JotCast | November 22 hoops chat

Thomas Noie

3:53

That seems like a good go-home-you've-had-enough question/comment to end on - we'll leave laughing. Thanks to everyone who participated in today's marathon - unofficially the longest Notre Dame hoops chat we've ever had - nearly six and a half hours. Let's do it again next month - I might still be laughing from Ray's last comment. Take care and have a great weekend!

3:48

Ray: From where I sit, it's not even 1 p.m. in California. Go home. You're drunk. You'd pass on everything. Yeah, sure. That's about as silly as silly gets.

Guest

3:46

Ray from Southern California - If you told me and every ND fan that I know that Brey would deliver everything you mentioned in two decades we would all pass. Three sweet 16's and zero final fours in two plus decades is a deal breaker. Brey has been a great representative for Notre Dame and has been a great leader for our athletes. His results on the court have been good but nowhere hear great. Unfortunately the regular season no longer matters in college hoops. I watch every Notre Dame hoops game but I'm a rare fan. Most fans don't really start watching every game until March and Brey has underperformed in March.

Thomas Noie

3:46

So true, but also a really big ask.

joe from the south side

3:46

Tom, Brey will be appreciated more in the rear view mirror. To do what he did early on in his career, with completely outdated resources, was nothing short of phenomenal. Sure, we all want greater success in the post season, but this guy's hands are tied. Rather than look at wins and losses, look at how his guys view the program as thier family. Look at his graduation rate. This guy never has kids in trouble. You will see what a job he did after he leaves. Hopefully, they can catch lightening in a bottle when they replace him.

Thomas Noie

3:46

Solid, steady. A known commodity, but let's see him close the season strong. He was ground down by being a main guy last year. Push past it second time around and be a factor in March.

Guest

3:45

You been doing this now for a couple hours and only 1 mention of Goodwin. He’s avg 14 points a Game 5-6 rebounds, a couple assists. Keep his profile low. He thrived on it last year until teams made him ND’s number 1 man to stop.

Thomas Noie

3:45

Matt: Not until they can collectively be better defensively. Brey mentioned post-game Southern Indiana that Notre Dame played exactly zero possessions of zone defense with its core rotation guys. Brey admitted that he made a mistake in going to zone too early in games against Radford and Youngstown State - yeah, it changed the rhythm of the game but it also let the Irish off the hook in terms of guarding. Loved that answer. Use zone to change it up, but still hold those guys to a standard to get in a stance and guard.

Guest

3:42

Matt from North Dakota: Tom, I think this team can be a really good zone team. I like what Brey said post game last night about having Ven in the middle. I’m assuming zone plays more of a factor come conference time?

Thomas Noie

3:37

Swing by any time my man!

Paul, here in the Bend

3:37

Maybe they stop televising everything. Friday is only on ESPN+. Maybe a few more peeps will venture out. But I doubt it. Gotta run. Thanks for doing these.

Thomas Noie

3:31

Kind of like Brian Kelly. What, too soon?

Paul, here in the Bend

3:31

Wait till Brey leaves. Familiarity breeds contempt. See if you like what the team looks like two years hence.

Thomas Noie

3:30

Totally agree with that. There was a certain someone that should've been at Wednesday's game who wasn't. Would rather stay home.

Steve

3:30

Tom, maybe it is a societal problem? If people can't walk from the Bulla lot (which now extends RIGHT next to The Gug) to the north door of Purcell (3 minute walk?) then maybe Americans just don't want to go to games when they have 60 inch 4K TVs at home?

Thomas Noie

3:30

Ray: You keep beating the drum about Mike Brey not having a "good tournament record." Say it's the summer of 2000 all over again and Matt Doherty has hopped the UNC charter plane to return to Chapel Hill. Notre Dame needs its third coach in three years. If I said to you that your program, which hadn't been to an NCAA tournament in 11 years, would get a coach that would go to three Sweet 16s, two Elite Eights, be a semi-regular in the NCAA tournament, win an ACCT championship by beating Duke and Carolina in Greensboro on consecutive nights and resurrect a once-proud program while establishing a successful identity in the Big East and the ACC and become the winningest coach in school history, tell me you're not signing up for that in a heartbeat. You are. You know you are.

Guest

3:26

Ray from Southern California -Regarding Brey leaving for brighter lights? Besides the rumored Maryland job years ago was there one top 20 program that would have hired him? Top programs rate their coaches on how they perform in March. Like I previously mentioned Brey does not have a good tournament record and I would be very surprised if any top program would have ever considered hiring him.

