Calling the Commish, Calling the Commish, come in Commish! Program is really struggling this year. 1-5 in the Big East with all of those losses last minute or last minute in OT type of losses. Pressure is starting to mount on Mike Brey from the fans. Personally I don't hold the Basketball coach to the same level of expectations as I do the football coach. But it's Brey's 6th year and we probably won't make the NCAA's maybe not even the NIT, that's not the way it's supposed to go in your 6th year. In his defense he's got a lot of young players, including last years Indiana Mr. Basketball, but still it seems like the program is stalled or maybe even declining. I like Mike Brey a lot and really do hope the team finishes the year strong and has a great year next year and that he coaches a long time at ND. But there certainly is grumbling and rumbling amongst the ND basketball fans. Muffet McGraw is really struggling as well this year with the Ladies, Rutgers beat them handily last night and they are not looking like the team most ND Ladies fans have come to expect. She did miss several weeks for illness and I do wonder if she's recovered all of her physical strength. She however IMHO has a much, much, much longer rope than Mike Brey given she pretty much built ND Womens Basketball from the ground up and has won a Nat'l Championship. Terry
Terry, The loss to the Hoyas in double OT certainly did not help. That loss had to be frustrating. Don
Terry, Like you, I find it frustrating. However, I'm not ready to jump ship. No question the losses to Marquette and DePaul are very disappointing, as well as losing to Syracuse at home. The good news is, we hung with Pitt to the end at their place, and we took GT to double OT a few days after they beat Duke. I feel like this team is not that far away from turning the corner, but I don't know if they can do it this year. I also like Brey, and I think he is a good coach. I'm reminded that it took John Wooden 15 years at UCLA before he won his first NC. I'm not suggesting that Brey is another Wooden, but I'm comfortable with him for at least another year or two to see if he can make noticeable progress. If not, then bye-bye.
SOFT! VERY SOFT!!! That's how I'd describe our present team. They play H-O-R-S-E for about 38 minutes a game and then at crunch time when the opponent rachets up the D they fold. Thin, slow, nambypamby.
Another really tough loss for the Irish tonight. 72-70 with 'Nova hitting the wining basket with 1.7 secs on the clock. Irish fought back from a 17 point deficeit to lead with about a minute to go. 1-6 now in the Big East. It looks like we won't even make the Big East Tourney. We really are very bad inside, Torin Francis just is not a good big man. He makes a few plays but gets his shot blocked and doesn't really have good hands or post moves. Kurz is just too young and Luke Zeller is the same. Terry
:cry: Ouchie... I watched the game and that was a tough loss. The Irish have some good kids, but we're missing two, big pieces of the puzzle: a physical rebounder and a true point guard. Quinn is a shooting guard and that's nice, but a true point guard will get steals on defense and force the other team's offense to the side they don't want to go to, while getting assists on offense... We're two players away from being contenders... BTW- Villanova didn't look that good. I don't think they're going anywhere. ....................JO'Co
Once again at crunch time, no big baskets, no big stops, no toughness. This game has been played over and over this year. It's a waste of time watching them fold game after game.
Well another very tough loss to #11 WVA at Morgantown. We had the ball with 8-10 secs to play and we were down 71-70. I figured maybe this is our time finally! But WVA had a bunch of fouls to give and just kept fouling us to force us to restart our offense, finally at 3 secs to go we get off a play and Quinn misses a shot at the buzzer. DRATS!! I am however amazed at how resilient the team is, after all the tough losses they really never quit. The one thing I don't understand though is why Torrian Francis keeps getting the Lions share of the playing time at the Post position. He just is not a good player, he has questionable hands, he gets his shot blocked a lot for a 6-10 player, and he is not a good leaper or esp quick. While it's not like Rick Cornette is all world or anything, but he at least has some energy when he's out there and some quickness and leaping abilty. He's a brickmaker from the field unfortuneately. Highly unlikely at 1-7 now in the Big East that we make it to New York. Terry
If you've ever seen Chris Quinn, you wouldn't have much expectations that his sister would be anything like Brady Quinns! Terry
Oh man another OT loss. Louisville kid hit's a 3 at the buzzer to take away the win in regulation from us. Rick Majerus commented that if the Irish would have fouled him before he shot, it's 2 points max and we get the ball back with a 1 point lead and likely the win. :cry: As usual we have no offense though other than the 3 point shot. I hope the incoming freshman, Luke Hangody(sp?), is the post player than Francis hasn't been since his freshman year. Terry
There's no way you let them shoot for three in that situation. That's an insane way to lose a game. Every loss looks the same. We hang with everyone, then let down at the end... ..............JO'Co :cry:
Hindsight, fellas. I saw the shot live and in replay. It happened so fast that a foul would have been in the act of shooting, giving him 3 free throws. Plus, it was an awkward shot. The odds were in favor of the Irish when the ball left his hands. I'm really coming around with this team. No inside game at all, yet we are hanging very tough in every game and having a chance to win at the end. I feel that something is brewing, but we MUST get some tough big bodies in there next year to compensate for the loss of Quinn's outside shooting. I have watched several games lately, and I believe that if our recruiting works out, we could be on the verge of moving up the conference ladder to the upper echelon.
