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Mike Brey Notebook: Dec. 14

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Notre Dame is set to take on Indiana Saturday in the annual Crossroads Classic which also annually features Purdue and Butler.

Given Indiana and Purdue are members of the Big 10 and do not face each other in this setting, the Irish square off against the Hoosiers and Boilermakers every other year without facing Butler. This season the Irish take on an Indiana program in the first year of the Archie Miller era.

Notre Dame is 1-2 against the Hoosiers in the Crossroads Classic with Indiana winning in 2011 (69-58) and 2015 (80-73) while the Irish claimed the 2013 meeting (79-72). Overall, Notre Dame is 3-3 in the event since its inception in 2011.

For Irish head coach Mike Brey, the annual in-state matchup brings a lot of positives.

“It’s been a great idea to have the four in-state schools play,” Brey said on Thursday. “Number one, you have a sold-out building and you have a great atmosphere in the building. We know how the state of Indiana loves basketball … I’ve been encouraged the last couple of years that our people have started to come out more.

“I was leary about getting into this because historically — long before me — we had not drawn well when we went to Indianapolis and played. Our people just didn’t really come out, but they have been. Now, you feel better about it even though we know we’ll be thoroughly outnumbered, we’ll have a good section on Saturday.”

With the Big 10 moving to a 20-game league schedule next year and the ACC following suit in 2019-2020, Brey is curious about the Crossroads Classic with three of the four programs involved losing two non-conference games in the coming years.

“What is the future of this down the road and how does everybody feel?” Brey explained. “Again, I think it’s been very, very positive … For us, you’re playing a Big 10 team. If you win, it’s a resume win and if you lose it’s not a bad loss. There’s a lot of win-win with it. But, the 20-game league schedule philosophically is going to be interesting moving forward.”

But before that becomes a discussion, Brey is focused on an Indiana team looking to bounce back after losing three of its last four (Duke, Michigan and Louisville).

“The one thing that they are doing is the same thing they did at Dayton: they really are guarding you in the half court,” Brey said of the Hoosiers. “They defend, they have active hands, they’re really kind of jamming it up. Virignia-like where it’s going to be jammed up. You have to move.

“I would love to see if we can get down the floor quicker to get some easy buckets before the defense is set. I think it helps you against Indiana, and I think it also helps us.”

One key matchup Brey discussed is in the post as Indiana will throw out sophomore forward De’Ron Davis (11.5 points) and company that has consistently hurt teams in the paint.

“The one thing they take a lot of pride in is how they’ve outscored everyone in the paint that they’ve played,” Brey stated. “They’ve beaten everyone up in the paint. Our battles in there as far as putting our chest on people, keeping it to one-and-done and not let them play volleyball on the backboard. I think that’s going to be a big, big key for us.”

MATT FARRELL/TJ GIBBS

Senior point guard Matt Farrell (24) and sophomore guard TJ Gibbs (21) combined for 45 points in Notre Dame’s 92-68 win over Delaware on Saturday.

After a tough two-game stretch against St. Francis Brooklyn and Ball State shooting (8-of-23), Farrell knocked down 8 of his 13 shot attempts against the Blue Hens to lead all scorers. Brey has been upping his message to the senior about searching for his shot more and more.

"That’s an on-going discussion with him and reminder to him,” Brey said. “When we scrimmaged on Tuesday, I actually told him … ‘if you have a little window of a look, I want you to take it today. You can’t turn it down … You got to hunt it for us.’ That’s a work in progress. We have to stay after him about that. I think his teammates have been on him about it.

Bonzie Colson and those guys can get on him when they turn stuff down … It’s a fine line because he’s wanting to involve people and be the quarterback … He’s got to score for us.”

Saturday marked the fourth time this season Gibbs eclipsed the 20-point total and Brey hopes Farrell’s and Gibbs’ performance together is just the start moving forward.

“He can do it a lot of different ways then he can guard on the other end,” Brey said of Gibbs. “He was nice to be in a rhythm where you had Matt and TJ playing downhill, hunting their shots, feeling good. It had us in a really nice flow offensively. Hopefully we can build on that.”

MOVING FORWARD & BOUNCING BACK

Notre Dame played on both ends of the court against the Blue Hens which followed an upset loss to Ball State 80-77 in South Bend a few nights before.

Three games remain for the Irish — Indiana, Dartmouth and Southeastern Louisiana — before ACC play begins on Dec. 30 when Georgia Tech heads to South Bend. Notre Dame tried to go a little quicker offensively against Delaware, and it certainly helped Farrell and Gibbs get into rhythm. That appears to be the plan moving forward.

“It was great to see Matt and TJ play well together, and they were in attack mode,” Brey said. “I think playing quicker on misses and makes helped us do that. We turned a couple over early because we were playing fast, but I think I’m going to have to live with that. We’re going to throw it away maybe a little more playing fast.

“If it gets us more in attack and gets Matt and a TJ jumpstarted and we get some easy buckets, I think it’s going to help us.”

Brey is hoping these next three games can serve as a springboard for players such as freshman wing DJ Harvey and the Irish bench.

“Would like to get him going again,” Brey said of Harvey. “We don’t win in Maui without him playing well. He’s been a little bit young lately. Probably a little bit of academic demands here in his first semester … We’re going to need him moving forward. Then the rest of the bench. Who is it? What is it? What’s going on with our frontcourt guys? How do we get reps in three games for those guys to get us ready for the ACC?”

2018 SCHEDULE NEWS

Brey mentioned during his session with the media that the Irish will head to New York next year to play in Madison Square Garden as part of the Jimmy Classic.

The Jimmy V Classic began in 1995 and is a doubleheader that helps raise money and awareness for cancer research. It is named after NC State head coach Jim Valvano. The Irish played in the event in 2007 defeating Kansas State 68-59.

It’s been reported West Virginia and Indiana will be one-half of the equation, but Notre Dame’s opponent is not known at this time, according to Brey.

“We haven’t been there in a while,” Brey said of Madison Square Garden. “… We have UCLA on the road, we’ll have the ACC/Big 10 at home, we’ll have Purdue down there [in the Crossroads]. We have enough there.

“You look at the makeup of next year’s team, we’ll have more new faces than ever before. Maybe it’s a year where you don’t play a Legends Classic or a Maui … I do like the Garden. To get back in the Garden is natural …”

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Talk about it inside Rockne’s Roundtable

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