Coming into this season things seemed to be trending in the right direction for Notre Dame men's basketball, Brey's highly touted class of 2018 were becoming upperclassmen, Cormac Ryan was surrounded by buzz, and the program in general was surrounded with optimism. Now just months later the Irish sit at the bottom of the ACC with an 0-4 record in the conference, it's been nearly twenty days since the Irish last won a game and it's been around ten months since they last won an ACC contest. It was hard to imagine something like this last month when the Irish pulled out a huge win at Rupp arena and got arguably their best guard eligible, Mike Brey and his team had all the momentum in their favor then, but here we are just a month later.
With a painful loss at the hands of Virginia Tech, Mike Brey and his team have extended their losing streak to three games and there are some clear reasons why, but no easy fixes. The team has struggled to rebound, defend, and they have fallen into deep scoring droughts which have led to big back breaking runs from their opponents. These issues are just a fraction of the reasons for their struggles so far.
Mike Brey has thrown everything at the wall this season and nothing has consistently worked. We've seen Brey experiment with starting lineup after starting lineup and nothing has stuck. The staff has also tried nearly everything on the defensive end to fix their struggles, Brey's zones have worked at times but even when they have worked they've led to struggles on the glass. Prentiss Hubb has struggled mightily with shot selection and turnovers this season, as a result Cormac Ryan and Trey Wertz have seen more time at point guard with Hubb on the wing, but this isn't an easy fix either. Hubb has been a lead guard for nearly his entire career and it's not easy to transition into an off guard overnight.
Brey has tried nearly everything in his power to make this work and it just hasn't yet. The long tenured coach hasn't been perfect at all, but this isn't all on him. It's not Brey's fault that two of his rotation pieces got injured before the season that has depleted or that most of Notre Dame's winnable games against middle tier ACC opponents have gotten cancelled or postponed. Even if you think that this is all on Brey and that he should be fired it's hard to imagine a world where he is let go because of all he's done for the program throughout his tenure. The 61 year old coach will likely step down in a few years on his terms, a good portion of the Notre Dame fanbase is on the fire Brey train but that doesn't seem like a realistic solution right now. It's also unlikely that we see a change to Brey's staff, In one of his pressers Brey called Ryan Humphrey one of the hottest head coaching candidates in the country so if he departs from the program it will likely be a promotion and Scott Martin just filled Ryan Ayers' role a few months ago. This current staff will likely stick around for a significant amount of time unless Humphrey lands a head coaching job. A coaching change could possibly make a difference in the program, but it doesn't seem likely.
This also isn't a talent or recruiting issue, sure Brey and the staff has haven't brought in a highly ranked class since 2018 but Prentiss Hubb, Dane Goodwin, Cormac Ryan, Nate Laszewski, and Juwan Durham were all top 100 recruits out of high school and Trey Wertz was one of the top transfers in the portal this spring. This team has consistently given some of the top units in the ACC a run for their money which has showcased their talent, but they just haven't finished games. In past years the Irish have had the inexperience excuse but now they are one of the most experienced teams in the ACC and are still struggling. Some of this is on player development which has been poor in terms of guards since Ryan Ayers was added to the staff, but some of this could just be that these guys don't know how to win. Notre Dame is able to compete with nearly every team on their schedule, but late in the games they haven't been able to hold on to leads, hit big shots or get shots when they really need to.
Even with Notre Dame's brutal start that has brought up more questions than answers, there is hope. After Wednesday night's matchup with Virginia six of Notre Dame's eight games are against non ranked opponents. Over the next month the Irish have a chance to bounce back in a similar fashion that they did last year when they started off 2-6 in ACC play and finished 10-10. Notre Dame has shown they can compete with the top teams in the ACC (at least for stretches) so it's entirely possible that they could get hot against lower tier teams to improve their record and potentially make a push to the tournament.
There is no easy solution to Notre Dame's issues and they have a long ways to go, but they have a real opportunity to get back on track over the next few weeks.
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