Thomas Noie

3:25

It's obvious - play more than six guys!

Jim from Misahwaka

3:25

What ideas do you have to increase attendance?

Thomas Noie

3:23

Me...we see enough of each other through the season as it is. Spring comes, we go our separate ways for a few months. That's by design.

ToledoJohnny from Georgia

3:22

Truthfully, who wouldn't want to have a "Beer with Brey"?

Paul, here in the Bend

3:22

Amen again Toledo. Ask the folks down in Tobacco Road if they think Brey is a good coach....

Thomas Noie

3:22

TJ: Notre Dame men's basketball is way closer to Wake Forest or Boston College than Duke or Carolina, but wins at a clip closer to Duke and Carolina than Wake and Boston College. Do fans understand that?

ToledoJohnny from Georgia

3:21

That's one more reason why I give Brey big props for hanging in. He could have probably left at different times in his career for brighter lights in the old Big East, B10, ACC or a Kansas - type environment...but he stayed around, visited the dorms, handed out tickets, took off his shirt in Hawaii(I think), and kept the spirit going... Other prominent coaches like and respect Mike Brey...

Thomas Noie

3:21

Untrue...maybe one football column a week goes behind the paywall. Hoops ever gets good, that will as well. But you get plenty still for free.

Paul, here in the Bend

3:20

OK done with my bitter rant. Except for wondering why most of your stuff is behind a paywall now

Thomas Noie

3:18

And it's ain't 1976, either, which is what too many still don't understand.

Paul, here in the Bend

3:18

Amen. Brey has carved out a niche (in two excellent conferences) that makes it tough for some of the best teams in the country to beat us. But it ain't a national championship. Like all those football championships....oh wait

Thomas Noie

3:17

Justin: Oh, yeah, heard from a guy I never hear from in the summer to ask when Notre Dame men's basketball single-season tickets go on sale. Oh, and he's a Michigan State guy.

Justin, Ft. Wayne

3:17

According to the UND ticket website, ND vs Michigan St. looks close to a sellout. Can probably expect a lot of green in the building (Michigan St. green that is).

Thomas Noie

3:16

But, but, but....

Andrew from Plymouth

3:16

Yeah, the lack of student attendance has always befuddled me.

Thomas Noie

3:14

Nobody expects raucous for men's basketball - at the end of the day, it is, after all, still Notre Dame. But a dozen students and a couple thousand fans for a Sunday afternoon game is embarrassing. It just is. And everybody involved has to own it. Enough with the but, but, but, but, but....just own it. It is what it is and what it always will be. Average. At best. And that's not good enough for a program that deserves better for a school that strives for better.

Andrew from Plymouth

3:12

Cost and atmosphere are the simple answers for the attendance issues. Women's basketball figured it out by making it affordable to go as a family. I've complained about hockey not reducing their cost and having a youth ticket for awhile now. They haven't gone with a youth price like women's basketball has but they appear to have lowered the overall ticket cost. It's obviously more complex than this but making it more affordable to take your kids would help put butts in seats. I'm not sure creating a raucous atmosphere like some of the blue blood programs have is a real possibility here, unfortunately.

Thomas Noie

3:11

This isn't just a student issue or a regular Joe fan issue or a university issue. It's a system-wide failure to promote and produce a product that for so many years (1970s) people took for granted. It will always be full because it always used to be full. Times changed, and Notre Dame never really did. Again, it's system wide. EVERYTHING. Not just the students or the fans. It's everybody.

Paul, here in the Bend

Really, pay for season tickets and have to take a shuttle in the dead of winter to attend?

3:09

Oh, and another thing....they don't show ANY controversial replays. They are afraid someone might boo someone. The folks at home get to see it four or five times. But not the folks who pay the bills.

Thomas Noie

3:09

Truth! Unicorn

ToledoJohnny from Georgia

3:09

Bonzie had an incredible wingspan. He could reach around 2 power forwards and throw the ball underhanded off the backboard and in. You would be sitting there asking yourself..."how did he just...where did that come from.. wait, what?"

Thomas Noie

3:09

Steve: I'm there too early and leave too late to get caught in the parking crunch, but when the weather turns bad and there's a hockey game around the same time and some of the spots eliminated because of snow, parking get to be Thunderdome with my phone lighting up with all kinds of irate fans.

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