Mike Brey Notebook: Oct. 19

Notre Dame’s men’s basketball season is inching closer and closer.

Though the first regular season game is not until Nov. 11 when the Irish travel to Chicago to take on DePaul, three exhibition games sit between Notre Dame and the official start of the new season.

The first exhibition game will occur tomorrow evening at 7 p.m. when Notre Dame faces off against Holy Cross in a game that is designed to raise money to benefit hurricane relief efforts.

Mike Brey and his program held a ‘Media Day’ late this morning and into the early afternoon, and they are itching to get back on the court and play against opponents and not themselves in practice. Brey plans to treat it like a typical regular season contest.

“We’re excited,” Brey said today. “I think with a veteran team after three or four practices, a veteran team is kind of looking at ‘coach, can we start playing? We’ve done your drills.’ You know what? They’re right.

“To sit on the same bench tomorrow, be able to substitute, put the uniforms on, have a crowd. I think it’ll be great. Love the fact that Holy Cross could come across the road. Our guys play with their guys a lot over the summer. They’re in our gym a lot, so we know those guys. I think today we’ll go through a scouting report and a walk through and tomorrow we’ll have a shoot-around. We’ll go through the routine that is game day.

“Certainly, the benefit of hurricane relief and where the money is going. When you look around the country, the NCAA has been getting banged around lately, but I thought it was really good. We brought this up in our board of directors with NABC in August, and they turned it around quick.”

It’s a small sample size, but Brey likes what he’s seen from his group through the first several practices on both ends.

“We’ve shot it from three better than I thought we would after 11 practices,” Brey stated. “Again, that’s still kind of a small sample size, so we’ll see. I love what we’re doing defensively. We’ve got a team that gets deflections. When you add Bonzie, who’s always been a guy who gets deflections with that wingspan, then you have Rex and TJ out there who are all over the place defensively and cover a lot of ground. We’re getting some hands on stuff.

“And I think I mentioned it a couple weeks ago, that you may be able to get some turnovers and some easy buckets off turnovers. Which is a little new for us. The veteran group that has been starting in the white shirts, and will start tomorrow night, they really know how to play. They know our system. I’ve been really happy with how they’ve played on both ends and how they communicate.”

Bonzie Colson, Martinas Geben and Austin Torres are known commodities in a sense for the Irish. But, redshirt sophomore Elijah Burns and sophomore John Mooney are still looking to establish themselves in the program.

Brey touched on both players and what he’s liked about both so far this summer and fall.

“Excited about both of them,” Brey said. “They’ve made huge strides. Right now, I’d say Elijah Burns is our sixth man after what he’s given us after 10-11 practices. But, yesterday Johnny was fabulous. We’re going to need both of those guys. They are our future after this year as well, and I’m very mindful of that when we lose those three senior big guys.

“Elijah is really easy to play with on both ends of the floor. He really understands who he is. He’s rebounding on both ends at a huge clip. One of the reasons we recruited him was we loved how he talked and communicated. He’s fabulous there and we loved how he passed the ball and moved it and knew who he was. That’s why I think he’s kind of emerged as sixth guy.

“But, I mean Johnny is also physical around the bucket and he can stretch the floor and make shots. In a game situation yesterday, he made a three to beat the white shirts in a game situation. Both of those guys figure into our plans.”

Brey also mentioned freshman DJ Harvey will need to be in the rotation the fall.

“I think we have to get DJ Harvey ready to play," Brey explained. "There’s too much there to work with. He’s the lone rookie in there. He’s a sharp kid which happens a lot at our program. He’s learned to move without the ball. When you play with all veteran guys, and he’s playing with all veterans, you kind of learn how to play.

"The explosiveness, the ability to play in the midrange area, he can defend and sit in his stance. He rebounds for size like a Connaughton rebounds. We substitute and we become smaller and he’s that so-called stretch-four. That’s an interesting lineup we’ve played around through the first 10 practices.”

Redshirt freshman wing Nik Djogo has been working as the primary ball handler for the second unit in practices. Djogo has really improved in that area per Brey.

“Been very impressed with Nik," Brey said. "He’s had a heck of a burden starting with the practices in the summer. He’s handling the ball and he’s not really a point guard. He’s kind of becoming a better guard because he has to handle the ball against Farrell, Gibbs and Pflueger with the blue team for most of practice. It’s made him a better decision maker. He’s been better with taking care of the ball …

"He can shoot the basketball and that’s something that is interesting to me. Both of them are competing and you’re not afraid to put them in the game. Impressed with both of them. Again with Nik, he’s older now … There’s an athletic ability. He has the ability when he drives it, he’s athletic he gets up around bucket and gets fouled. I think he’s a great investment for us. Having to run the blue team against some veteran perimeter guards is only going to get him better.”

The graduation of Steve Vasturia and V.J. Beachem leaves a void on the perimeter that Brey and company are looking to fill. Guard Rex Pflueger is being counted on to be part of that equation.

The junior is making his voice heard and is stepping up as a leader of the team to join Colson and Farrell, which only benefits Pflueger long-term in Brey’s eyes.

“He will be a voice,” Brey said of the junior. “There is no question he will be a voice. There’s a confidence about him now. He has great things to say, he has a great feel of our system. He plays with a great edge and energy.

“I look at him as a voice and in a leadership role. Then when I think a year from now, I think we’ll have a guy that will be extremely confident rotating up. He’ll be the only senior if you look ahead. He’s got a say with this group and he should.”

Brey said earlier this month that this team may carry more of a defensive identity compared to the other previous teams he’s coached in South Bend.

Through double-digit practices, Brey still feels the same about where the defense is compared to the offense, but knows one will not carry the other long-term. However, it’s not Brey that is pushing the defensive effort and being stronger on that side of the court.

“What motivates me there is how much our group wants to defend together,” Brey explained. “It’s not me selling it or demanding it. They know that can be a strength of theirs especially when you talk about those first five guys, those veteran guys. They’ve played a lot together, they talk.

“I’ve really been impressed with how Bonzie and Martin talk and switch big guys and communicate back there. We know the three guys on the perimeter can move their feet and fly around and they really do. A lot of it has come from them and taking ownership of themselves and saying over the summer ‘man we can really be better on this end of the floor.’ It has paid off.

“I think we’ve had more deflections through 10 practices then we have before. Guys getting their hands on stuff and coming up with stuff. Want to continue emphasize that. There’s no question we aren’t going to get where we are want to get without that good ol’ offensive efficiency that has been our trademark …”

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