ND hoops as a "mid-major"

by Greg, seemingly ranch, Monday, March 19, 2012, 08:18 (5210 days ago)

I was listening to the Dan Patrick show on the way in to the office this morning and they were talking about how the Sweet 16 basically breaks down to the upper-tier big schools with their one-and-done phenoms, the mid-majors who have 4-5 guys who have played together for four years because they're not good enough to go pro early, and a few big schools who get hot.

Out of those categories, we're most like (I think) the mid-majors. Brey's philosophy (similar to Ben Howland's when he was at Pitt) is to get guys who can come in, grow up together and play together for years so that they really come to know each other, and then have those guys gel in a way that allows them to compete with other teams' superior athleticism.

Now I still don't know why we cannot make a run to the Sweet 16 with this philosophy, and I agree we've underachieved in the tourney relative to the actual mid-majors that are closer to our level. But if one looks at ND (based on the recruiting limitations put on Brey) as a mid-major, I think a more fair analysis of Brey can be made.