Notre Dame, Mike Brey Look Into Realities Of The Transfer Portal
Notre Dame head basketball coach Mike Brey has an appreciation of and empathy for transfers.
After all, he was one himself. Following three seasons at Northwestern State University (1977-80), Brey opted to transfer to George Washington University where, after sitting out the required season, was named MVP of the Colonials in 1981-82.
At Notre Dame, transfers also have tremendously benefitted his program.
• Ryan Humphrey, signed by predecessor Matt Doherty in 2000 from Oklahoma University, developed into a first-round pick under Brey in his two seasons and is currently an assistant on his staff.
• In 2003, Maryland’s Dan Miller in his lone season with the Fighting Irish was instrumental toward helping Notre Dame advance to its first Sweet 16 in 16 years.
• The 2011 team that finished No. 5 in the Associated Press poll at the end of the regular season to earn a No. 2 seed featured two transfers: Big East MVP and guard Ben Hansbrough from Mississippi State, and wing Scott Martin from Purdue, who would be named the team MVP in 2012.
However, Brey admits that the new NCAA transfer portal has helped prompt a “free agency” in college basketball — and other sports — that is now bordering on embarrassing. Per verbalcommits.com, 847 Division I men’s college basketball players have sought a transfer this year, among them Notre Dame’s D.J. Harvey, who finished his sophomore season third in scoring (10.6 points per game) and second in rebounding (4.3) before deciding to enroll at Vanderbilt.
Two years earlier Matt Ryan did the same — and now he will use his fifth season at Tennessee-Chattanooga.
The recent break-up with Harvey was amicable. In the exit interviews, Brey transparently presented to Harvey that the next season “might not be the same” in terms of action because too often the team play was better without him in the lineup. The parting on such terms also had Brey recommend that Harvey sit out a full season rather than attempt to get a waiver — also more popular than ever — from the NCAA to be eligible right away in 2019-20.
“I think he wants to sit out … he could use a year of physically getting back,” said Brey of Harvey’s microfracture surgery in the winter of 2018 that likely affected his progress as a sophomore. “I told him if you want to play right away we would support a waiver.”
The grounds these days to receive a waiver have also become a little silly to Brey, even including a coach yelling at a player as a reason to bolt.
“The transfer people [in the NCAA] are at wit’s end,” said Brey of all the exceptions to grant waivers that are now becoming part of the transfer culture.
At a recent NCAA meeting, one director of athletics even proposed the idea to reduce men’s basketball scholarships from 13 to 11 and the women from 15 to 13.
“Now you don’t have as much to throw out to a transfer,” Brey said. “It’s a broad dilemma.”
Regardless, it’s an option that must be scrutinized daily by coaching staffs. Brey noted that Humphrey recently told him that the first two things he does every day are read the Bible and then check the transfer portal.
“Switch that order,” Brey replied. “Portal first, and then the Bible. There is so much going on in college basketball.”
Adding to the dynamic is graduate transfers who are immediately eligible. Brey admits he is “not sure” about his feelings on grad transfers, and the only one he pursued this year was William & Mary’s Justin Pierce, who ended up at North Carolina. Pierce was viewed as an ideal replacement for Harvey, especially with his passing acumen.
What leaves Brey slightly uncertain about a grad transfer is the quick assimilation into the team structure. Conventional transfers such as Humphrey, Miller, Hansbrough or Martin all practiced with the team for a year and developed a chemistry before becoming eligible.
Overall, Brey said he’s been lucky in his first 19 seasons at Notre Dame to have only 10 transfers, most of whom went to mid-major schools, from Chris Markwood or Joe Harden or Ty Proffitt to Maine, UC-Davis or Morehead State, respectively, to this decade Alex Dragicevich (Boston College) or Ryan and Harvey to Vanderbilt.
Once he gets a player to stay for a third season, when most of them begin to blossom, a la John Mooney this past season, he is confident they can thrive. Brey joked that he believed 2014-18 point guard Matt Farrell’s father was on the cusp of hiring a hit man on him when Farrell barely played his first two seasons before finishing with a strong college career.
“The guys who come here know what they are signing up for,” Brey said.
Injury Update
Senior guard Rex Pflueger, who tore his ACL late in the Dec. 15 win versus Purdue, is “way ahead of schedule,” in his rehab, per Brey. He is expected to start engaging in more shooting drills this summer and the hope is he will be fully cleared to practice sometime around Oct. 15-Nov. 1.
Sophomore guard Robby Carmody, medically redshirted last season because of December labrum surgery, has recovered well enough to begin shooting drills again. Senior guard Nik Djogo, who suffered a similar injury as Carmody late in the season, won’t be able to do the same until about September.
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