Notre Dame Men's Basketball Media Day & Scrimmage Report
The Notre Dame men’s basketball program had about a 45-minute scrimmage open to members of media Wednesday afternoon following 20th-year head coach Mike Brey’s media day at the Rolfs Athletics Complex.
The fully-officiated session was divided into four six-minute sessions, with several late-game situations interspersed in between them. Among the 11 scholarship players, two did not participate: fifth-year senior guard Rex Pflueger and Stanford transfer guard Cormac Ryan.
Although Pflueger is able to run, shoot and even dunk, the Notre Dame medical staff and Brey are taking high caution with the volume of work following his ACL surgery last December. While the goal has been to have him available for the Nov. 6 opener at traditional superpower North Carolina, Brey might not have him in a full capacity of increasing his minutes until maybe December. The last piece to Pflueger’s recovery is explosiveness and landing after leaps.
“Physically he’s not doing any five-on-five, and I’ll be darned if we’re going to rush him to Nov. 6,” Brey said. “We’ll just take this when we get it…I don’t think when he’s cleared all of a sudden he’s a guy playing 32 minutes.”
Since the start of practice on Oct. 1, Brey has helped Pflueger mentally adjust to not playing much in the first month of the season.
“Right now I’m not going to count on any of it,” Brey said. “ I don’t think we can plan, ‘Well, at North Carolina it would be great if Rex could play 15 [minutes].’ He might be zero, he might not be ready to do that. We’ve kind of moved accordingly.
“I said, ‘Look, I know what we’re trying to charge toward here. But if you’re not ready to do this, we’re not doing it.’ He said, ‘Yeah, you’re right.’ There’s a lot of games after that and there’s a lot of games from Dec. 1 … We’re going to need him, but we also have to be smart about it.”
Ryan also was dressed to practice and partake in individual drills while recovering from off-season sports hernia surgery. However, the sophomore was going to redshirt this season anyway because of his transfer this summer.
To have a five-on-five scrimmage minus Pflueger and Ryan, Notre Dame added 6-foot freshman walk-on guard Elijah Morgan, who was a second-team All-USC Louisiana Boys Basketball Team selection while starring at Jesuit High School in New Orleans,
Alternating with Morgan on occasion was 2011-15 Fighting Irish standout guard Jerian Grant, currently an NBA free agent after playing 60 games for the Orlando Magic last season.
STARTING LINEUP?
Minus Pflueger, the starting team currently (garbed in White for practice) features seniors John Mooney and Juwan Durham in the frontcourt, while senior T.J. Gibbs and sophomores Prentiss Hubb and Dane Goodwin were in the backcourt and the wing.
Mooney was a third-team All-ACC selection season while leading the Irish in scoring (14.1 points per game) and rebounding (11.2). He was fifth nationally in rebounding average, and his 13 double-doubles in league play were the most since Wake Forest’s Tim Duncan in the 1990s. Among the 15 All-ACC players on the top three teams last year, Mooney and Louisville’s Jordan Nwora are the only ones back.
The 6-11 Durham has enjoyed a good preseason, and Brey took him with Mooney to the ACC Media Day earlier this month in order to bolster his understanding of how much he will be needed. One of the league’s top shot blockers before getting significantly slowed by a knee injury in the league opener, Durham averaged 5.7 points and 3.9 rebounds per game last season.
“Turning the corner as far as depending on him daily basis,” said Brey of Durham. “It’s all confidence for him, which is why I brought him to media day. We’re invested.”
Gibbs was the second-leading scorer last season (13.4), but struggled most of the year while trying to do too much in the absence of Pflueger and with inexperience all around him in the backcourt. However, he and Hubb were third and sixth, respectively, in the league in assist-to-turnover efficiency, and Hubb in particular has improved his shooting tremendously (more on that later).
The 6-6 Goodwin (6.4 points per game last season) along with 6-10 classmate Nate Laszewski (6.9 points per game) will both be expected to not turn down as many shots as they did last year.
After finishing tied for last in the 15-team ACC last year with a 3-15 mark, the Irish are picked to finish 7th this season with the experience they return.
“We’re older, we’re healthier, we’re better: What’s that mean in the league we signed up for?” summarized Brey.
SCRIMMAGE REPORT
First 6 Minute Session
White Team: Mooney, Durham, Gibbs, Hubb, Goodwin
Blue Team: Laszewski, Chris Doherty, Robby Carmody, Nik Djogo and Morgan/Grant
The starting team jumped to a quick 10-0 lead with Hubb the dominant figure. He assisted on passes to Mooney and Durham, both cutting to the basket (with Mooney getting fouled and also converting the free throw), scored off a steal by Mooney, and then drilled a three to force a Blue timeout at 3:15 left.
