Schoettle's Take: Mike Brey, To Stay or Not to Stay: The State of Notre Dame Basketball

Today, Stitzer's old roommate Dan Schoettle (pronounced shut-lee) has agreed to weigh in with his take on Notre Dame basketball. ND is having a basketball season that is as frustrating as almost any in recent memory, losing 9 big east games by a total of 27 points. So, instead of getting ready for the NCAA tournament, they are on the outside looking in....at the Big East tournament. Schoettle is as passionate a fan as I have run across, so I know this is hurting him, and is why I asked him to contribute, which he graciously agreed to do. As a special bonus, Mr. Stitzer has written an introduction so that you can understand the source of what you are about to read. Maybe this will lead to a big win today over Marquette, maybe not. We will see. I give you Andrew B. Stitzer:
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Person: Dan Schoettle

Phylum: One Of Best Guys Ever and One of the Best Roommates ever

Habitat: south side if Indianapolis, but has been known to roam the southwestern states, especially the San Diego region

Diet: Wings (made by himself in his fry-daddy), Negro Modelo (been known to consume 18 – only when Colts lose at home to Titans in playoffs), IU hoop fans (he used to root for Russia when they played exhibition games), all “anti-Catholics” that root against his Irish

Allegiances: Reds (but has given up on baseball), Notre Dame, Pacers, Broncos, and Colts (Stitzer note: Indy did not have a football team until 1984, so Schoettle became enamored with Denver during the Orange Crush year of 1977). When Colts play Denver, Schoettle roots for Broncos (Dils note: so you see he entered college hoops season in a bad mood, when his teams, seeded #1 and #2 in the AFC, both lost to Pittsburgh)

Quotes: “Andrew has finally met his match, I have never seen 2 guys (Schoettle and his brother Nick) drink more beer in my life. And Dan makes Andrew looks like a mute when he watches games.” (Paul Stitzer, circa 1999). Then standard Schoettle reply is “I love it, Stitz’s Dad thinks I am worse than he is, but Stitz has had the cops called on him twice while he was watching sporting events.” (That is a different story for a different day).

In closing: You are about to hear from one the most passionate and knowledgeable sports fans I have ever come across. Strap yourself in and get ready for a fun ride. And now; Dan Schoettle......
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I would like to thank Dils for giving me the opportunity to express some thoughts on his highly esteemed blog. He has stressed to me that I need to keep the language PG. Being that I am a first time contributor and in respect to Mama Dils, I will bite my tongue and comply.

First, I would like to introduce myself to those who don’t know me. My name is Dan Schoettle (pronounced Shut-lee) and I am an Indianapolis native and currently reside there. From 1998 - 2000, I lived in San Diego where I lived with blog legend and the highly combustible Andrew B. Stitzer. Stitz introduced me to Dils and several other readers of this blog during that time either in SD or Vegas at the annual March Madness outings. I am a 1993 graduate of the University of Notre Dame which leads me to the subject of today’s column….the state of Notre Dame basketball.

The Irish currently reside at 13-11 and 4-9 in the Big East which is good for 14th place in the 16 team league. It is well publicized that those 9 BE losses were by a total of 27 points. These include two OT losses (@ L’ville and @ UConn) AND two Double OT losses (@ Pitt and G’Town). In addition, ND lost 2 point games @ Marquette and to Villanova. In out of conference games, the Irish lost a four point game to Michigan, beat Wofford by 3 and IPFW (Indiana University – Purdue University at Fort Wayne for you non-Hoosiers) by 2. This gives the Irish a 2-10 record in games decided by 6 points or less.

Are the Irish “unlucky” or “snakebitten” as all of the talking heads are saying? After all, being a good Catholic boy, I had my rosary out for the UConn game to no avail. Or are they just good enough to get beat with the other team proclaiming “I feel really bad for that hard luck team”? Is Mike Brey the coach of the year as Rick Majerus suggested this week? Or are they a bunch of underachievers? Can things get worse? Can this program succeed? Or is ND just a football school that should be happy to be playing in the powerful Big East?

