Relationships Matter The Most To Brey’s Legacy

By John Brice
Special Contributor

An easy smile, an opening joke and zero tears.

He has held court, on the court, in such a singular style for more than two decades, Mike Brey naturally did so once again Friday inside, of all places, Notre Dame Stadium – the Fighting Irish’s venerable football home and a venue that Brey said only served as his pulpit once he had announced a mutual decision to step aside from Irish basketball at season’s end.

Flanked by coaches from myriad campus sports, numerous members of his current team and athletics director Jack Swarbrick, among other campus and community dignitaries, Brey delivered a verbal watercolor of how and why the tenor of this Fighting Irish basketball season had illuminated to Brey that it was his time for his record-setting run along Moose Krause Circle inside Purcell Pavilion to conclude.

“About a month ago, Jim (Fraleigh) and I spoke a little bit and I said, Jim, you know, I think it’s time for a new voice at Notre Dame,” Brey said, as a standing-room-only crowd inside the Notre Dame Stadium press room and an ACC Network live broadcast chronicled the moment. “I’ve had 23 years. It’s unbelievable. It’s been amazing, but I firmly believe you know, down the road, it needs to be somebody else. And, so, let’s really seriously talk about that.

“Jack (Swarbrick) and I talked about it this last week and felt now was the time to kind of do that. And, another thing, I fully own 1-7 in the league right now. We are where we are. We want to get running and get moving. …

And then …

“It’s amazing the lengths you will go to announce that you’re leaving to beat the Jesuits. It’s really amazing the stuff you’ll pull off to try to get them.”

Brey’s Irish host Boston College Saturday in a 2 p.m. matinee affair, the 750^th game of Brey’s all-time winningest tenure atop Notre Dame basketball and one of just a half-dozen home dates that remain this season.

Notre Dame’s hardwood-highlights under Brey are prodigious; 481 wins for the program’s benchmark and championship runs through first the Big East and quickly after the Irish joined the Atlantic Coast Conference less than a decade ago.

There have been 13 NCAA Tournament teams, and as recently as a year ago, as it snapped the longest March Madness drought of Brey’s time on campus, Notre Dame won multiple contests in the Big Dance and rested just seconds from an upset-win against Texas Tech that would have vaulted the Irish back into the Sweet 16.

“That Mike (Brey) is the winningest coach in the 119-year history of Notre Dame men’s basketball speaks to his skill as a teacher of the game,” Swarbrick said in a statement. “His even greater legacy, however, lies in his achievements as an educator and mentor of the young men who played for him.

“In that sense, he represents this University as well as any coach I have worked with during my time at Notre Dame. And for that reason, I look forward to working with Mike to define his future role within Notre Dame Athletics.”

Brey never once mentioned his career win total at Notre Dame, but as he echoed Swarbrick’s statement, Brey noted the voluminous list of players to have graduated under his watch.

“When it comes down to people asking about legacy — with these seniors – that will be 72 young men that have come through and have finished their degree,” said Brey, who cracked it likely did not matter that his charges on this day had perhaps skipped class because six current players already have earned undergraduate degrees. “That’s like 72 sons. I’ve heard from a lot of them in the last 24 hours. Those relationships are the key.

“We’ve also had some disappointing losses and disappointing seasons, but it’s about the guys and the relationships, and I’m looking forward to reunion down the road when we can get a bunch of my guys back because we got a lot of stories.”

Rather than peer too far into the future, Brey did not rule out the possibility of an ambassador-type role within Notre Dame athletics – similar to that of retired Hall of Fame women’s basketball coach Muffet McGraw – but he acknowledged he might again desire to throw on gym shorts, a three-quarter zip pullover and coach the game to which he has given so much now for parts of the past six decades.

“Retiring from coaching at Notre Dame; I wouldn’t rule out being around young people and teaching and coaching again,” said Brey, whose only guarantee was that he no longer would don the mock-turtleneck sweaters that for so long defined his hardwood image. “I don’t think I want to jump back into that next year. But you know, take some time to think about it.

“One of the things Jack and I talked about that was very exciting, and Father John (Jenkins) and I, was still being part of Notre Dame and helping and being part of things and I would be honored to do that. I’ve been so honored man, and I know that I’ve got some of my fellow (Notre Dame athletics) coaches here.

“You’re out on your rounds and you’re the Notre Dame basketball coach. That’s a hell of an honor, for 23 years to be identified like that, so I would be really honored to work, and I think the first thing we need to work on is, Jack and I get in the next great one here to keep us going.”

With nary a trace of bitterness but some understandable wistfulness in his delivery, Brey trumpeted the positives of the Notre Dame men’s basketball job and downplayed any elements that might have been viewed as impediments from the outside looking in beneath the Golden Dome.

“I hope I’ve been — I think I’ve been — pretty low maintenance,” Brey said. “Just put your head down and work and you know, [not lamenting], ‘Well, we don’t have this, or we don’t have that, or they …’ We just worked, man. When you’re dealing with (Jim) Boeheim and (Jim) Calhoun and Jay Wright, I don’t have time to fight people on campus. I’m dealing with them year-round. So, my feeling was, everybody’s gonna do the best they can and let’s do it.

“I’ve been lucky with two administrators, Kevin White and Jack, who [said], ‘You know, what do you need? How can we help?’. My feeling has always been, ‘Just Work. Keep your head down.

“The Pit [the Irish’s former practice home, since replaced by a state-of-the-art facility] was great. I loved hiding in The Pit back in the day. But if those walls could talk. Oh My God, if those walls could talk.”

Instead, history speaks for Brey. And no basketball coach at Notre Dame ever has done it any better.