It’s the end of an era in South Bend.
On Thursday, the University of Notre Dame announced that Mike Brey’s 23rd season leading the men’s basketball program would be his last.
“It has been a great run for me and our program over the past two decades, but it is time for a new voice to lead this group into the future,” Brey said. “I want to thank our student-athletes, assistant coaches and support staff who have played such a key role in the culture we have created.”
Jack Swarbrick, Notre Dame vice president, and director of athletics said he and Brey have spoken about his future often and recently reached a “mutual conclusion” that the head coach would retire at year’s end.
Brey is the winningest coach in the program’s history. Arriving ahead of the 2000-01 season, Brey led the Fighting Irish to 13 NCAA tournament berths, reaching the elite eight three times.
The Irish have come on hard times recently. After putting together a winning record in 17 of his first 18 seasons, Notre Dame has only two winning seasons since 2018.
Brey and the Irish are 9-10 on the season, but a miserable 1-7 this season in the ACC, tied for the second-worst record in the conference with the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (1-7), and are only a game better than the still winless Lousiville Cardinals (0-8).
With 12 games remaining, there’s still time for Brey to climb up the wins leaderboard. Brey’s 481 victories at Notre Dame, paired with 99 wins with the University of Delaware, where he coached for five seasons (1995-2000), rank the 63-year-old 50th on the all-time coaching wins list.
