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

Early 2018-19 preview of Notre Dame

The Fighting Irish do bring in a top-15 recruiting class this season, including four top-100 commits. But while Brey is well-regarded for his ability to develop talent over a four-year period, his freshmen have not historically averaged big minutes. Brey will either have to buck his past trends and roll with the freshmen, which will lead to an initial learning curve and likely cost his team games in the short-term, or go with the older players who struggled without Colson and Farrell last year, which could hinder the youth movement and limit Notre Dame down the road.

The Fighting Irish will not be bad. Brey can whip up a top-30 offense in his sleep, and he has plenty of intriguing, young players who could emerge sooner than expected. They will look like a tourney team during some games, but night-to-night consistency will determine whether the Irish are still playing meaningful basketball in March.

Next: Breakdown of each 2018 ACC recruiting class

This feels like a season where Brey finds out what he has with his underclassmen, and looks ahead to 2019-20 when Gibbs will be a star senior, Harvey will be fully healthy, and his current freshmen will have a bit of seasoning to attack the ACC. This will not be a multi-year rebuilding effort for the blue and gold, rather just a one-year blip that should lead to bigger things in the future.