It is pretty amazing Sid that we've been able to hang around with nobody playing post and really nobody who really even goes to the Hoop very much. Even Russell Carter who is the closest that we come to thaty type of player rarely makes anything on his drives. We do have a really big burly guy comming in next year to play post. Hope he's ready to start from day 1. I don't think Luke Zeller looks like the kind of tough kid who could survive as a post in the Big East, more of a big wing player. Terry
Terry, This team has had no identity since Carroll left. Francis gets worse every year, Falls is a one dimensional player, and Brey has no idea how to coach in crunch time. We burn all of our timeouts in the first 18 minutes of the second half and he never puts in the few decent defensive players we have when we need a stop. The fact that Carter is our best all around player and he plays half the minutes Falls does is a joke. I completely agree with you assessment that Cornett should play more minutes than Francis. At least he's a presence on the offensive boards and defensive post. I can live with Kurz too, but we need a player with post moves. A post move. Any post move. Zeller is a disappointment. He's really a soft jump shooter. Not exactly what this team needs given our other makeup. I just don't like the mix of players. Having all these jump shooters with below average defensive skills works when you have Humphrey guarding the hoop (the way Shelden Williams protects all of Duke's horrible defenders) and rebounding your misses. Of course, Lattimore was the closest thing we had to that and Brey asked him not to come back so he could get more minutes for Kurz and Zeller. Be careful what you wish for, Turtleneckster...I just think Brey is a 6th grade coach living off his pedigree (Coach K, Wooten, etc). I hate the fact that our players never get better and our big men can't even shoot a turnaround or jump hook. None of them have ever progressed under Brey. The only good bigs we had learned from Doherty and McLeod. It's a shame. To mimic Duke and Stanford (which is clearly Brey's goal) you need to have a manchild in the middle who can protect the basket. This team doesn't have it and Harangody isn't gonna be that guy either. Our offense may get more balanced, but our D will still stink. I wish this guy would at least realize this and go to a gimmicky 1-3-1 zone like West Virginia does. They have a similar roster but at least they are smart enough to realize they can't play man D with their lineup of shooters. It's sad really. But I don't think Dr. White will do anything about it anytime soon. Not enough people care about ND hoops and Digger, Vitale, and Jay Bilas do a really good job of supporting their friend Brey. It's easier to just say we're snakebit instead of actually figuring out why we always lose these close games. Commish
Commish....good to hear from you. Thanks for your thoughts. I was hoping that Harangody would be the guy, but given that no big man has developed under Brey and he'll be a freshman it's too much to ask. I do agree that Brey will get a few more years, for the reason you pointed out. The number of people who would be calling for his head are small compared to the football fans. I'll also add that I think Kevin White's modus is to be a likeable guy and I can't see him getting tough. He was the guy who was almost in tears when he canned the Moulder of Men. Terry
So..........Commish.........Enough of this fence-sitting.........Tell us what you really think. :wink:
Well, Commish is heading back to the Big Apple. I'm beginning to feel like a stage mother living through my kids. He had this cute "friend" in town for the weekend. She has a twin sister who is dating Ryan Tolner (former Cal QB.) He works for Lee Steinberg and his biggest client is Ben Roethlisberger. Commish not only went to the Steinberg "party" on sat. where everyone from Elway to Weis was at but he was at the Centerpoint Marriott last night partying with the Steelers until 7 AM. I have top hand it to him, he didn't bother spending hundreds if not thousands for a ticket to the game, he went to all these great events free and probably had a better weekend than 99% of the folks with tickets. Now if he could just keep seeing that cute Peg, things would be great.
Oh man another gut wrenching loss for the Irish 75-74 in OT on the road at UConn!!! Had opportunities at the end of OT to win but couldn't put it in!! Under different circumstances you'd say this was a good loss, but we've had way too many of these good losses. This just plain hurts! Terry :shock: