Notebook: Mike Brey Radio Show

Notre Dame head coach Mike Brey participated in his weekly radio show on Thursday night, and he and host Jack Nolan dove into numerous topics surrounding the 13-5 Irish.

Here are three key takeaways from the hour-long show.

Improving The Defense

Brey’s teams are known for their offense, and this year’s squad is better than anyone in the country at just that — the Irish are currently ranked No. 1 nationally in offensive efficiency on Kenpom.com.

But often that offensive productivity seems to come with a cost on the defensive end of the court. Last season’s 32-6 team managed to advance to the Elite Eight with the nation’s No. 2 offense and No. 102 defense, with the latter trending up at the end of the season.

This year’s squad, though, has fallen all the way to 238th nationally in defensive efficiency. The 2015-16 Irish can score just like last season’s team, but if they want to have similar success, they’ll have to improve on the other end of the floor.

“I think our overall defensive numbers I’m not thrilled about, and neither are our guys,” he said. “We must make progress there. And that was a point of emphasis in practice today, and more tomorrow.

“Where our point of pickup is, we’re still kind of trying to figure out where to pick up with this group. Is it a little further out, or is it right on the three-point line? And being more consistent in our ball-screen defense; we got some reps there today.

“The other thing is, it used to be easy to say before the new rule — we gotta play our defense without fouling. But that’s hard to do this year when you’re playing man-to-man and a guy’s made up his mind to physically drive, you have to be one heck of an athlete to guard him. Steve Vasturia and Rex Pflueger have both made amazing plays on guys without fouling. But it’s a work in progress and we’ll keep coming back to it — in the meantime, we better keep putting that ball in the hole at a high clip.”

Auguste On The Glass

Senior forward Zach Auguste has caught some grief from fans after a few games this season. Some contests it’s turnovers, while others it’s missed shots at the rim.

It’s important to give the big man credit where it’s due. Notre Dame has done fairly well on the glass this year — especially on the offensive end — and much of that should be attributed to the 6-10 senior.

“This is a big athletic guy, and what he’s doing on the backboard is huge,” Brey said. “He understands that if, ‘I just rebound the heck out of the ball on both ends, I’m going to have fun and we’re going to win.’”

Scheduling Notes

When asked if Brey was looking into scheduling any of the old Big East opponents in upcoming seasons, the head coach noted previously reported news about matchups against DePaul and Villanova. Notre Dame will open DePaul’s new arena sometime in the next couple seasons, while they’re aiming to play Villanova at the Prudential Center in 2016-17 as a benefit for 9/11 victims.

But Brey also raised an idea about trying to schedule Georgetown. The Irish regularly recruit that area, including a top 2017 target in five-star D.J. Harvey, who plays for DeMatha Catholic in Hyattsville, Md.

“Georgetown is always on my mind because it gets you back in D.C.,” Brey said. “Right now, we don’t play in D.C. But we like to recruit in D.C. This year we do have the ACC tournament there.

“But those Catholic schools are on my mind. The problem is we’re locked into two Big Ten games every year with the Crossroads Classic and the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. Those are good, but it does sometimes take your flexibility.”