Notre Dame Has Two More Wings Ready To Soar
The emphasis for Notre Dame men’s basketball in this recruiting cycle is to find two players to fill the voids that will be left after the graduation of current senior wings Steve Vasturia and V.J. Beachem.
Landing a verbal commit from 6‑7 Rivals four-star D.J. Harvey was a good start — but head coach Mike Brey’s Fighting Irish also have two current sophomores “waiting in the wings” with 6‑7 Matt Ryan and 6‑6 Rex Pflueger.
Neither is projected to be in the 2016‑17 starting lineup, but both are expected to supply instant offense or defense, if not both, after doing the same last season during Notre Dame’s second straight run to the Elite Eight.
Ryan, a former Mr. Basketball in New York, has the makings of becoming one of the best sharpshooters in Brey’s 17 seasons, which speaks volumes. New assistant Ryan Ayers — one of the better marksmen in recent Notre Dame history — called Ryan “one of the elite shooters I’ve seen at his age.”
“Could he be a starter?” Brey said of the 6-7, 228-pound Ryan. “Oh, yeah. But I like that role of the gunslinger coming off the bench, too.”
Ryan is currently sidelined until about the first week of November because of a stress reaction in his foot, but shed his walking boot a week ago and is projected to play in the second exhibition game on Nov. 7.
“If I had been on it another week, then it would been stress fracture, which is much worse,” Ryan said. “It just flared up. I’ve never had any issues with my feet.”
Nor with his shooting touch, either, which is expected to rival at least a half-dozen past Irish stars in the Brey regime, from Matt Carroll (1999-2003), who shot .407 from three-point range as a senior, to Pat Connaughton (2011-15), a .423 marksman beyond the arc as a senior.
“I’ve heard that a lot from commentators, people asking me about it, even coaches saying you can be one of the best, if not the best, three-point shooter ever [here],” Ryan said. “That was even before my freshman year, so it was a little overwhelming because there have been so many three-point shooters … it’s pretty cool.
“I came in being aggressive and just wanted to get threes and make every shot I took. I guess I hit that little freshman wall for a few weeks where I couldn’t hit anything.”
After pressing some with his shot (he finished with a .374 percentage behind the arc), he made 19 three-pointers over the final 13 games and tallied a career-high 17 points in the regular-season finale win over North Carolina State, which Brey pointed to as a “jump-start” that helped spark the Irish to another strong postseason. Ryan also drained a key basket to cap Notre Dame’s comeback from a 12-point deficit at halftime against Michigan in the NCAA Tournament.
The label Ryan does not want is being a one-dimensional specialist. With his length and Notre Dame needing more rebounding help, Ryan’s goal is to be an asset on the glass, which he was on occasion last year, including four in just 12 minutes against Wisconsin to help Notre Dame advance to the Elite Eight.
“Rebounding is not something you can just say, ‘Yeah, I’m going to rebound,’ ” he said. “You have to go in really going after the ball. It’s more of a mindset. The more you rebound the better flow you have in the game, because I think the thing about very good rebounders is it shows they’re engaged in the game when you can box out your man and go get the ball. It’s going to be very important.
“There were a few weeks where I was struggling and then something just clicked when we went on the road, had a few away games and just able to get away from here and academics and just play basketball,” said Ryan, who made the 2015-16 ACC All-Academic Team.
“It’s funny what momentum can do for your confidence and how hitting a couple of shots can do for the rest of your season.”
“I think we can play him as a second big,” Brey said of Ryan. “With his weapon of shot-making, there just aren’t a lot of guys who can get on a roll from the three-point line the way he can. He is underrated as a rebounder and a better passer than everyone thinks. He will have a huge role for us.”
Meanwhile, the most improved player on the team might be Pflueger, who already is displaying the earmarks of being one of Brey’s best leaders during his career. The Orange County Registrar Player of the Year at California’s powerful Mater Dei, Pflueger led the Monarchs to the MaxPreps national title as a junior when they were 35-0, while knocking off five eventual state champions and finishing 9-0 against teams that played for state titles.
“He gives us energy and belief, along with mental and physical toughness,” Brey said.
For longtime Notre Dame men’s basketball followers, one name of a former Fighting Irish star often came to mind when watching 6‑6, 202-pound Pflueger as a freshman last season: Bill Hanzlik.
The rangy 6-7, 185-pound Hanzlik (1976‑80) was an oddity in that he averaged only 7.5 points per game as a senior and 5.9 during his Notre Dame career — yet he was a first-round pick in the NBA Draft and made the 1980 United States Summer Olympics Basketball Team (which would boycott the Games held in the Soviet Union that year).
Hanzlik was the consummate defensive stopper during the Digger Phelps era, although he didn’t really come into the forefront in that role until late in his sophomore year when the Final Four-bound Irish toppled No. 1 Marquette, with Hanzlik’s defensive work on All-American Butch Lee a top story from the game.
In his freshman year at Notre Dame, Pflueger found his niche off the bench as the player designated to cover the opponent’s best player, whether it was a smaller, quicker guard or a larger, stronger frontcourt figure. In his role, Pflueger appeared in 30 of the 36 games and averaged 13.3 minutes per contest, which was more than Hanzlik’s 9.8 and 10.2 minutes his first two seasons.
It was in the Jan. 16 upset win at Duke that Pflueger first began to make an impact, playing 23 minutes and scoring seven points to go with his two blocked shots and two assists. He made his first career start versus Syracuse, recording six assists, and then in the regular-season finale victory against NC State he displayed his prowess on both ends with three three-point field goals and four steals.
Pflueger also had his “one shining moment” when he had the game-winning put-back with 1.5 seconds remaining in the second-round NCAA Tournament victory versus Stephen F. Austin.
He finished the year taking only 55 shots in about 400 minutes of action, although he did show a fine shooting touch at the foul line, where he made 20 of his 21 attempts (95.2 percent). Excellently conditioned, Pflueger said the one area he had to dial down a tad was how his fervor and reckless abandon caught up with him.
“I definitely remember that at the end of March my body was just shot,” Pflueger said. “I was just waiting to get more sleep — sleep is a huge thing. Freshman year in college you’re trying to experience everything. Now I know I have two-and-a-half more years, so I can just take my breaks and sleep when I need to. Icing is a huge thing, ice baths, recovery is huge, getting as much treatment as you can.
“…Being emotional helps me keep my edge on defense, so I’m going to keep that. I’m not going to down that completely because that makes me who I am.”
Expect Pflueger to contribute more on offense, where he plans to be more aggressive, but he will not relinquish his role as the team’s top defensive stopper.
“I never want that title to be taken away from me,” Pflueger said. “I still believe I can guard anyone in the country and that’s going to be my mentality as long as I’m playing.”
“I love his engine,” Brey said. “We don’t want to get away from what he does defensively for us. I think he has become a better basketball player on the offensive end of the floor. He has learned how to change speeds and be better with the basketball. He will be a strategic shot maker for us.”
Two more wings are ready to soar for the Irish now and in the future.
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