Notre Dame Basketball: Will experience be the difference in 2019?

For Notre Dame basketball, there have been many excuses: They’re too young. They don’t have enough experience. But will experience be an asset in 2019?

Notre Dame basketball had a tremendously tough season. The excuses that they’re too young and don’t have enough experience (along with many more) were the comments made by the masses throughout a tremendously rough season.

They all came with reason of course. This was the youngest team in Notre Dame history during Brey’s tenure at Notre Dame. While the majority of this team will still be made up of underclassmen, they now all have at least a year under their belt.

Will it be enough in the 2019-2020 season?

With the exception of DJ Harvey transferring to Vanderbilt, the Irish will return everyone. There will be no learning curve for anyone on the roster.

The expectations, chemistry, and tone are all known and established. Now it’s about finding a way to turn the tough losses from last season into wins in the upcoming season.

The fear so far this offseason has been that, with potentially no new additions, this team is doomed to repeat the disappointment of last season.

Despite all the hardships that came with last season, there were glimpses of what this team could really do.

John Mooney, AKA the walking double-double, will return for his senior season and it’s hard to say that he won’t be even better. The team leader made tremendous strides in his first season with a prominent role. It’s clear now that the team is his.

Temple Gibbs showed us that he has the ability to take over. Last season seemed to be more of a slump, but this season the Irish can’t afford for Gibbs to disappear.

It’s just as important that Gibbs steps up as it is for Prentiss Hubb, Nate Laszewski and Dane Goodwin all form into the players that they were recruited for.

The trio of freshmen all had their good games as well as bad. Consistency will be the goal this season. Laszewski has to have the confidence to become the sharpshooter that we have been waiting to see. The same will be asked of Hubb’s playmaking ability and Goodwin’s shooting.

Last season was a story of how the team was always right there. For Notre Dame, most games came down to a couple possessions, a few bad plays, a few missed shots. Notre Dame’s margin for error was small, and everything made the difference. The Irish had no way to get over the hump.

This season as the team builds their chemistry and learns from their disappointments, they will be forced into finding ways to take the next step into winning.

If Mike Brey is known for anything other than being the loosest coach in America, it’s developing players.

Bonzie Colson, Jerian Grant, Pat Connaughton, Matt Farrell, Demetrius Jackson all found ways to take the next step when most counted them out.

Now, his whole team has been counted out. We should all be ready for what could happen next.