Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/204831
Finding The Right Rotation Mike Brey juggles his lineup to find the best plan for the 2013-14 squad W By Andrew Owens hen the rest of the Irish men's basketball team suited up for the 2013-14 exhibition opener against Indianapolis Oct. 28, sophomore forward Cam Biedscheid did not. According to head coach Mike Brey, the team is considering sitting him out this season to preserve a year of eligibility and put him on the five-year plan past players have gone through. While a final decision wasn't likely until just before the season opener versus Miami (Ohio) Nov. 8, Brey sat Biedscheid because the NCAA counts all game competition, including exhibition contests, inside its eligibility purview for non-freshmen. Biedscheid scored 6.2 points and grabbed 1.4 rebounds in 17.4 minutes per game a year ago after signing with the Irish as the 32nd-ranked player in the country, the ninth-ranked small forward and the top player from Missouri, according to 247Sports. "It's something we want to talk about with him and his family, and think about it," Brey said. "It may be the best thing for him in the long run to get older, get stronger, academically, all the above, those are usually the points. … It's kind of an ongoing discussion." Brey said he and the coaching staff discussed it over the summer, but Biedscheid approached the head coach Oct. 26 about the possibility. "We've never forced it on a guy," Brey said. "He said, 'Coach, I've been thinking about it, my family and I have been talking about it, what do you think?' I kind of went through things with him, and you get into the balancing point about what's best for the kid and best for the team. That's what we've got to kind of figure out. We've got a lot of guys on the perimeter who can play. "I don't think you can even consider [a redshirt] for what's best for our team unless your freshman guards have been impressive and consistent and solid, and all three of them have been," Brey said. "If that wasn't the case, the discussion would've ended in my office with, 'You can't do it.'" The "impressive" freshmen Brey mentioned include guard Demetrius