I would like to focus on the latest game at UConn as I see it as a microcosm of the season. Surprisingly, I did not wake up any of my kids (three boys-4, 2, 8 months) with my tirades during the game. I was only able to watch the last few minutes on ESPN, the rest of the game I was “watching” on the internet. Hitting refresh every 10 seconds and cheering when I saw Cornett with a defensive rebound.

If you looked at the stats you would see this: the Irish committed only 4 TO’s. They outscored the larger, lankier, more athletic Huskies 34-24 in the paint. The ND bench outscored UConn 23-8. How can they get beat with stats like this against the 14.5 point favorite?

Well, it is pretty evident if you have seen the Irish play this season. The Irish play loose and free for most of the game. When they get down to the last few minutes they hold the ball until there are 8-10 seconds on the shot clock and then Quinn will drive and either A) throw up an off balance shot or B) kick to a jump shooter who has to take a hurried, off-balance, contested shot. Here are some more stats: when ND went on an 18-0 run they took their first shot on average within 11 seconds. On 6 out of the last 7 possessions in the 2nd half, ND shot their first shot with less than 10 seconds on the shot clock.

It would also help if UConn would have expelled all players (Williams and Price) who stole laptops. Calhoun has absolutely no conscience. Of course, he will say that he is giving the kids a “second chance” and that the program punished the players. I don’t want to take a holier than thou attitude but go ask Doug Gottlieb (ESPN analyst and former OSU Cowboy) what happens when you steal credit cards at ND. Hint: Student Affairs, not the coach, kicks your ass out of the university. Ask Michael Stonebreaker (starting linebacker on 88 NC FB team) what happens when you get too many PARKING TICKETS. You get suspended for a year. Ask Rashon Powers Neal (starting FB on last years FB team) what happens when you get an inseason DUI. You get suspended for the rest of the year (including the SC game). Do you think RPN would have dropped the pass that freshman replacement Schwapp did against SC and might have cost ND a National Championship.

Also, I know that UConn is a great shot blocking team but how do our three guards who played an average of 42 minutes shoot just one foul shot while the Huskies blocked 19 shots? The Huskies only fouled 4 times in the act of shooting. There is a reason they are a great team (Hint: increase sarcasm meter). But I digress……….

Assuming ND does not make the Tourney this year it will be a three year drought. In other words, of all the students on campus next year, no class will know what it feels like to be in the NCAA’s. Digger got fired for making the Tourney 6 out of his last 10 years. Brey will have made the Tourney 3 out of 6 years meaning his full recruiting classes have not made it.

I will evaluate Brey on what I see as the three main parts of coaching: recruiting, development of talent, and in game strategy/X’s and O’s. I will also take a look at the environment/support of the Athletic Department.

RECRUITING:

Brey has brought the first two Indiana Mr. Basketballs to ever sign at ND: Chris Thomas and Luke Zeller (who beat out Carmel HS grad and Duke freshman Josh McRoberts). Thomas was seen as a break through recruit-an Indianapolis McDonalds All American who picked ND over the likes of Duke, IU and Purdue. He rewarded the hype with a first ever triple double in his first game with the Irish. ND also signed Torin Francis out of Massachusetts-a Parade Magazine player of the Year. In the last few years, Brey has inked strong recruiting classes. In addition to Zeller, Brey signed Kyle McAlarney-the all time point leader of Staten Island, although that might be like my ND roommate who was All State in Wyoming. The Irish have another big man Hoosier from Andrean High School coming next year – Luke Harangody who should be able to contribute right away. I don’t think ND will ever be the type of school that will have a bunch of early entry players. They will recruit kids that will be four year players that may not be the best athletes but will be smart players who can shoot and will play hard. They will fit with the most recent style of play. Good examples include Matt Carroll, Chris Quinn, and Chris Thomas.

