Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1162458
48 SEPT. 16, 2019 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED MEN'S BASKETBALL BY LOU SOMOGYI D uring a Notre Dame men's b a s k e t b a l l p r a c t i c e t h a t was open to the media this summer, only seven play- ers were healthy enough to scrim- mage, mainly three-on-three, during a 40-minute session. Thus, caution was imperative. Sophomore guard Robby Carmody did not receive the memo. A starter in last year 's opener, Carmody took a medical redshirt last December when surgery for a partially torn labrum was required. Despite wearing a brace/sleeve, Carmody made a headfirst div- ing save of a loose ball early in the scrimmage in which he landed on the mended left shoulder (and almost his face), and shortly thereafter took a charge near the basket. "One guy took a charge and one guy dove on the floor — and it was Carmody both times," head coach Mike Brey noted shortly after the ab- breviated session. "He gives us some toughness." A Mars, Pa., native who averaged 31.0 points per game as a four-star, top-100 high school senior, Carmody has a blue-collar, lunch-bucket ap- proach to his play. "That's how I've always played, even in high school when I had to be the best scorer, the best facilitator, everything," the 6-4, 201-pound Car- mody said. "I was always the one out there working the hardest. I always had cuts, bruises, stuff like that, just because that's the way I was taught to play. "It's the best way to play. It's the most fun like that." That mentality hardly comes as a surprise when you consider that younger brother Michael Carmody will be joining him on the Notre Dame campus next year as a four- star prospect as well — but as a 6-6, 280-pound offensive lineman. Seldom do two brothers play two different sports as scholarship ath- letes at the same school, and they are mindful of this unique situation. "It's super special," Robby Car- mody said. "My entire family has been a Notre Dame family since the time that I can remember. "I talked to him almost every day about trying to get him to come here once they offered. Hopefully, I helped a little bit." Ask him who is the better athlete of the two and the elder Carmody's ultra-competitiveness ever so briefly is put on the back burner. "It might be him," he responded. "He can move for 300 pounds." Although the surgery was on his non-shooting side, donning the brace mentally and physically affected Car- mody's shooting stroke. During the summer he said he took 500 three- pointers a day in his attempt to re- gain a rhythm and flow. "The one thing he has not done is shoot very well," Brey said earlier in the summer. "He shot it better in high school, and now the three-point line is out there [at international dis- tance]. But he does guard, and he sticks his nose in there. He drives physically and is a tough kid. "When he and [sophomore point guard] Prentiss Hubb are in the back- court, they can really guard." "It gets tough to shoot with the brace, but it will be off after summer school is over. I'm not really worried about it too much," said Carmody, who became the first Irish freshman in 16 years to start an opener (in which he naturally took a charge in the first minute versus the University of Illinois-Chicago while adding 11 points, four rebounds and two steals in just 14 minutes). His leaping skills might be the best on the team, and it's those hops that enable Carmody to make aggressive drives and finishes at the basket. He averaged 14.1 rebounds per game while becoming Pennsylvania's Ga- torade Player of the Year as a senior and is far from a stationary jump shooter. Carmody took advantage of his time on the bench to observe and learn. "The game has really slowed down for me over the past year," he said. "I'm seeing the angles and how to get to the rim a lot better, and that's something that I think I do really well — get to the rim and finish. If that's going to be open for me I'm going to take it as much as I can. "I have a lot more confidence in the offense and how I need to play. Sitting on the bench last year, every- thing started to slow down for me out there. That was a big key to get my confidence up. I played way too fast at times last year." This year he will endeavor to watch the speed bumps — yet never take it too slow in his approach. ✦ TOUGH GUY Robby Carmody brings an aggressive, blue-collar approach to Notre Dame basketball After opening last year in the starting lineup as a freshman, Carmody had to undergo surgery for a torn labrum in December and missed the rest of the season. PHOTO BY COREY BODDEN