Notre Dame’s Brey says ‘we lost momentum,’ time is right

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) — Mike Brey said he beganthinking it was time to step down as Notre Dame coach on the planeride home in March following the Irish’s NCAA Tournament run.

By Christmas, those thoughts turned serious, and come last weekhe was certain.

“From 2000 to 2017, we went to 12 NCAA Tournaments,” Brey saidat a news conference Friday. “Since 2018 we’ve been to one. That’show you’re measured, man. I felt we lost momentum. It was awesometo get us back last year, and that was an amazing experience to goand win two games in the NCAA Tournament, so as I looked at the bigpicture moving forward, I just think a new voice is needed.”

Notre Dame announced Thursday the 63-year-old would step down atthe end of the season after winning a school-record 481 games andleading the program for a school-record 23 years.

The team is 9-10 overall and 1-7 in the Atlantic CoastConference — one of the worst seasons in the program’s historyahead of a home game Saturday against Boston College. That’s whyBrey thought it was necessary to announce now that this is his lastseason.

“I think it can be a distraction — speculation, and what’s goingon, is he coming back, do they want him to?” Brey said. “I want ourguys to focus and play, and my thought was, Why don’t we give someclarification to this thing right now and see if it helps our groupand, quite frankly, help Notre Dame, that they can get into theprocess of getting advance notice on a search.”

Brey didn’t rule out coaching again but said he plans to take atleast one year off. He said he also would help athletic directorJack Swarbrick in the search, calling it a “a big responsibilityfor me to help hire the next right coach here.”

Brey was a finalist for the Notre Dame job in 1999 but the Irishhired Matt Doherty instead. Doherty left for his alma mater, NorthCarolina, after one season, and Brey was hired away from Delawareafter taking the Blue Hens to two NCAA Tournaments in threeseasons.

Notre Dame snapped a 10-year NCAA drought in 2001 and made 13total tournament appearances under Brey. He won 15 tourney games,tying the school record, and Notre Dame reached back-to-back EliteEights in 2015 and 2016.

Brey was Big East coach of the year three times and won 146conference games, which still ranks fifth all-time in the league.Notre Dame moved to the ACC in 2013 and two years later Brey wonthe conference tourney title by defeating Miami, Duke and NorthCarolina during a 32-6 campaign. The Irish returned to the ACCtourney semifinals in 2016 and the ACC championship game in2017.

Brey said it might have made sense to leave after last season,when the Irish went 24-11 and made it to the second round of theNCAA Tournament after being a First Four entry. But he said hewanted to see through the six graduate students on his roster.

He also noted the new challenges that come along with name,image and likeness and the transfer portal, saying that a coach hasto be “really energized to manage that and attack that.”