Notre Dame coach Mike Brey stepping down after this season

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) — Notre Dame’s winningestmen’s basketball coach, Mike Brey, has decided to step down at theend of his school-record 23rd season, school officials announcedThursday.

The 63-year-old Brey arrived in July 2000, taking over astagnant program and guiding it back to national prominence andtitle contention in two different conferences.

Brey’s 481 victories at Notre Dame rank sixth among activecoaches at their current schools and his 580 career wins rank 50thin Division I history. Before joining the Irish, he coachedDelaware for five seasons and earned NCAA tourney bids twice in hislast three years with the Blue Hens.

Notre Dame’s program fell on hard times after Digger Phelpsretired in 1991. The Irish did not make an NCAA Tournamentappearance from 1990 until Brey’s first season in 2000-01 and onlymade three NIT appearances during that span.

Brey changed everything, taking Notre Dame to the NCAA tourney13 times and winning 15 games, tied for the most in school history.And the Irish were the only Division I school to make consecutiveElite Eight runs in the 2015 and 2016 season.

Lately, though, it’s been more of a challenge. The Irish ended afive-year tourney drought last season when they went 24-11, buthave struggled to a 9-8 mark this season, going 1-5 in AtlanticCoast Conference play.