Mike Brey Transcript: Oct. 14
Notre Dame men's basketball held an open practice for media, and Irish head coach Mike Brey discussed the session and more after it concluded.
Check out all of what Brey said below.
Q: What are your thoughts?
MIKE BREY: “Even though we have some new faces, we’ve been together a lot when you think about the summer. We’ve had a lot of reps together. Our younger guys really understand what we emphasize. Where this was practice 11 on the practice plan for this fall, it may have been like practice 25 with everything we did this summer, which has helped us.”
Q: How key is Prentiss Hubb?
BREY: “He’s a key. He takes some pressure off. You didn’t see Rex today. Rex is another ball handler and playmaker for us. He has a minor back thing. We’re just being precautionary. Prentiss has been very good over the course since he’s been back. He’s looked really good. He’s going to be a key.”
Q: On how DJ Harvey looked.
BREY: “He’s done a fabulous job working to get himself back. Our training and medical people too. That’s like his third day. He’s really moving and feeling good. He’s not quite in shape yet. You could see him get tired. I give him a lot of credit. That’s really frustrating as long as he’s been out. It’s been since early February since he played basketball. There’s a lot to work with there … That’s three days for him and he’s moving great. I’m hoping we’re trending the right way. We’re sure looking like we are.”
Q: It looks like he’s lost a lot of weight.
BREY: “He’s lean. He’s down probably 220 pounds. Tony Rolinski wanted him lighter on that knee. He’s done everything we’ve asked. I’m proud of his attitude. That’s a mental burden to not be able to play for 10 months. I give him a lot of credit.”
Q: How cautious will you be with him?
BREY: “We didn’t take him out today. We let him rip. I think eventually he has to play. You hope that the cartilage situation has … but you’re not going to know that. He’s going to have to play on it. Today, we didn’t go super long because we’ve had a couple hard days in a row. We’ll keep an eye on him. And he doesn’t want to come out.”
Q: Can he honest with you?
BREY: “Probably not. That’s where I’ll trust Skip on that.”
Q: What have you seen out of Juwan Durham?
BREY: “Durham needs the day-to-day work. I thought he was really good in the summer when we had them in a routine every day. Then in September when we were going maybe once a week, I thought we had slippage. He needs to have the reps every day just because he hasn’t had it. He didn’t block many shots today, but he has in practice. He’s been active around the bucket. He has a good feel. For those new guys, five-on-five is great for them because they are learning how to play together with our older guys.”
Q: How much emphasis are you putting on getting the younger guys in game situations?
BREY: “We do them about every day. You saw a couple today. It’s been an interesting to evaluate our new faces. Our new guys, especially those guards, aren’t afraid to step up and take a big shot … They’ve done that through their careers and done it in game situations here. For me, who are the right guys on the floor at the right time is the big evaluation for me and the staff?
Q: When do you feel you will know what kind of rotation you may have?
BREY: “I wish I knew more now. We do have a lot of bodies. We probably have too many. Eventually, you have to make some decisions and shave that down. Right now, the competition is so good. There are days where I think we are trending one way and then all of sudden we trend back to the other. I have to keep an open mind and keep everyone engaged and part of it.”
Q: That’s a good thing, right?
BREY: “Yeah. It is good. It’s good because it makes our practices so competitive to have this much depth and all of these bodies. They go at it every day. We mixed the jerseys. Really Rex and TJ don’t play in a blue shirt much. Those guys kind of play together and I rotate everyone else to evaluate.”
Q: What are your thoughts on Chris Doherty since he returned?
BREY: “I think he’s almost closed the gap and caught up from what he missed this summer. He was gone this summer, but he’s in good shape. He understands how we play. I think he’s been really good here academically and plugged in. I think he need a summer to handle some family stuff … His frame of mind has been awesome.”
Q: How do you size up this group leadership wise?
BREY: “I’ve been very pleased with TJ, Elijah and Rex. They’ve had more heavy lifting in the leadership department because of the new faces. I couldn’t ask for any more from them. They had extra stuff because we went down to the Bahamas and had the 10 practices. They’ve done a really good job getting our young guys ready, giving them confidence and helping them … All three have unbelievable voices and that has really helped.”
Q: New facility.
