Mike Brey at least gave fair warning.
Asked in his first Zoom press conference of the preseason about loading up the non-conference schedule with five high-major teams, Notre Dame’s head coach hinted that the early season slate had more challenges to come.
As if that was somehow possible. Michigan State (road), Kentucky (road), Ohio State (home), Tennessee (home) and Purdue (neutral) were already on tap in the first month. That’s four teams in the preseason Associated Press poll and three in the top 15.
“It’s an aggressive December schedule,” Brey said. “When you see the two league games that will plug in … you’ll know I’ve lost my mind completely.”
The first? None other than a home game against No. 9 Duke. Then a trip to Syracuse. Then hosting No. 4 Virginia to end December. The first month already was a gauntlet. Now, it feels like college basketball’s version of the Hunger Games. All told, eight of the first nine games are against teams in the KenPom preseason top 30.
Brey went big in part because of inevitable cancellations. He also feels his group is up to the task of surviving and thriving.
“You don’t throw these kinds of games on the board non-league unless you think you have a group you can have some fun with,” Brey said.
And Brey has made clear his outlook. Notre Dame expects to be an NCAA Tournament team. Never mind that the Irish were picked 12th out of 15 teams in the ACC preseason poll.
The Irish will start a lineup of five upperclassmen — juniors Prentiss Hubb, Cormac Ryan, Dane Goodwin and Nate Laszewski, and fifth-year senior Juwan Durham. All but Ryan started or played 15-plus minutes per game each of the last two years. Ryan was a freshman starter at Stanford in 2018-19.
