Notre Dame Men’s Basketball Recruiting Also Financially Conscious
In what may have been a first for the Notre Dame men’s basketball program, head coach Mike Brey and his staff signed two new recruits this month without either player even taking a visit to the campus.
First, 6-7 Florida high school senior forward Tony Sanders Jr., and then 6-4 Santa Clara junior transfer Trey Wertz joined the 2020-21 roster which is now up to 11 scholarship players.
Both made it official on Wednesday by signing their letters of intent on the first day of the spring signing period.
With the NCAA dead period in recruiting extended through May 31 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, not only did those two additions bolster the roster that had been precariously thin the past couple of years, but aided the athletic budget as well.
The “arms race” that has overtaken collegiate sports in the ways of spare no expense and even frivolous spending now is in the midst of its own crisis.
A significant financial blow already was absorbed with the cancellation of the NCAA Tournament in basketball that reels in an estimated $600 million. And now the potential of the 2020 college football season also getting cancelled would wreak even more havoc on collegiate athletic administrations.
USA Today’s Steve Berkowitz reported that Power Five schools such stand to lose, on average, $78 million each if there is no college football this year. That’s not even including potential impacts on student fees or money from schools’ general funds if students are still not permitted to return to campus this August.
“Budget conscious has been the marching orders from our bosses right now,” Brey summarized in a Zoom conference with media on Wednesday afternoon.
The NCAA permits men’s basketball to have 13 scholarship players on the roster (women can have 15). That number seldom has been reached in Brey’s 21 years at Notre Dame for at least two reasons.
One is the game rotation seldom needs to go past eight players (if that).
Two, he doesn’t care for internal team turmoil or chemistry issues to be a disruption when players nine, 10 and 11 are not playing. More than ever, college basketball players are departing for potential greener pastures and opportunity for action if they are not getting much, if any, at their present school.
The 2020-21 Fighting Irish roster alone will have three such figures in center Juwan Durham (Connecticut) plus guards Cormac Ryan (Stanford) and Wertz (Santa Clara).
Meanwhile, three Notre Dame players on the 2018-19 Irish roster at the start of that year have played or now enrolled elsewhere: forwards Elijah Burns (Siena), D.J. Harvey (Vanderbilt) and Chris Doherty (Northeastern).
Ideally, Notre Dame would like to add another big man to the current roster, especially with the 6-11 Durham out of eligibility after next season. Former top-100 recruit and 6-11 Colin Castleton, who recently left the University of Michigan after his junior season while seeing sparse action, could be such a prospect.
There have been plenty others available too, but not deemed the right overall fit for the program beyond just basketball skills.
“We exam it every day,” Brey said of the transfer portal. “There are a couple of kids right now in it that we have communicated with. We haven’t offered any of them yet, but we’re trying to make some decisions on them.
“I think that portal is going to be active up until mid-August, especially if we don’t have summer school where young people can’t get into a routine back on their campuses.”
A source of irritation through the years for Brey has been a prospect darn well knowing he’s going to another school but still leading other suitors on to where they are compelled to stay with him while wasting resources.
According to Brey, the current crisis with the coronavirus at least is aiding prospects and their families to be more decisive — as well as coaching staffs.
“How many times have we gotten into a thing where a kid says, ‘I think I know what I want to do but I want to take two more visits,’” Brey said. “Then I fly back to the school and do the home visit. We do waste a lot of time and money on that front.
“Maybe coming out of this, we can streamline our recruiting more and everyone can be more decisive.”
Given the marching orders to monitor the budget with much more prudence, Brey is in lockstep with the mandate.
“We’re all going to be in a crunch,” he said. “We’re holding at 11 scholarships. We’re still recruiting, but unless it’s a great fit it wouldn’t be bad on the budget if we didn’t have to pay for another scholarship or two. That’s the world we’re in right now.
“It’s got to be a can’t-miss guy. I’m not just going to throw another scholarship out there. We don’t do that anyway, but even more so right now.”
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