Notre Dame Hoops Coach’s Tenure Coming To End?
Is Notre Dame head basketball coach Mike Brey’s tenure under the Golden Dome coming to an end?
It certainly appears so.
Following the Irish’s latest loss – a 13-point home debacle to Florida State, a team that has struggled mightily this season and is just 6-13 overall – excellent journalist Tim Prister wrote an article for Irish Illustrated all but saying Brey’s days at Notre Dame are coming to an end. Prister made it clear that it’s only a matter that the school will part ways with the 23-year Irish coach. It’s doubtful Notre Dame would let him go during the season, but you never know.
To be honest, it’s really sad to see the demise of Brey. After all, he’s the all-time winningest men’s basketball coach in Notre Dame history with a 481-267 record, including 223-169 in the ACC.
The big problem for Brey is since 2018 the Irish have only appeared in one NCAA Tournament (they wouldn’t have made it in 2020, the year the tournament was nixed due to COVID either).
Barring a miraculous turnaround this season, like winning the ACC Tournament, which isn’t going to happen, Notre Dame’s season will end when it is ousted from the conference tournament.
Coaches at Power Five schools usually get pink slips when they miss the Big Dance on a consistent basis, and unfortunately that has been the trend in South Bend recently.
Also, hurting Brey is the fact that this year’s Irish team was a veteran group (a quintet of fifth-year seniors), who has definitely underachieved, posting just a 9-8 mark, which includes a dismal 1-5 in the ACC.
It was just a year ago, Notre Dame went 24-11 overall, 15-5 in the ACC (tied for second), beating Rutgers in the NCAA Tournament’s First Four, knocking off Alabama in the first round and losing to Texas Tech in the second round.
The 2022 NCAA Tournament appearance was the Irish’s 13th under Brey. Making the Big Dance in more than half your seasons at Notre Dame is pretty good. Lets be real, this is a place where men’s basketball is a very distant second to football, always has been and always will be. For that matter, even women’s basketball has trumped men’s basketball on more than one occasion.
Being the men’s head basketball coach at Notre Dame is difficult … very difficult.
Sure the university is located in a state that is THE hotbed for basketball talent. The problem is the Irish get Purdue and IU’s recruiting leftovers, and in reality if say Michigan State or Michigan or most Big Ten schools want an Indiana high school player, they usually head out-of-state instead of go to Notre Dame.
You can’t blame recruits for going elsewhere. Just go to IU’s Assembly Hall or Purdue’s Mackey Arena and compare those atmospheres (not to mention the basketball tradition) to Notre Dame’s. There’s no comparison. IU sells out or comes close to selling out its 17,222-seat Assembly Hall regularly and Purdue has a current streak of 50 straight sellouts in its 14,804-seat Mackey Arena. Heck, Notre Dame doesn’t come close to filling the 9,149-seat Joyce Center to capacity. Last season the Irish averaged a mere 7,283 fans for its home games.
Currently Purdue is dominating the state in recruiting. The Boilermakers are raking in Indiana Mr. Basketball after Indiana Mr. Basketball. If the Boilermakers don’t get this year’s top player – if you believe it’s Cathedral’s Xavier Booker (who is rated the No. 1 player in America according to rivals.com and is bound for Michigan State), they’re getting the second-best player in Myles Colvin (who in 247sports has climbed from No. 69 to No. 48 in the nation in his class).
Fast forward to the 2024 recruiting class, the top Indiana player is Kokomo’s Flory Bidunga, who is ranked No. 4 nationally by 247sports. Matt Painter has been recruiting him hard, but he may end up going out-of-state to say Cincinnati. Even if Purdue loses him, Painter has already secured commitments from the second- and third-best players in the state – Jack Benter of Brownstown Central and Kanon Catchings of Brownsburg.
Notre Dame isn’t even on the radar for the top Indiana kids.
The fact is if Painter isn’t luring instate recruits to West Lafayette, IU is more than formidable force in the recruiting wars for the Irish.
In case you are wondering, Notre Dame has landed only two Indiana’s Mr. Basketball award winners ever – in 2001 Indianapolis Pike standout Chris Thomas and in 2005 Washington’s Luke Zeller.
To Brey’s credit, he did sign Mishawaka Penn’s Markus Burton, who poured in 41 points in a game the other night. However, Purdue and IU didn’t offer Burton, who will be a freshman next season. That’s not to say Burton won’t be a very good college player. After all, just look at who passed on Boilermaker freshman guard Braden Smith.
Brey also got South Bend’s Blake Wesley, who unfortunately for Notre Dame was a one-and-done player and is now playing with the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs. Wesley would’ve made a big difference for the Irish this year.
In hindsight, the biggest recruiting black eye in Brey’s tenure in South Bend was not getting homegrown talent Jaden Ivey, whose mom – Niele – is Notre Dame’s women’s basketball head coach and was an All-American point guard who helped the Irish win a national championship. Credit Painter for getting him, but losing Ivey is still a head scratcher is it not?
The Irish currently have one player – J.R. Konieczny – from the state of Indiana and again neither Purdue nor IU offered him.
The fact is if Notre Dame doesn’t have more of an Indiana flavor on its roster, winning and winning big on a consistent basis will continue to be challenging.
I know Notre Dame has never had a roster filled with Indiana high school basketball players, but currently having just two players on the current roster from the basketball-rich Midwest is a big problem.
If Brey is indeed shown the door, I think Notre Dame should look at someone with at least strong Midwest ties and would be very wise to go with someone that can recruit the state of Indiana. How about Ball State head coach Michael Lewis, who played for the Hoosiers? He’d be a good place to start.
Recruiting nationwide isn’t working for the Irish and I would argue the high school talent Indiana is producing has never been better.
The more pressing question for Notre Dame is who is it going to get that will be better and more successful than Brey.
Digger Phelps didn’t win as much as Brey, and Phelps, too, was second fiddle to IU and Purdue when Bob Knight and Gene Keady were roaming the sidelines.
I fully understand why Notre Dame would fire Brey. After all, we live in a world of instant gratification and satisfaction. Winning is the name of the game when coaches like Brey are getting paid millions. In Brey’s case, he makes north of $2.5 million per season.
Now, all eyes will be on Notre Dame to see if and when it parts ways with Brey. If it does, it will be very interesting to see who it brings in as his replacement. Then we will get a clear indication of exactly how much men’s basketball means to the university.
Special thanks to Five Star Marketplace in Knox for being one of our loyal sponsors. Please give their Facebook page a visit by going to https://www.facebook.com/supermarketfivestar/?fref=ts
You can follow me on my personal Twitter page – @DougGriffMAX983 – as well as keep an eye on his posts on Twitter @Maxsports983 and on Facebook (facebook.com/wymrradio) and MAX’s website – MAX983.net