BREY: “This has been great. It’s state of the art. I’m trying to figure out what to do with my practice plan. I went 20 years with just two baskets. Now, I have five baskets, so I have to figure out what else what we should do to use those extra buckets. We shoot more free throws, do more footwork and we’re in the gym a little longer. It’s beautiful. The one thing is the court is state of the art … It’s soft and forgiving. We can go day-to-day hard — not that The Pit and arena are bad floors — this one is even more forgiving. You can get more reps in and not feel you’re wearing your guys out.”
Q: What’s the next step for Gibbs?
BREY: “For TJ, he’s going to have to score for us. Then it’s a matter of who do we have in there with him. He’s got the ability to really score. The last game in the Bahamas we were dying and he had 25. He just figured he had to go do stuff. I think there will be nights he has to go do stuff. I was thinking today that we’re kind of the no names. No one mentions Pflueger … Is that Ashton Gibbs or Sterling Gibbs they have? No one even knows the rest of our roster. Nobody really knows our guys. It’s kind of a neat group finding itself. Rex and TJ have been rocks for us.”
Q: Do you like being in that role?
BREY: “It’s a familiar role. The first day of our workouts in the summer I put up five of our teams throughout my tenure … where we were picked 10th or 11th in the league, which I think we will be in two weeks. We emerged to finish fifth or fourth and also the NCAA Tournament seed for that group. Rex and TJ said, “Yep, Coach. That’s where we are at. Let’s go.’ That’s the territory we are in. It’s familiar for the program and me. It’s probably good for this group to develop in that theme.”
Q: How can you be different defensively this year?
BREY: “I think our engagement defensively is good. Everyone wants to guard and are involved. Our young guys come from programs where they were taught and coached. It’s not like you are closing the gap on them. Obviously, Pflueger and Gibbs will guard you … The thing that concerns me is we could put Martinas Geben on a post player and he could guard them and was really good. I think we’re still searching for can Elijah and John, can Juwan stand on the block … who can guard that frontline guy for us. Hubb has great instincts. He’ a little bit of a steal guy. Carmody and Goodwin get down in a stance and guard you. We’re into that. We know that can help us.”
Q: When they are young, is that half the battle? Getting them to want to guard?
BREY: “We’ve had guys come through the program that are such offensive guys that…then sometimes you can’t demand it as much because they need to get you 20 and 10 on the other side. There is no one in that role for us. They all have to defend even TJ Gibbs. They have to sit down in a stance and guard. It’s a group that’s into it and knows they have to do it … We’re not sure how good we are. We better guard. Who are we not to guard?
"One thing we have done is we do move it. We know how to play, move it and share it. We still have our moments where we turn it over a little too much for our culture. But, we do like playing together and moving it. Our bigs have a feel. The young guys have come from places where they know how to play, cut and move. I like where we are at offensively as far as our identity sharing the ball, moving it and the ball doesn’t stick, moving without it and cutting without it.”
Q: With so many options, how do you balance the first bit of non-conference the need to win with the evaluating what’s the best lineup?
BREY: “I think at some point, and maybe that’s night-to-night, you make some hard decisions on who is going to play and what’s the rotation and where do we go. I think we are getting close to that … This should be our perimeter rotation, this should be our front-line stuff, and here's the way it is. If somebody is the odd-man out to start, they're the odd man out. Once you sit on the same bench, the next level of people management starts … We did have a little bit of that in the Bahamas because the east game we did have game pressure on us. We were in trouble. We downshifted and played small. At some point, we will have to make some tough decisions and say here is the rotation and here are the guys. I’m more apt with this group to ride the depth longer and let’s keep watching and reading.”
Q: By in large, do you feel most of your teams have gotten better by the end?
BREY: “I think we have the track record of guys getting better and groups getting better. I think for this group there is more of an open mind to development all the way through February because of so many news faces that are going to change as the year goes. I’ve prepared myself all summer for patience. These new guys are easy to coach because they're smart, there’s a toughness about them and they know how to play. It’s not like your holding hands. That was probably practice 24 for us and not 10.”
Q: Who would you categorize as most improved?
BREY: "I think Elijah and Johnny together, because we need them to play like we've had older guys in our program rotate up and be the guys. We need them to be guys, and I've been very pleased with what they're doing. It's their time, it's their turn to give us more, and I like what they've give us since June."
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