JotCast | Notre Dame men's hoops - summer chat | 6/30/2022

Notre Dame men's hoops - summer chat

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Thomas Noie

10:17

Joe: That's a lot of words to spend on....NEXT SEASON!!! LOL. Seriously? Let's see how 2022-23 unfolds before we start wringing our hands about what may or may not happen a full year from now. I'm sure there's a plan. That staff isn't going to wake up a year from now and be like, whoa, where did everybody go? Enjoy the ride this year, then worry about what's coming next. Sound good? Please?

joe from the south side

10:16

Tom, Brey has 12 on scholarship, since he whiffed on 3 pitches looking for an experienced Forward. That said, 6 of those 12 are gone. Nate, Robby, Trey, Dane, Marcus, and likely Cormac. Thrown in a disgruntled transfer from the 2 Juniors and he may have 7 or 8 slots to fill. How likely is he to fill those slots and is that any way to run a basketball program based on "get old and stay old"? Also, if this is the new reality of college BBL, is Brey, at 63, up for the challenge? It certainly impacted the decisions of Jay Wright, Muffet, etc..........If they make the NCAA Tourney, and they certainly have enough talent and experience to do that, is it time for him to walk away?

Thomas Noie

10:15

...As for the interior, I must have missed this - was Paul Atkinson, Jr., the second coming of Dikembe Mutombo? Shaq? Atkinson was just what this team needed last year, but he wasn't THAT much of a game-changing presence. Nate Laszewski was that team's most important player in terms of defense. That will continue this year. And every early indication is that Ven-Allen Lubin will be able to hold up and do the heavy lifting left behind by Zona. There's a reason Notre Dame didn't land a transfer big.

10:13

Joe: Didn't you kind of answer your own question? LOL. Ryan and Goodwin will be 40-minute guys. Seriously. They're never coming out of the game. Laszewski as well. Forty minutes on a lot of nights. Starling's a starter. Blake Wesley played 30 minutes a game. Starling might be better than Wesley. And you're right - grad transfers under Mike Brey don't come to Notre Dame to be bit players. Hammond's going to play a lot. Trey Wertz is going to play a lot. It's a big dose of four around one...

joe from the south side

10:09

Tom, How do you think the minutes will play out for the guards? I assume JJS has to start. You don't recruit him to "wait his turn." Goodwin is the leading returning leading scorer. He plays. Ryan showed at the end of last season he has to be on the court. Has to. And Marcus H didn't transfer to get splinters in the butt. Looks to me like last year's Miami team. 4 out, 1 big, and just try to outscore the opposition, since that team won't get any OFF REBs, and won't be able to defend the opposition's interior post play. Looks like Nate L. gets to do all of the grunt work, with Big Zone or a freshman as the backup there, and Wertz as the 5th Guard. How do you see it?

Thomas Noie

9:57

Joe: Asked and answered. Look at the previous question/comment. He just wants to prove that he can still play. It may not ever materialize, but Carmody just doesn't want to let it go. You know what Red said about hope in Shawshank....

joe from the south side

9:56

Tom, What was the impetus behind Carmody's decision to stay on? I think he knows he will never contribute, on the court, in any way for the program. Is it graduate school? His brother?

Thomas Noie

9:56

Mike: Robby Carmody returned for his super senior season, though he really has like nine years of eligibility remaining (not really, but you get the point). There was a thought that he would earn his degree and just walk away from a game that has been so cruel to him from a health standpoint since he arrived. Carmody returned for another year and still is striving to get back to full health. It's been hard. He could get back to 200 percent health and he'd be at a similar crossroads as J.R. Konieczny. Notre Dame is loaded on the perimeter. Carmody can still be an asset as a team/bench/locker room guy who preaches Brey's gospel. He still believes and at this point, for him, that's half the battle.

Mike S

9:52

Hey Tom, has Carmody played at all this summer, and if so, any chance he can crack the rotation this year? Thanks!

Thomas Noie

9:51

Victor: It was a looooooong learning year for former South Bend Saint Joseph standout J.R. Konieczny. He played in only seven games with totals of 11 points and one rebound in 22 minutes. That was often his stat line for three quarters in high school, but this ain't the Northern Indiana Conference any more. It's going to be really difficult for Konieczny to crack the rotation this season. At 6-foot-6, and maybe now closer to 6-7, Konieczny considers himself a guard, but Notre Dame has a whole bunch of really good guards. With Cormac Ryan, Dane Goodwin, Trey Wertz, Marcus Hammond and J.J. Starling, it's easy to do the math - before the Irish even play a real game, or hold a fall practice, Konieczny is the sixth guard in a group that went only five deep last season. Notre Dame loses Prentiss Hubb and Blake Wesley, but adds a veteran (Hammond) and a McDonald's All-American (Starling). It might be best for Konieczny to take a redshirt season in 2022-23 and stay patient with the process.

