I had the misfortune of watching the ND - WVU basketball game last night. The picture was spectacular in HD, but that's neither here nor there. Notre Dame lost. By 1 point. Again. For those of you keeping score at home that puts Notre Dame's record in the Big East at 1-7 with those 7 losses coming by a combined 23 points. Notre Dame currently sits at 10-9 overall and 14th in the Big East standings. They're pretty much out of the running for a NCAA tournament bid and they're looking like they may even miss out on the Big East tournament (only the top 12 teams are invited).
I'm okay with one or two nail-biter losses, but 7 is ridiculous. At some point you need to start questioning the coach, in this case Mike Brey. A lot of people seem to think he's some sort of godsend, what with his fancy-schmancy Duke pedigree and all. I think he's an idiot. He is slowly but surely returning Notre Dame's title of most 7-foot useless white guys on the court at the same time (anyone remember the Ross brothers, John MacLeod's parting shot?).
My biggest complaint is his use, or lack thereof, of his big men. At one point during last night's game, Rick Cornette and Torin Francis had a combined 28 points and 16 rebounds yet, inexplicably, Brey would never put the two on the floor at the same time. Instead he chose to rely on the totally awesome 6-11 Rob Kurtz, who mainly just stood around the arc and jacked 3's instead of getting dirty in the paint and pulling rebounds. Jordan Cornette did the exact same thing last year. I got to hate Jordan Cornette so much that I couldn't watch games last year. I'd turn it on, watch that imbecile jack another 3, brick or airball, then release a litany of profanities unfit to reproduce even in this blog. Why do the biggest guys on Notre Dame's team have free reign to hoist 3-pointers again and again. If memory serves, Colin Falls and Chris Quinn both shoot around 50% from 3-point land. Isn't that enough. Do you think Mike Krysaslkdjfask would allow that? Or Jim Calhoun? Or Bob Knight? If a big man on one of their teams even stood outside the 3-point line all of those coaches would bench the guy for 10 minutes or longer. The fact that Brey just lets them do it again and again and again is inexcusable.
Bottom line is this - Notre Dame is getting recruits and they have good ball players, but they have zero discipline. They fall behind by double digits early, claw back, and eventually come up short. That's the coaches fault, top to bottom. March Madness is the best sporting event of the year and Notre Dame has missed out on it all but once during Mike Brey's tenure. If it doesn't change, I'm flying to South Bend, taking a cab to the JACC, punching Mike Brey in the kidney, then challenging Rob Kurtz to a steel cage match. If that's what it takes to right this program, I'm up for it...
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8 comments:
I'll go with you to the Bend...I don't punch particularly well, but I'll cheer for your punches! I can't watch another painful loss...
Oh dear Lord, I totally forgot about Jordan Cornette launching 3's. I went to an ND game last year and me and some drunk old dude yelled at the top of our lungs everytime he shot a 3 (he must have shot more than 5). It was awesome. I agree with you on Brey, but I feel if we fire him we will only get someone worse, and instead of heartbreaking losses we'll just get blown out every game.
I don't know what it is about ND and everyone shooting 3's. Torin Francis is good in the paint, and they never use him. I agree with Ian about the lack of discipline - ND is not a tall team, and when you take 1 of the 2 tall ND players on the court and have him shoot outside the arc, there's almost no chance for an offensive rebound. We get one shot, from a guy who shouldn't even be on the court let alone shooting a 3, and then turn the ball over. Next thing you know Quinn is not passing and taking every shot - and making them - until the other team triple teams him. Then we lose.
Also, I watched the end of the WVU-ND game the other day. We had the ball with 20 seconds left and down by 1 measly point. When do we take our last time-out to set up a play? Why, with 3.6 seconds left, of course! F***ing Brey, that's horrible coaching! You've got to get a play in with time enough to run it!
That said, I agree with Colin about firing Brey. As bad as we are, we're still not hitting John MacLeod numbers. But I do remember the Ross boys...
I found the Box Score of the ND game I went to that I refered to in this post:
http://und.collegesports.com/sports/m-baskbl/stats/2004-2005/game-14.html
Check out Cornette's 3's, 3-9.
We suck, and so does Cornette.
Who's deleting all these comments???
I haven't watched any ND hoops games the past couple years. They are never on down here. However, I follow closely the outcomes and Ian is right on in calling out Brey for the close losses. One or two is expected, but to lose EVERY close game we play is unacceptable.
I have always laughed at people saying that this coach is so great or that coach is terrible - I am talking basketball here. Coaches don't win games - players do. There are two primary functions of coaches.
1) Bring in recruits
2) Strategy to win a close game
Brey has failed on both counts. We continue to recruit the chuckers and oafs in the middle that we always seem to have. Since Brey has been here, our team has lived but mostly died by the three. We refuse to play tough inside. This results in wildly up and down games and we can never hold a lead without solid inside play and rebounding.
I really think Brey's time is up. There is no chance for improvement with this group. We need to revitalize the program. It can happen. When we almost signed Majerus a few years back, he explained how he could bring in STUDS just using the ND name. He's a little too old and fat now, but there has got to be some good candidates out there. I've heard Bill Laimbeer mentioned a few times! ND Bad Boys!!!
In Brey's defense, or maybe it's another knock against him, Notre Dame did not call that time out with 3.6 seconds left. Notre Dame ran out of timeouts with 2 minutes left. Two things to note about this:
1. We ran out of timeouts in a close, back-and-forth road game with 2 minutes still left on the clock. That's inexcusable.
2. We got outcoached by a guy who called 3 timeouts in the last 20 seconds of a game his team was winning when the opponent had the ball with no timeouts. In other words, WVU gifted Notre Dame with three oppotunities to setup a game-winning shot and Brey still came up with nothing.
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