Overall Recruiting Grade: B+

DEVELOPMENT OF TALENT

Under Brey, ND has had first round draft picks Troy Murphy and Ryan Humphrey. Brey inherited these players and I will not give him credit for their development. Most observers will say that Chris Thomas regressed under Brey. On the surface that may appear true, but a knee injury, I believe, stunted his growth more than anything. I think his explosiveness seriously suffered with the injury. I can say that Chris Quinn has developed into a potential first team all BE selection. However, Colin Falls has not progressed at the same level. Neither did Torrian Jones or Jordan Cornette. Russell Carter looks like he may be the real deal. Torin Francis and Rick Cornett have taken serious steps backwards. Big men under Brey do not seem like they have progressed recently. ND had Harold Swanagan and Tom Timmermans who were role players and helped ND get to the Sweet Sixteen. Recently, it appears Brey does not have a sufficient rotation/scheme to fully utilize his Bigs including the failed experiment with Arizona transfer Dennis Latimore last year.

Overall Development of Talent: C+

STRATEGY

Obviously, with all of the close losses, you have to look at the end of game situations. ND has played not to lose without being aggressive in most cases. The lack of blocking out cannot, I believe, be blamed on coaching. The lack of timeouts can be traced to coaching. Brey has a maddening habit of using all his TO’s with 2 minutes left. Also, Brey does not seem to be able to find a consistent rotation. Torin Francis (also known as Edward Scissorhands) seems to play more than the more productive Rick Cornett. Brey’s schemes do not seem to work with 2 bigs in the lineup at the same time. Spacing can be a problem. Is Brey flexible enough to fully utilize his team’s talent? Sometimes/sometimes not. Brey has somehow gotten this year’s team to keep on trucking. With all of the close losses, this year’s team has refused to quit (like last year and all of Ty Willingham’s teams). They have been beyond resilient. This is a credit to the coaching staff and Chris Quinn.

Overall Strategy: B-

ENVIRONMENT/ATHLETIC DEPARTMENT SUPPORT

Notre Dame is considered a football school. However, during the late 60’s until the mid 80’s, the Irish hoops teams were considered contenders. ND stopped the UCLA win streak at 88 games in 1974 (probably the biggest BB win in the history of the school). The Irish were regulars in the top 25 during this time period. Austin Carr scored an NCAA record 61 points in 1970. The Irish went to the Final Four in 1978. ND’s Student Body was awarded “player of the game” honors twice in high profile games in the 70’s. The student body used to stream toilet paper down after ND scored their first hoop. In other words, the ND students were the “Cameron Crazies” before the Cameron Crazies.

The momentum from the past years has clearly been lost. The atmosphere at ND games could not be more different these days. There have been several thousand empty seats at some Big East games this year. Students are not showing up and when they do they are not creating the intimidating home court advantage that once existed. The Irish clearly should have joined a conference (in basketball) sooner than they did. The last years of Digger’s regime and the McLeod years were abysmal.

Plans have been on the board for a new/renovated arena for several years. For some reason this has not been done yet. The Joyce Athletic and Convocation Center (JACC) is a relic of the past. It only seats a little over 11,000 and some of the upper level seats are push back bleachers you could find at any high school gym. The seats are not even the same color. They are a collage of colors-orange, yellow, red and green. Father Jenking has clearly shown he has the courage to do the right thing. He fired Willingham even when faced with the ever tiring and absolutely incorrect calls of racism (a column for another day.) The basketball facilities are subpar at ND and should be updated as quickly as possible. A multi BILLION dollar endowment should allow this to happen immediately.

Overall Environment/Athletic Department Support: C

OVERALL:

Brey did a good job initially of winning and made the Tournament his first three years including a Sweet Sixteen run. With this winning came raised expectations. NIT berths in three straight years in clearly unacceptable. Although ND has brought some good talent into the program, there has been a clear lack of development of the big men. There has also been uneven playing rotations and questionable late game strategy. However, Brey has kept the team together and they have not quit on the season. The administration could help the program by committing to new/renovated facilities. Brey appears to be a good institutional fit at ND. I am not ready to call for his head. However, if a third straight NIT turns into a fourth straight NIT bid, it may be time to look elsewhere for a head coach.

Overall: C+

Note: picture courtesy of www.ndnation.com