Brey Hauls in Huge Verbal for ND
UHND.com - Frank Vitovitch
September 1, 2001

Notre Dame, Ind (UHND.com) - Mike Brey took a huge step toward continuing Notre Dame's recent basketball success on Friday morning when he secured the verbal commitment of one of the nation's most talent prospects, Torrin Francis.  There isn't a college in the country that would not have liked to get this talented six foot ten inch center to join their team and Brey went out and got him to come to Notre Dame.

The commitment of Francis surprised many in the college basketball world, especially the recruiting experts who all thought Notre Dame was not a major player for Francis.  They all turned out to be wrong however as Mike Brey proved that he could go up against Duke, North Carolina, Maryland, etc and win.  A few weeks back it looked like Francis was headed to UNC and former Notre Dame coach Matt Doherty, but on Friday Torrin committed to Notre Dame and has pushed Notre Dame's recruiting class up to at least the top 10 in the nation.

Francis is a versatile center with room to grow.  He is 6-10 and 220 pound center who could easily add some more weight his senior year and once he gets to Notre Dame to become a major force down low.  He averaged 20 points, 10 rebounds, and 3 blocks his junior year and should only improve on those numbers this year at Tabor Academy in Marion, Massachusetts.  

Many recruiting analysts rank Torrin in the top 20 overall prospects and top 5 centers. Bob Gibbons also feels that Torrin is the best low post prospect to come to Notre Dame since Laphonso Ellis in the early '90's.  Since Ellis NBA players such as Pat Garrity, Troy Murphy, and Monty Williams have all come to Notre Dame and played forward for the Irish.

Torrin joins Rick Cornett and Chris Quinn to give Notre Dame three potential top 100 players.  Add in the possible commit of Kyle Wilson who is visiting this week and Notre Dame could have an exceptional recruiting class that would surpass the expectations of every Irish basketball fan.

With Chris Thomas and Jordan Cornette joining the Irish this year as freshman and former McDonald's All American Danny Miller joining the Irish next season Notre Dame could have one of the most talent lineups in the entire nation.  

Mike Brey has done wonders in a short time in South Bend.  Since Brey has come to Notre Dame last summer, the Irish have went to their first NCAA Tournament in 10 years, won in the first round, and now have a top 10 recruiting class coming in.  Not too shabby for a coach entering his second season as head coach for Notre Dame.  

During the 90's Notre Dame basketball was synonymous with losing and a team that at one time was good but was now destined for mediocrity.  Matt Doherty played a role in turning that around in his lone season in South Bend by making it to the NIT Finals and by getting Cornette and Thomas to commit to Notre Dame, but Mike Brey has taken that to the next level.  Mike Brey is here to stay and every Notre Dame basketball fan should be doing cartwheels over that fact.