Last month the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics held its spring meeting in Washington, DC. The 3 main topics of the day were: a report on actions and plans to address remaining challenges in college basketball, an update on NBA changes that impact college basketball development pathways, and hot topics impacting college basketball (including college athlete disability insurance/NCAA player endorsement restriction/state and federal intervention). 1 of the many great panelists was Notre Dame head coach Mike Brey, who won his 500th career game last season and currently serves as president of the Board of Directors for the National Association of Basketball Coaches. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel was in attendance and got to chat with Coach Brey about transfers, waivers, and the 2019 NBA Finals.
You played/worked for Hall of Fame Coach Morgan Wootten at DeMatha and won a pair of NCAA titles as an assistant to Hall of Fame Coach Mike Krzyzewski at Duke: what was the most important thing that you learned from these 2 coaching legends? I was so fortunate to work with both of them: they taught me how to connect/communicate with other people (not just players but also your athletic department, the fans, etc.). My parents were also lifelong educators so I was so spoiled by them as well.
You played basketball at Northwestern State/GW, your mom Elizabeth was an Olympic swimmer, your uncle Jack played basketball at Duke, your sister Brenda was a swimmer at LSU, and your son Kyle played football at Buffalo: who is the best athlete in the family? There is no question that my mom was the best athlete, God rest her soul. I framed her 1956 USA warm-up top in my new office: it is a great conversation piece. My uncle was such a role model for me as well: I wanted to be him and he was like a big brother to me. My parents ran the pool at the local country club and my uncle was a lifeguard there.
In 2001 you had a 5-PT 4-OT win over Georgetown and in 2013 you had a 3-PT 5-OT win over Louisville: how does your coaching style change from regulation to OT (if at all)? I have also framed those 2 box scores on my office wall. The numbers are just amazing: some of my guys played 57 minutes! I was kind of laughing/smiling during the Louisville game just to keep everyone (including myself) loose. We had fun with it and they are 2 great memories for me. When I run into Louisville fans on the road they still talk about it. At the end of the Georgetown game there is a great shot of me hugging Ryan Humphrey, who is now 1 of my assistant coaches.
From February 2006-February 2009 you won 45 straight home games and became the 1st Big East team to have consecutive undefeated seasons at home: did it reach a point where the home fans just expected you to win every time you stepped onto the court? Yes: we spoiled everybody. There were some games that we flat-out should have lost but I am a big believer in karma. 1 of my other assistant coaches (Ryan Ayers) was part of that: we started talking about it at the NBA Players Camp in Charlottesville last week. At that time we played in the old Joyce Center with duct tape on the chairs and bad seats up top.
In the 2016 NCAA tourney Rex Pflueger tipped in the game-winning basket in the final seconds of 1-PT win over Stephen F. Austin to clinch your 2nd straight Sweet 16: where does that game rank among the highlights of your career? That is a great memory: people still talk about that game and it is 1 of my top-5. Rex was such a winner but we did not play him much at the start of that season. We beat Duke in Cameron Indoor Stadium that January and he just got to every loose ball. We had been subbing offense for defense toward the end of the NCAA tourney game but did not sub Rex out that particular time…and his nose for the ball won the game for us.
You are a 3-time Big East COY and 2011 national COY: what did it mean to you to receive such outstanding honors? I feel that the ACC is the deepest/best conference now…and the Big East was back then. Anytime I get voted for an award by your peers it is something that I am very proud of/humbled by.
You had a career-worst 19 losses last year with 1 of the youngest teams in the nation but still beat Purdue and had a 6-PT loss at eventual-champion Virginia: how is Pflueger’s left knee doing, and how are you going to replace DJ Harvey after he transferred to Vandy? We knew that we would have to swallow some stuff last year with a very young team but it got even harder because our league was so good (Duke/North Carolina/Virginia were all #1 seeds in the NCAA tourney). I am glad that we were able to get Rex back for a 5th year because he is the straw that stirs the drink. DJ just felt he needed to go elsewhere and I support him on that: kids just want to be happy. We have not had a lot of transfers in the past 20 years but I like the 10 scholarship guys we have back because they all played a lot so I think we can climb back up the ladder as they grow older together. There are some other ACC teams who lost a bunch of men so we think it is a good time for us.
How have you adapted to the creation of the transfer portal? I got the transfer thing started if you look back to my Delaware career and the guys we brought in. Back in the late 1990s it was the exact opposite: guys were coming from a higher level down to get more playing time, but now it is a case of mid-major guys choosing to transfer up. We have had a handful of impact transfers at Notre Dame and transfers are just another pool of players to pick from. Not every player coming out of high school is a good fit for us due to our academic standards. You can pull up the portal every day: Humphrey is a religious gentleman and the 2 things he told me that he does every morning is read the Bible and then read the transfer portal. I told the Knight Commission that I asked him to keep doing that…but switch the order! 1 of my assistants called me while I was on vacation last week to tell me that a player we had recruited when he was in high school just entered the portal and 20 minutes later I texted him: that is how quick this stuff is. I think it has brought some of the underground communication above board, as opposed to the old system of back-channel calls with high school/AAU coaches.
Why is the prevalence of waivers such a big problem? I think that the NCAA has almost given too much of a blueprint for players on how to get a waiver, and some attorneys have also learned how to attack it. I transferred during my college career and sat out for a year: it was the best thing that ever happened to me. It is better academically and strength-wise and skill-wise. Matt Farrell thought about transferring from Notre Dame a couple of years ago but rather than sit out a year he decided to stay the course. Parents are very involved but we can try to save families from themselves. However, I do not see the grad transfer process ever changing. About 15 years ago college basketball graduation rates were atrocious but we have made unbelievable strides so if a kid wants to go somewhere for grad school you have to let him go. The “year in residency” is a good thing and a bit of a deterrent for guys who are unsure about transferring.
What is your role as president of the Board of Directors for the National Association of Basketball Coaches, and what is at the top of the current to-do list? I have tried very hard to get impeached during the past 2 weeks but it has not worked! The biggest thing is to engage our membership more, especially our younger generation of coaches. When I was in Charlottesville last week I just asked guys what they liked/wanted. We also have to figure out the June/July recruiting calendar: it is new territory so instead of being critical I just want to let it play out and then we can get some constructive feedback and tweak it.
How did you enjoy your front-row seat at Game 5 of the NBA Finals in Toronto?! I got sit with Glenn Murphy, who has endowed the head coach position at Notre Dame. He is not an alum: just a great Irish-Catholic basketball fan from Toronto. It was great for recruiting: my players wondered how I had “Drake” seats! The fans in Toronto were amazing: to hear everyone joining together to sing “O Canada” before the game was incredible. I do not think that I would have gotten out of there had the Raptors won Game 5 because their fans are so passionate that they might have burned everything to the ground!