Victor K. From Salem

9:47

where does JR Konieczny fit into next season’s Irish team…or does he?

Thomas Noie

9:43

Bob: Understood, but you do know that the game has changed - gone are the days where you plant a seven-footer in the lane leave him there. It's all perimeter and stretch fours and bigs who can step out and shoot it. I like Notre Dame's chances in that regard. The Irish won't have someone they can throw it to like they did with Paul Atkinson, but try and guard that perimeter. Watch them pull a big away from the basket with Nate Laszewski stepping out and shooting shots that he passed up last year. Nate's not going to be the post-up guy. Ven-Allen Lubin might not be the post-up guy. But let's see teams try to match that perimeter. An interior presence might be a problem, but the potential of that perimeter? Scary. Notre Dame will find a way to compensate. Just watch.

Bob from chicago

9:40

It is hard to see ND as any kind of serious ACC or NCAA threat with zero post presence. Unless Zona or Campbell can be that guy ? What do you think ?

Thomas Noie

9:40

...That Blake Wesley became the first one-and-done in Notre Dame history (and a first-round pick on top of that) can do nothing but help the chances of landing Booker. Mike Brey has a new go-to recruiting pitch. He'll mention how Big Ten guys like Keegan Murray and Johnny Davis and Jaden Ivey all were NBA lottery picks, but they were TWO YEAR college guys. Brey will then say, my guy, Blake Wesley, was a one-and-done and still went in the first round, so come to Notre Dame, play one year and I'll get you to the league. Will it work? Stay tuned...

9:38

Nick: If Notre Dame doesn't land Xavier Booker, it won't be from a lack of effort. Almost from the day he returned for his third stint on Mike Brey's staff, associate head coach Anthony Solomon has made Booker his top priority. If there's an open gym, Slo's there. Cathedral playing for a state championship? Slo's there. He's also at the Top 100 camp in Orlando this week to watch Booker. The thinking now (and it's still kind of early, though Booker already has made an official to Notre Dame) is that it should come down to Notre Dame and Michigan State. Indiana will be there. Duke, too. But it could/should be Michigan State and Notre Dame...

Nick from Goshen (formerly South Bend)

9:35

Tom hope summer is off to a good start for you. I’m going to guess this will be a reoccurring topic, but what are ND’s realistic chances of landing Xavier Booker? Blake getting drafted seemingly helps their chances, but I just have a bad feeling ( a Hunter Dickinson feeling) about this one. Thoughts ?

Thomas Noie

9:33

Tony: Whoa, that's a lot of first names/initials there. Have to take a minute and figure them all out....lol. Probably answered your question with the last question - it would be difficult from a management standpoint to go any deeper than four. Remember when that freshman class with Hubb/Goodwin/Laszewski came in? Yeah, it was ranked as high as the Top 15 in the country, but that was a five-man class. That was way too big. Too many guys to try and keep happy. It kind of played itself out when Robby Carmody got hurt and Chris Doherty transferred. That saved some minutes migraines for Mike Brey. Five freshmen? Too many. The transfer portal will solve that - sign a couple of traditional recruits, then hit the portal and get old and stay old. There also is a chance - a very slim one at that, but a chance - that Cormac Ryan returns for another year. Ryan does have that option, but given the arc of his career, especially as last season ended, this likely will be it for him at Notre Dame. He has pro aspirations.

Tony

9:29

Tom, if JR, JJ, Matt, Tony, Dom, and V-A are the only returns. How many recruits and transfers do you see the staff bring in?

Thomas Noie

9:28

Mike: Does he? Need four? The early thinking might be that if Notre Dame can land Xavier Booker and T.J. Power, that might be enough for the 2023 class. Mike Brey would be ecstatic with those two, and would probably be done. Then, he'd turn his attention to a guard (local kid Markus Burton from Penn is someone that the staff is liking more and more, so keep an eye on him). That probably would be it in terms of high school seniors. With the portal being the portal, the Irish would look hard at veteran transfers. Notre Dame may eventually get to a four-man class, but it will be a combination of high school seniors, transfers and maybe a grad transfer.

Mike

9:23

Tom, do you know if Coach Brey put out any more 2023 offers the past 2 recruiting weekends? Has 10 offers out and he needs at least 4, not the greatest odds.

