Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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Brey guided the Irish to the Big Dance in his first season and eight times total since he was hired. "Before I came here I spent a lot of time working in the college basketball com- munity on a number of projects for the NCAA, and I was struck during that work about how people talked about Mike Brey," Notre Dame athletics director Jack Swarbrick said. "You always heard talk in terms of, 'He's the best guy in the busi- ness.' Coming here and having that re- affirmed as I built a relationship with him was rewarding but not a surprise. He is all of those things. "He's a guy that spoke of the strong bonds he's forged in his time with the Irish as being the greatest payoff. "All those guys, really deep relation- ships, which is why I've never wanted to coach anywhere else," he explained. "It's the kind of young men you get to work with here and the relationships you build." In the six seasons Notre Dame competed AND HOW WE'RE THOUGHT OF. THE ONE THING THAT IS REALLY POWERFUL TO ME IS THE BASKETBALL WORLD, THE BASKETBALL COMMUNITY, REALLY "I'M SO EXCITED ABOUT WHERE WE'RE AT, OUR MOMENTUM, OUR POSITION RESPECTS OUR PROGRAM AND HOW WE DO BUSINESS." BREY represents the best of college basketball and embraces the values of this place. What I didn't know was what a great coach he was. That's been one of the real plea- sures of the four years, for me, working with him." Swarbrick joked about the possibility of Brey outlasting him at the institution. "It is a thrill for me to have been able to work through a process that ensures for the next decade — not significantly longer than the career expectancy of any AD — that Mike will be the head coach and continue to lead this program and lead the nation in building young men," he said. With former players such as Chris Thomas and Tory Jackson present, Brey in the Big East Conference prior to hiring Brey, the Irish had won just one league tournament game. The program has col- lected eight victories at Madison Square Garden in New York City since the 2000- 01 campaign and has routinely been a fac- tor in the regular-season title race. "I think when we got here you were try- ing to survive the Big East," Brey said. "Now we're in a mode of thriving in the Big East; we've shifted gears. "I'm so excited about where we're at, our momentum, our position and how we're thought of. The one thing that is really powerful to me is the basketball world, the basketball community, really respects our program and how we do business." And in a profession that affords little pa- tience, Brey recognizes that an opportunity to stay in one place for 22 years is rare. "Is this tenure, or is this just staying a little further ahead of the posse? Maybe it's a little bit of both," he said. AUGUST 2012 91