Notre Dame Basketball: Fighting Irish in unfamiliar rebuilding situation for 2018-19

A new era for the Fighting Irish

This year, though, Notre Dame enters the season with marginal expectations. Most prognosticators have the Irish firmly on the 2018-19 tournament bubble, though that is likely a nod to Brey’s resume more than anything people expect from Notre Dame on the floor.

The Irish are losing a big chunk of their talent from last season. Colson, point guard Matt Farrell, and big man Martinas Geben all graduated, taking their 47.1 ppg, 20.5 rpg, and 7.6 apg with them. Rotation piece Austin Torres is also gone, though his production can be more easily replaced.

If you’re optimistic about a Notre Dame surge this season, it’s because of The Brothers Initials – TJ Gibbs and DJ Harvey. Gibbs took a massive leap last season and averaged 15.3 ppg on 40.3 percent three-point shooting.

However, we’ve seen a glimpse of what he can do without Colson and Farrell, and well, it wasn’t pretty. In five games when both ND seniors were injured last winter, Gibbs’ scoring ticked upwards to 19.4 ppg, but at the expense of his efficiency. He shot just 35.7 percent on a preposterous 84 attempts, including 34.3 percent from three. Notre Dame went 1-4 in those games.

It’s a little unfair to look at that five-game sample and expect those shooting numbers to totally carry over to this year. Gibbs will now get a full offseason without Colson and Farrell and will be “the guy” for the Irish all year-long. He is a legitimate scoring threat and a capable playmaker for others and Notre Dame will look to put the ball in his hands often. But he might not be quite ready to shoulder an overwhelming load on offense, which is what Notre Dame will need from him, at least early in the season.

Harvey is a little harder to evaluate. He came to South Bend from Maryland’s notorious Notre Dame pipeline, DeMatha Catholic High School, as a top-50 prospect, but failed to really assert himself on offense before going down with a knee injury in mid-January. Finding shots on a team with three seniors and Gibbs demanding consistent offensive touches is easier said than done, but in the four games where Harvey cracked double-digit scoring, three came against total cupcake opponents (Chicago State, St. Francis (NY), and Chaminade).

Harvey did drop 17 points in Notre Dame’s surprising 30-point blowout win against NC State in January, but failed to capitalize on that momentum, and shot just 8-35 from the field over his next (and ultimately final) four games of the season. Harvey underwent knee surgery in February and is expected to return in early October. If he is, in fact, ready for the start of the 2018-19 season, he will likely be using the first part of the campaign to recapture his game and work his way into shape on the court. Missing out on this crucial offseason could set him back for the entire year.

Senior Rex Pflueger and junior John Mooney will also get plenty of playing time this season. Pflueger does a lot of things well on a basketball court – he is a high IQ player who is switchable as a wing defender and useful as a secondary ball handler – but he is largely ineffective as an outside shooter and not much of a playmaker off the dribble. Mooney is an effective rebounder at 6-foot-9 and he can step outside the arc to stretch the floor, but the Irish can’t consistently rely on him for offense.