| | By Jay Bilas
Special to ESPN.com
When Mike Brey met with his Notre Dame team for the first time this summer, he realized he faced a delicate situation. His was the third face in as many years to greet the Fighting Irish as their head coach.
Not only were there bound to be concerns but also it had to be down right confusing.
"I knew that I had to be sensitive to relationships," Brey said of his latest challenge. "But when I thought about the reasons to have accepted this job, No. 1 on the list was coaching this particular team, at this particular time. This is a
really good group."
|  | | Mike Brey has kept things positive since arriving at Notre Dame. |
Brey, 41, is an unusual success story in college basketball. He did not have the benefit of a big-time playing career, or playing at a big-name university to put him in the national spotlight. He did not enter the coaching world as a household name.
Instead, he learned the game from two of its most respected coaches. As a player and then assistant coach, he matriculated under Morgan Wooten at DeMatha. Then, as an unknown assistant on the Duke bench, he watched Mike Krzyzewski work his magic for eight years, helping guide the Blue Devils to six Final Fours during his stay in Durham, N.C.
Brey comes to Notre Dame fresh off a three-year run at Delaware (99-52), where he led the Blue Hens to their third consecutive 20-victory
season and the school's first NIT bid. He also guided the Blue Hens to consecutive NCAA Tournament berths in 1998 and '99.
"What a perfect fit. Mike has the background that is totally suited for the level of success that Notre Dame wants and
deserves," Krzyzewski said at the time of Brey's hiring in July. "He and his family will be absolutely
terrific in representing Notre Dame."
In short, Brey reached this point in his career on substance, not flash. So when Brey met with his new team, it was not with an attitude. Rather, he stood before them as a coach ready to help a team reach its goals.
"There is no rhyme or reason to a new job now," Brey said of the timing of the Notre Dame job. "It used to be that you got a job in the spring, and you had six months to get to know everyone and settle into the job, so you could hit the ground running once practice started. I had to take time to recruit the current players first and make sure this team was together and going in the same direction."
Before his first practice in South Bend, Ind., Brey made sure his tenure started with the right tone. The emphasis had to be on the positive because quite frankly there hasn't always been much to be positive about over the past several years at Notre Dame.
"I really thought about that a lot. This is the third different system in three years for some of these kids," Brey
said of his players' adjusting to yet another way of doing things on the court. "I have a simple system. I spent a
lot of time trying to make that simple system even simpler."
Brey spent the first three days putting in his defense, and then turned to his offense, getting to five on five situations quickly. Still, Brey felt like he was in the recruiting process that first week of practice. He needed to get his team to buy into what they were doing. To that end, Brey didn't come into the gym yelling.
"We are keeping it enthusiastic and very positive instead of jumping on every mistake and getting on each other," Brey said. "We are paying attention to relationships, and trust."
"We will give them the freedom to play. We want to run and play up-tempo, but we have to trust each other to make the extra pass. We are a skilled passing team."
Brey is also trying to build trust in a unit that he can take into the Big East wars and to the NCAA Tournament.
"If we tossed it up today, we have eight guys we can really rely upon," Brey said. "But we need to be hungry to be a true member
of the group that we are included with in the preseason polls."
"Everybody in the preseason poll is a regular, except us," Brey said of the Irish being a consensus preseason top-25 team. "We can't have a false sense of security, but we have to be hungry to live up to (the expectations)."
Brey is not shy about mentioning his team among the nation's best. He has a Player of the Year candidate in junior Troy Murphy, a player Brey knows can not only lead this team back to the NCAA Tournament -- somewhere the Irish haven't been since 1990 -- but also deep into the Big Dance. But it's also a two-way street. In order to help validate his status as one of the nation's truly elite players, Murphy will be asked to carry much of the Irish's load this season.
|
“ |
With all that is going on around me, I
am still most comfortable on the floor during the
two hours of practice. From 3 to 5, I am at an
extreme comfort level with this team. I just want
to handle this team the right way and get off to a
helluva start. ” |
|
|
— Mike Brey,
Notre Dame head coach |
"Troy wants to be thought of like that," Brey said. "Not playing in an NCAA Tournament is a big void in his career, and the last stamp of his being a big-time player."
While Brey's first three months on the job were exhausting, the first two weeks of practice and the thought of what this
team can accomplish has kept him enthusiastic and energetic.
"We can really score," Brey said. "Troy Murphy can play all over the court. We want him to do that, and he likes the idea
of that. David Graves and Matt Carroll (also) give us good scoring, and Martin Inglesby can hit the open shot. They provide us a lot of room to operate."
Those who will benefit from that operating room are Murphy, Oklahoma transfer Ryan Humphrey and Harold Swanagan. Brey's concern lies not with offense but on the other end of the floor. He knows his team must be able to play solid man-to-man defense to reach the level he and his players foresee this team attaining come March.
"I know we'll score. The question is, can we stop people?" Brey said. "We have to play good man defense. Not for 40 minutes because the kids have good zone habits, but we have to be able to guard out to the 3-point line and in."
Humphrey and freshman Torrian Jones give Brey two athletes who can move their feet, and they will help greatly in the defensive effort. But defensive rebounding has to become a priority.
"Our frontline defensive rebounding has to get better," Brey said. "We are all trying to get out and run, which is good. But we can't
leak out early, and I'm stressing block outs in addition to concern about helpside and positioning. I think we can be a helluva defensive rebounding team."
With all that he and his players have had to absorb during the past few months, less may be more when it comes to his coaching style. Brey also realizes, first and foremost, his full attention has to be on his team, no matter how many outside distractions compete for his attention.
When Brey finally gets his team on the floor, on Nov. 16 against Sacred Heart, he knows that won't be a problem.
"I have to be careful not to try to do too much," Brey said. "I have a card near my office phone that says, 'Coach This Team.' It's there to remind me in the midst of the day that, despite all of the things that are pulling me in different directions, I need to put blinders on and just coach this team. Everything else can take a backseat to that.
"With all that is going on around me, I am still most comfortable on the floor during the two hours of practice. From 3 to 5, I am at an extreme comfort level with this team. I just want to handle this team the right way and get off to a helluva start."
And at Notre Dame, that also means another new start. | |
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In the crosshairs: Troy Murphy
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