and Baylor, at the very least, to see how they have done. While some of those programs stink (NW and Baylor are usually bad), others have thrived in comparison to ND. Part of that is the fact that they recruit at least fairly well. While we can take Duke out of that discussion, I think that ND should take an honest look and see that Stanford and Wake have both had much more basketball success than ND, and that Stanford probably has the same or more restrictions than ND likely does. I think that shows that ND has either not always targeted the right guys, or has failed to get those recruits to take a serious look at ND. Further, ND has lost several key recruits to other major schools in the Big Ten, ACC and Big East. Clearly, there are several good players out there who can qualify. ND has missed on them. While a coach can discuss facilities in that regard, there are enough big time recruits out there who would fit into ND that the school can only make so many excuses for not landing them – one reason is that the coach hasn’t been able to translate the successes he has had into anything more. That will always be on the coach (and it is probably part of the reason that the facilities upgrades are taking time – lack of excitement over a program that seems stuck in 1st gear).
Besides the recruiting pool, the article failed to discuss Brey’s comments about bench depth. He just does not develop it. If the coach says that his teams are good when there is interior defense, then he needs to get guys on the court and make them play defense, or at least rest some of the starters so that those starters are actually rested. Again, that is on Brey. There’s no reason that Cooley, Broghammer, etc., should not have played more meaningful minutes in the nonconference schedule, to get experience and push some defensive intensity, so that they could play meaningful Big East minutes. If Brey is concerned about some of them offensively, he should at least make sure that they can fight on the defensive end and rebound. If the players are only working on those things in practice, they really won’t be ready for the Big East until they are juniors. I just think that Kayo gives Brey too much leeway there. I blame Brey for not even attempting to develop his bench.
Anyways, the program will remain stuck in neutral with Brey. the team will make a few NCAA tournaments, and will then miss a few and go to the NIT. The teams will play great on the offensive side (they really are usually some of the most efficient offensive teams otu there), will stink defensively, and will more often than not lose on the boards. I just don’t think that is the type of coach that ND needs to get to the next level of being a consistent NCAA team that also can make runs in the tournament. And that is the point of having a basketball program.
As Payne mentioned to the rest of TGIAB a few days ago, there are also coaches out there who get more done with less talent. For example, the Washington State team that beat ND in the tournament after the 2007-08 season. WSU should never have good players (although they did beat out ND for Mychal Thompson’s kid, who’s pretty good), but they had a coach that could win by installing a system to make it work. While Tony Bennett’s teams style is not always fun to watch, it works so I would gladly take those wins. Brey doesn’t have a system. As Armijo has said, a system almost always involves defense and rebounding. If a system is based solely on offensive efficiency, it is bound to only take a coach so far. Even Roy Williams, who isn’t known for defensive teams, stresses getting out and running off of turnovers and rebounds. That’s something that Brey just doesn’t do.
I know we’ve covered it many times here, but when I read that article by Kayo at the beginning of the week, I really have been thinking this stuff over. I just came to the same conclusion I had made before the Kayo article, and I wanted to get those thoughts out.
Filed under: Notre Dame
