Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1491978
80 MARCH 2023 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED MEN'S BASKETBALL BY PATRICK ENGEL T he thoughts about the fu- ture had bounced around in Mike Brey's head before, sometimes for a fleeting m o m e n t a n d s o m e t i m e s for longer. The Notre Dame head coach pondered it on the plane ride back from San Diego after the Irish's 2022 N C A A To u r n a m e n t r u n ended. He admittedly used the phrase 'last dance' once this offseason when talking with his team, and not just about the seniors core's re- turn for one last season. But those were still just thoughts. Not actions or de- cisions. The two tournament wins pulled him back for an- other year, and maybe more. He talked about his contract this offseason with his bosses. It runs through 2024-25. He was thinking beyond that. "I think I'm good 'til I'm 70, man," the 63-year-old Brey said on signing day in November. "Let's roll. I still have a lot of energy. Recruit- ing these young guards that we signed, I'm kind of like, 'God, that's going to be exciting to work with those guys and watch them grow.'" Brey will follow their growth from somewhere other than the Rolfs Hall practice court and the sideline in ACC arenas. And that announcement of change prompted two of the Irish's three guard signees — four-star Parker Fried- richsen and three-star Brady Dunlap — to decommit and seek a new home. Not three months after talking about Notre Dame as a long-term home, the end of his tenure is a reality and will arrive in March. The school announced Jan. 20 that Brey is stepping down at season's end. Wanting to stay is one thing, and maybe part of him did. That may never be publicly known. But understanding if it's the smart move or not is another. Brey, never short on self-awareness, grasped that 23 years was enough. He's not blind to reality. The program he built into a near-annual NCAA Tournament participant had taken a step back. Sev- eral steps, really. Brey knows the stats. "From 2000 to 2017, we went to 12 NCAA Tournaments," Brey said Jan. 20. "Since 2018, we've been to one. And that's how you're measured, man. I felt we lost momentum." Turns out, not even a rebirth last season (24-11 overall, 15-5 ACC) could undo several years of missteps, even if it re-injected Brey with some enthusiasm and pushed him to return. Thoughts of exiting on a positive note were trumped by coming back for one more year with a roster full of old guys sur- rounding a talented freshman guard. He encouraged them to think big. The fifth-year core responded by open- ing talking about winning the ACC and reaching the Sweet 16 — at minimum. It felt like Notre Dame was back again, and Brey had to be back with it. "Being back in [the tour- nament], that's why last year was important," he said. "That gives you your cred- ibility as a program when you can be there pretty regularly." The thing is, though Notre Dame hasn't been there regu- larly enough in recent years, even by a football school's standards. This year will mark the fourth time Notre Dame will miss the NCAA Tournament in the last five seasons it was held. The Irish would not have made the 2020 field as an at-large had that year's tournament been played. This year will end with their fourth sub-.500 ACC record in the last six seasons. Grand visions have turned into a ghastly slide. As Feb. 7, Notre Dame was 3-11 in its last 14 games. Af- ter a home loss to 6-13 Florida State Jan. 17 in which the Irish trailed by 24 points in both halves, Brey couldn't avoid the reality. He didn't want to, either. He fes- sed up to doing a "horrible job" with his team, owned the poor play and admitted he was out of answers for how to fix it. Brey and Notre Dame decided the solu- tion was to let someone else take a shot at restoring it to prior heights. Why announce it mid-year? End all speculation. Nip it in the bud before the final six weeks of the season turn into a cesspool of outside vitriol and internal curiosity that would have been a sour final chapter to a successful tenure. "I think it can be a distraction," Brey Brey — the all-time winningest head coach in school history (482 wins as of Feb. 7) — will step away from Notre Dame at the end of the season after 23 years on the job in South Bend. PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER Even Mike Brey Knew It Was Time For A Change In Leadership