After an abrupt end to the 2019-2020 season, the offseason has been anything but normal for everyone involved with the Notre Dame basketball program. In the first few months of the offseason uncertainty surrounded the program, when would the team be able to return to campus? What would that return look like? Will the team have to quarantine? Despite Mike Brey and the staff doing their best to answer their questions, nobody knew anything for certain. In Cormac Ryan's words " Everything is on the table". With all the uncertainty all the Irish could do is work, whether it was shooting in the driveway like Freshman Matt Zona, maybe it was training in Vegas with the class of 2020 seniors like Cormac Ryan and Juwan Durham did or working out in the driveway like Freshman Matt Zona, or maybe it was even sneaking into a high school gym like an anonymous Irish player did. It seemed like every player was driven this offseason and tried to make up for not being on campus. However, it is extremely hard to replicate being in the facility with the team, here is what they missed by not being there and how the pandemic effected the program in general.
Some small things to note about how the Irish were effected by the pandemic is that now that they are back on campus although they aren't in a bubble yet they are required to wear masks pretty much everywhere including practice, they also didn't start off in 5 on 5 practices for weeks and by the looks of it they finally were able to go 5 vs 5 after labor day. Another thing to note is the lack of time for leaders to emerge and the team to gel together was a disadvantage, but there isn't too much to talk about concerning that because nobody involved with the program who we've talked to has been concerned about it.
The summer is normally a huge time for freshmen to get their feet wet and finally play at the college level, that being said, missing this summer was a tough reality for freshmen Matt Zona, Elijah Taylor, and Tony Sanders JR who are all competing to make the rotation this season. They are finally getting in the facility now and people within the program don't seem to be super concerned about the late start but the effects of them missing the summer is definitely something to keep an eye on.
Another big thing that the team missed is a summer with Strength and conditioning coach Tony Rolinski. As soon as the team got on campus they were seen lifting with coach Rolinski. Mike Brey said that this summer they thought they could've made strides with Cormac Ryan and Prentiss Hubb especially body wise and that it bothers him that they weren't able to do that in person. In our interviews with Cormac Ryan and Elijah Morgan they both touched on the importance of coach Rolinski. Although players were on a workout plan in the summer from the staff and were working out at home, players missing a summer of working on their bodies on campus is a bit concerning considering the success coach Rolinski has had getting players into shape in years past.
One of the biggest consequences of the coronavirus pandemic in college basketball is the recruiting dead period. Ever since the season ended in March the staff has not been allowed to go to high school games (not like there were any), meet with players in person or conduct visits on campus. As a result Mike Brey and the staff have gotten very comfortable with zoom meetings, livestreamed AAU games, and virtual campus visits. For now the staff has done a good job working around the dead period as they have landed two commitments since the lockdown in Tony Sanders and Trey Wertz, neither of which had met Mike Brey in person when they committed by the way.
The staff has done a good job at working around the dead period virtually, but eventually not being able to have recruits on campus is going to come back to bite the Irish if the dead period gets extended for a few more months. The campus is considered to be one of Notre Dame's best selling points to recruits and not having that will end up being a huge disadvantage at some point. The Irish football program felt the effects of this a few months ago when they 5 star running back Will Shipley to Clemson, many thought one more visit would seal the deal for Shipley but he wasn't able to get back on campus because of the pandemic. As for the basketball side of things, John Mooney said he knew Notre Dame was the place for the him as soon as he stepped foot on campus which could also be the case for a guy like Donovan Clingan who has yet to take an official visit to Notre Dame and the Irish can't afford to lose this aspect of recruiting. Even if it won't be as important to the recruitment of Blake Wesley who is a South Bend native and has already taken an official visit to Notre Dame or Daron Holmes who has family ties to Notre Dame, not having visits could be a huge issue if the dead period is extended long enough.
This along with the fact that the staff will not be able to see recruits play in person could be a big hurdle for the Irish if it goes on too long, luckily for them though every other team in the country is dealing with the same circumstances. ` `
The pandemic has definitely messed up the summer a ton but the staff and the players have done a good job of working around it and getting ready for the season.
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