The difference between the program-building philosophies at Kentucky
and Notre Dame couldn’t be more obvious. While John Calipari reloads his
team with three or four of the best freshmen in the country each year,
shepherding them into the NBA after one season, Mike Brey has built
sustained success in South Bend by keeping a veteran lineup on the
floor, by developing players over time, using a short bench, and
bringing in transfers.
“The way we’re set up here, we’re not
going to get as many of the one-and-done guys; it’s just a different
world,” Brey said. “Not that we won’t try to recruit them. We get
four-year guys, sometimes we like to make them five, and, how about
this, we made Scott Martin a sixth-year guy. We really broke the mold
there. I don’t want to be in a position going to Carrier Dome starting
three freshmen, and thankfully we haven’t been in the situation. That’s
why we’ve been consistent. We’ve always had maturity — good juniors and
seniors running the team.”
So does experience outweigh elite
talent? With Kentucky coming to South Bend on Thursday, the Irish sure
hope so. And to a man, they pointed to the team chemistry, familiarity
and brotherhood that build up over time as an advantage to having a
veteran team.
“It’s probably tough,” Jerian Grant said of
Kentucky’s situation each season. “They have to come from the summer,
from being the man, to everyone on the team is the man. They have all
NBA guys on their team, so it’s probably tough a little bit.”
But even the Irish aren’t sure how the experience vs. talent disparity will translate to the court.
Said
Garrick Sherman: “I guess we’ll see. We have a lot of experience,
that’ll help us out. But they have a lot of talent, too. We’ll still
have to be ready to play. It all depends. Everything is variable right
now. I can’t say we have a huge distinct advantage or they do. We’ll see
how it goes.”
Said Martin: “We’ll see on Thursday. I think
experience is one thing, but I don’t think you can lean too much on
experience. It can help in certain situations, but other situations it
doesn’t mean anything.”
Said Eric Atkins: “I’m really not 100
percent sure how much that’s going to play (a role). Two years ago, we
had an all-senior team and they got the best of us, as well. So I just
think we really have to outplay them.”
Martin said one
undeniable advantage of being an older team is the resilience that only
comes with overcoming adversity in the past.
“The familiarity
and the brotherhood, the family aspect, we won’t fall apart, we won’t
break and turn on each other,” Martin said. “We’ll stay tough.”
And
while Martin freely admitted “we’re a little less athletic” during the
discussion about how uber-talented Kentucky is, Grant was quick to point
out that the guys on the Irish roster aren’t exactly dead weight.
“They
have a lot of talent on their team, but we have a bunch of talent, too,”
Grant said. “We have guys that can do the same things, if not even
better.”