Legendary Former Notre Dame Head Coach Mike Brey Jumping to NBA
Mike Brey, who coached Notre Dame to 483 wins over 23 seasons, will join the staff of the Atlanta Hawks of the NBA. It is interesting to note that he’ll be an assistant coach, as while he was an assistant at Duke in 1995, he coached Quin Snyder, who is now the head coach of the Hawks. Brey left Notre Dame last month and athletic director Jack Swarbrick had thought that he would still be part of the program in a certain capacity.
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Hawks were Not Brey’s First Choice
Before being hired by the Hawks, Brey told ESPN that he had interviewed for the job of head coach at South Florida but that he wasn’t offered the position. Brey left Duke in 1995 to become the head coach at Delaware and in the same year, Snyder joined the Blue Devils staff after graduating. Brey and Snyder have remained friends and in February Snyder signed a five-year deal to be the head coach of the Hawks. Brey was in Atlanta in March where he was scouting Hawks’ games.
On Monday, April 17th, Brey was on a podcast where he stated that over the weekend he watched every one of the eight NBA first-round playoff games. He went on to say that because of his busy schedule as a college coach, he never had that much time to watch the NBA.
Impressive Numbers
Brey holds the Notre Dame record for wins by a head coach and while at South Bend he amassed a 483-280 record. Overall, he has a head coaching record of 582-332, as he was at the helm at Delaware before taking over at Notre Dame.
While Brey’s last season with the Fighting Irish was not a good one going 11-21, he will always be loved in South Bend. When he got there the Fighting Irish were the laughingstock of the Big East. However, he turned things around and in his first 17 seasons led Notre Dame to 12 NCAA Tournament appearances. With Delaware and Notre Dame, he’s been to the Big Dance 15 times. The best results he had with the Irish in the tournament was advancing to the Elite 8 twice in 2015 and 2016. Brey won Big East Coach of the Year three times and in 2011 was named the Associated Press Coach of the Year.
One impressive stat is that Brey ranks fifth all-time in wins in the Big East and that’s despite the fact that Notre Dame moved to the Atlantic Coast Conference in 2013. Two things that also stand out on his impressive coaching resume are that he led Notre Dame to the Big East title in his first season there in 2000-2001 and that he won the ACC tournament in 2015.
