Brey suggests Ryan, Goodwin will return and says Hubb is done at Notre Dame
There are still plenty of questions remaining about Notre Dame's men's basketball roster next season, but a few more were answered this week.
On the latest episode of "The Mike Brey Show," Notre Dame's head coach said senior guard Prentiss Hubb won't be returning to the Irish and suggested fellow senior guards Cormac Ryan and Dane Goodwin will be returning.
Those updates followed the previous offseason reports that freshman guard Blake Wesley and graduate senior forward Paul Atkinson Jr. would be pursuing professional careers.
The 6-foot-3, 176-pound Hubb could have used the NCAA's COVID-19 eligibility relief to play one more season of college basketball, but Brey said it was time for Hubb to begin his post-college career.
"Prentiss, even though he would have a year of eligibility, sometimes it's time to go on and become a man and the next challenge," Brey said on his show. "He had gave us everything he had. He's like a son to me. I will miss him, but it's time.
"You have to kick the son out of the house sometimes and say, 'Grow up and be a man.' He will move on with a professional career."
Hubb played in all but one of the 126 games the Irish played the last four seasons. The former four-star recruit from Washington (D.C.) Gonzaga averaged 10.8 points and 4.7 assists per game for his career. Hubb's points per game dipped from 14.6 as a junior to 8.9 as a senior.
Hubb, who finished his time at Notre Dame ranked sixth in program history in career minutes played (4,372) and career assists (585), doesn't project as an NBA Draft pick, but his professional career could start in the G League or internationally.
Brey didn't make any declarations that Ryan and Goodwin would absolutely return, but he indicated he's counting on their leadership this offseason when he was asked about what excites him most about next season.
"It's a group that tasted the NCAA Tournament and now can actually talk about, 'What about a Final Four? What about playing all the way to the Final Four?' That's realistic," Brey said on "The Mike Brey Show". "If you haven't tasted it, that's not a realistic locker room talk, and I can't talk about that.' I think Cormac Ryan and Dane Goodwin will talk about that a lot all summer and that's a good thing."
Both would qualify as key returning players for the Irish, who finished the regular season second in the ACC and ended its season with a 24-11 record following a loss to Texas Tech in the NCAA Tournament's second round.
The 6-5, 194-pound Ryan really picked up his play late in the season. The 6-6, 208-pound Goodwin wasn't as consistent down the stretch, but he finished the season second on the team in scoring (13.6 points per game) behind Wesley (14.4).
Ryan, who transferred to Notre Dame from Stanford following the 2018-19 season, scored a career-high 29 points in Notre Dame's first-round NCAA Tournament victory over Alabama. He totaled 89 points in the team's final five games of the season. When Ryan made a permanent move into the starting lineup for the last 12 games, he averaged 13.4 points. He finished the season fifth on team with 9.2 points per game.
Goodwin has played in all 126 of Notre Dame's games the last four seasons. In his first full season as a full-time starter in 2021-22, Goodwin averaged 13.6 points per game while shooting 50.4% from the field, 45.8% from 3 and 82.3% from the free-throw line.
Two more seniors on Notre Dame's roster still have remaining eligibility: forward Nate Laszewski and guard Trey Wertz.
Brey previously indicated Laszewski would test the NBA waters before making a decision. The 6-10, 235-pound Laszewski, who averaged 9.3 points and 6.5 rebounds per game last season, has not publicly addressed his stay-or-go decision. He played in 125 games for the Irish in the past four seasons
The 6-5, 192-pound Wertz hasn't addressed his future yet either. If Wertz, who transferred to Notre Dame from Santa Clara following the 2019-20 season, doesn't stay at Notre Dame, it would make sense for him to enter the transfer portal in search of more playing time rather than turning pro. Even in a seven-man rotation, Wertz played only 18.8 minutes per game. His production was limited to 4.0 points and 2.0 assists per game.
Given Brey's short rotation, the Irish could lose some underclassmen to the transfer portal this offseason too. Basketball players must enter the transfer portal by May 1 in order to be eligible to play at their new school immediately next season. No Irish players have announced they've entered the transfer portal as of April 9.
Notre Dame's 2022-23 roster will welcome the 17th-ranked recruiting class in the country, which consists of five-star guard J.J. Starling and four-star forwards Ven-Allen Lubin and Dominick Campbell. Both Starling (No. 23) and Lubin (No. 44) are ranked inside the Rivals100. Campbell is just outside at No. 103.
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