Blue and Gold Illustrated

May 2019

Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football

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46 MAY 2019 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED MEN'S BASKETBALL BY LOU SOMOGYI T he worst season in head coach Mike Brey's 19 years at Notre Dame — 3-15 in the ACC and 14-19 overall — has had numer- ous Fighting Irish faithful morose about the present and even the future. It also was a small consolation to state throughout the season that "all 11 scholarship players will be back" in 2019-20 for at least three reasons. One, the statement became false in late March when sophomore wing D.J. Harvey — the team's third- leading scorer and second-leading rebounder — entered his name into the NCAA transfer portal. Two, returning a large percentage of the roster from a team that was the No. 15 seed among 15 teams in the ACC Tournament prompts "more of the same" angst. Three, because no one signed with Notre Dame this year, more pressure will be exerted on next year 's five- man sophomore class, advertised as Brey's best harvest at Notre Dame, to accelerate its growth. The skepticism is understandable, and hardly a first under Brey. Three straight NIT bids from 2004-06 had him seriously contemplating whether he had run his course at Notre Dame and if it was time to move on. Repeated NCAA Tournament early round upsets followed by a 15-17 ledger in 2014 (including 6-12 in ACC play) also had his career at its nadir. However, even before football head coach Brian Kelly reinvented himself following a 4-8 outcome in 2016 with a 22-4 rebound the next two seasons, including a College Football Playoff berth, Brey and Co. had their own dramatic bounce-back result with consecutive Elite Eight trips in 2015 and 2016 — two of the three times in its history Notre Dame won at least three NCAA Tournament games in one season (1978 is the other). An ACC championship and seven overall wins in the Big Dance over three years (2015-17) also were unique achievements in the program's annals. Now, the Fighting Irish are back in a down cycle in what was a pro- nounced transition year with six newcomers to the roster. A second consecutive year with ma- jor injury setbacks helped impede the growth this past season. The on-court apex was Dec. 15, an 88-80 victory in Indianapolis versus a Purdue outfit that would earn a share of the Big Ten regular-season title and advance to the Elite Eight. Alas, late in that same game, Fighting Irish senior guard Rex Pflueger, who handed out 10 assists versus the Boilermakers, suffered a torn ACL in his left knee that side- lined him the balance of the year. Will Notre Dame improve appre- ciably next season, or was this year a harbinger of more forthcoming woes? Freshmen such as starting point guard Prentiss Hubb (8.1 scoring aver- age and 32.4 percent field goal shoot- ing), 6-10 forward Nate Laszewski (6.9 and 39.2) and wing Dane Goodwin (6.4 and 37.6) had superb moments but also a harsh ACC indoctrination, while guard Robby Carmody joined Pflueger on this year's injured list and center Chris Doherty mainly watched. The initial growth pangs were con- spicuous and reinforced how Duke's instant lottery-pick freshmen and Notre Dame's more developmental freshmen come from different aisles in the recruiting world. However, when viewing it from the prism of about a dozen other Brey players the past 15 years that achieved All-Big East or All-ACC notice, or even played some in the NBA, there is ample evidence that patience also must be exercised. No one can know for certain what path this past year 's freshmen — plus their teammates — will take in the ensuing years. What happened GROWTH PLANNING Mike Brey's track record of player development provides benefit of doubt for next season After experiencing growing pains as a freshman in an unforgiving league, Dane Goodwin and his class- mates look to take the next steps of progress in coming seasons. PHOTO BY COREY BODDEN

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