The pro Grant was then inserted in place of walk-on Morgan, and he helped set up a three to Laszewski to break the ice and converted a three of his own to pull the Blue within 13-10.
A three by Goodwin off a skip pass then sealed the 16-10 win for the White as Laszewski missed a three on the final possession.
Second 6 Minute Session
White Team: Mooney, Gibbs, Hubb, Laszewski, Carmody
Blue Team: Doherty, Durham, Goodwin, Morgan and Grant
Laszewski and Carmody traded places with Goodwin and Durham.
After Laszewski had his initial shot blocked by Durham and missed a three, he broke a 2-2 tie with one three and followed with another to make it 8-4.
Later, he faked a three and softly put in a five-foot drive to expand the lead to 12-6, and took a feed from Carmody to make it 14-6. Laszewski then made a perfect feed to Hubb after the defense collapsed on him for an open three and a 17-6 final by the White.
Third 6 Minute Session
White Team: Mooney, Gibbs, Doherty, Carmody, Goodwin
Blue Team: Durham, Laszewski, Hubb, Djogo, Morgan/Grant
The passing in this session was vintage basketball under Brey in the 17-12 White victory.
Mooney found Doherty on a back cut for a layup, and then on the next possession down Hubb executed a perfect alley-oop to Durham for a slam dunk. Morgan later found Durham on another back cut for a second dunk.
One of the best hustle plays was after the Blue pulled with 15-12 on a Grant three. The White needed to score to put the game away and Gibbs missed a three — but followed his shot to get the rebound and find a cutting Mooney for the dunk and the final margin.
Also encouraging was the way Doherty moved in a timely fashion on screen-and-rolls, and he also took Durham off the dribble from the foul line and laid a soft driving lay-up over his rangy frame.
Fourth 6 Minute Session
White Team: Mooney, Gibbs, Hubb, Laszewski, Carmody
Blue Team: Durham Goodwin, Doherty, Djogo, Morgan/Grant
A couple of threes by Hubb provided the White with a quick 9-2 advantage before a strong move by Doherty cut it to 9-4 at the 3:31 mark.
At that point, Brey decided to switch top 2018-19 scorers Mooney and Gibbs to the Blue team while shifting Durham and Goodwin to the White.
A Carmody three extended the White lead to 12-4, but Mooney answered with back-to-back treys to reduce the deficit to 12-10.
Hubb drilled his third three in this segment to make it 15-10 before Grant followed with his own (15-13) and Mooney a tip-in (15-15).
Doherty put the Blue ahead 17-15 with a basket inside, and it looked like the Blue was going to seal it when Gibbs was fouled with 7.2 seconds left. However, he missed the one-and-one, and Carmody drove full court toward the basket, with the shot attempt barely rimming out while he was fouled on the play with 1.0 second remaining. He converted both free throws to send this segment into overtime —a jump ball at center court with first team to score getting the win.
Durham won the tap against Mooney, and then Durham in the half-court set found Hubb on a cut through the middle, with Hubb laying the game-winner in through heavy traffic.
Here were my unofficial shooting stats I tracked, including end-of-game situations in between. Parentheses denote three-point attempts
Prentiss Hubb 8-11 (5-7) — 21 points
Nate Laszewski 7-12 (3-6), 1-1 free throws — 18 points
John Mooney 7-13 (3-5), 1-1 free throws — 18 points
Chris Doherty 8-12, 2-3 free throws — 18 points
Juwan Durham 5-9 — 10 points
Robby Carmody 1-3 (1-3), 6-7 free throws — 9 points
TJ Gibbs 3-9 (1-5), 1-3 free throws — 8 points
Dane Goodwin 2-8 (2-6), 2-2 free throws — 8 points
Elijah Morgan 1-3 (1-3) — 3 points
Nik Djogo 0-3 (0-1), 2-3 free throws — 2 points
Ryan Grant was 3 of 7, including 3 of 4 beyond the arc for nine points.
• Once again, just like in the open session in the summer, Hubb was the standout, especially with his shooting stroke after converting .324 from the field as a freshman (.262 from three). It’s too often forgotten that he didn’t play as a high school senior because of a torn ACL yet was thrown to the ACC wolves as a freshman. Such an initiation has made even tougher.
“He moves very confidently, he’s become even more vocal,” said Brey of Hubb. “He’s a really gifted young guard, maybe one of the best in the league. I think he could really jump up this year because he’s had that summer and year-round of basketball work.”
• Also conspicuous was how much more active Laszewski was on the defensive boards and his willingness to work inside to complement his strong three-point shooting.
• It’s not a coincident or accident that Carmody drew fouls with his aggressive, downhill driving tendencies. A starter in the opener last season, he was medically redshirted because of December shoulder surgery, but his tenacity and aggressiveness on both ends of the floor will earn him his share of playing time.
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