Thomas Noie

9:22

Jim: It's still early, but it looks like Matt Zona is the leader in the clubhouse for most popular/asked about offseason guy. Look below (or above) to see some early thoughts on Zona, who's getting closer to the rotation but not all the way there yet. Why isn't he? And why didn't Notre Dame sign a big man out of the portal? Everything changed when Nate Laszewski decided to return for his super senior season. The thinking was that Laszewski might be ready for his next basketball challenge. That he was done with college. When he decided to give it another run, it changed the urgency (really, erased it) to find a big. Laszewski's going to play a lot. Ven-Allen Lubin is going to play a lot, to the point where an All-ACC freshman team spot might be realistic. Add those two bigs, Matt Zona and Dom Campbell as ready reserves and a stacked perimeter and getting a transfer big was not going to happen. Sign a transfer big and he's going to play. A lot. That would've pinched other players in terms of minutes.

Jim in Charlottesville

9:19

Hi Tom. The Irish seemed to try hard to sign a portal Big. What’s your take on that they didn’t? Anything NIL about it? What do you see for Matt Zona this season? He’s not earned any meaningful minutes thus far, yet several of Mike Brey’s bigs have come of age later in eligibility.

Thomas Noie

9:18

..Early returns? There are eight Irish currently rotating through the white (starter's) jerseys in practices and scrimmage situations. You can pen (not pencil) in Dane Goodwin, Nate Laszewski and Cormac Ryan as starters. There might be a lot of nights where those three never leave the floor. Freshmen Ven-Allen Lubin and J.J. Starling have also been in starter's jerseys a lot. When they go blue, Marcus Hammond (Niagara grad transfer) and Trey Wertz get run with the white jerseys. Sometimes, Matt Zona will slide into the mix. That's how Mike Brey will go for the rest of those summer. Right now, it's those eight.

9:16

Linas: I can hear you now all the way from Orange County - "WE WANT ZONA!!!" Better keep that chant handy. Matt Zona might - stress MIGHT - find a spot in the rotation this season as the third big man behind Nate Laszewski and Ven-Allen Lubin, who apparently is better than advertised to date in summer workouts. Matt Zona would be the first big off the bench if needed - it's going to be a heavy dose of perimeter guys this season, so the backup bigs (Matt Zona, Dom Campbell) might be squeezed for minutes. The Irish have been back on campus for about three weeks. We usually get to see a practice toward the end of summer school. That's where we can see how everything's starting to shake out...

Linas fr. Orange Cty, CA (Rex Pfluger territory)

9:13

Hey Tom, Happy Summer :) So I feel a Matt Zona breakout coming this year. Jack Cooley, Martinas Geben and John Mooney had similar profiles and really broke out around junior years. Are you allowed to attend/observe informal summer workouts for ND players? Have you heard any scuttlebutt from Brey or others about Zona's off season or upcoming season's prospects? Thank you

Thomas Noie

9:13

Steve: The first one-and-done in Notre Dame men's basketball history, former Irish guard Blake Wesley was taken in the first round (No. 25 overall) by San Antonio in last week's draft (https://tinyurl.com/mr2ymn6m). At first, the thought was he'd probably have his rookie season to ease into NBA life, maybe spend some time with the Spurs' G League team in Austin, see some time here and there. San Antonio then traded guard Dejounte Murray to Atlanta, which opens a window of opportunity for Wesley. The Spurs seem to be headed toward full rebuild mode, which means, play the kids, which means, Wesley might see significant minutes. Normally, warm and cuddly Gregg Popovich has no use for rookies. Now, though, he seems to have embraced going young, which means Wesley has a chance. No matter how it shakes out, Wesley will be a way better pro in two, three years as his game develops. He needs time. If the Spurs give him that, he could be special.

Steve Duff

9:08

I’m curious about how you think Blake Wesley will do in the NBA. Also is playing for Pop a good or a bad thing for his development? Thanks Tom!

Thomas Noie

9:08

Who will be the top newcomer this season for Notre Dame men's basketball?

Dom Campbell (1.7% | 1 vote)

Marcus Hammond (3.3% | 2 votes)

Ven-Allen Lubin (13.3% | 8 votes)

J.J. Starling (81.7% | 49 votes)

Total Votes: 60

9:00

Happy summer everyone! We made through those dog/dark days of January and February and, if you live around these here parts. March and April and May. But we're here, so what better time to talk some Notre Dame men's basketball. There's no shortage of topics to discuss today - from last week's NBA draft, to the news that broke Wednesday of assistant coach Ryan Humphrey leaving for another coaching position (more details on that coming). To join today's discussion with a question or comment, make sure to include your name (no aliases, please) and hometown. With that, let's light this Notre Dame men's basketball summer chat.

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