Mike Brey shares plans after Notre Dame eliminated from ACC Tournament

Mike Brey watched as his time with Notre Dame came to a close on Tuesday, a loss to Virginia Tech in the ACC Tournament his final game.

It’s been a tough season for Brey, and it’ll be a hard pill to swallow that his last game with the Fighting Irish ended with a whimper. Still, it’s par for the course as it pertains to Notre Dame’s 2022-2023 season, as it was difficult all around.

Nevertheless, Brey shared his plans for the immediate future after Notre Dame was eliminated, stating he’s ready to hangout with his staff for a bit.

“Tonight? I’m going to smoke a cigar. I’m going to go back and smoke a cigar and tonight I’m going to hang out a little bit and visit with my staff,” stated Brey. “You need time to decompress. When you’re in the season, you’re just grinding every day. We’ll take a couple deep breaths, and tonight we’re just going to lay low.

“My comments about Irish whiskey last year after the Rutgers game, I’m not really a big whiskey guy, but man, everybody is sending me bottles. I have got a stash, even in my room here. Georgia Tech assistant, like — may hit some of that tonight.”

Regardless of how this season went, Mike Brey had a tremendous tenure in South Bend, and is ready to celebrate that. As he said he’ll take a few days, but then maybe we’ll here what next season has in store for him.

Mike Brey slams officials following ACC Tournament loss to Virginia Tech

Continuing, since he is not returning, Mike Brey figured he could truly speak his mind on the officiating in Greensboro. Brey felt as if the conference did not implement a top crew for the first-round matchup, saying there was an “over analyzation” on a call involving Virginia Tech’s Sean Pedulla.

“I’ll be very honest now that I’m not in the league anymore,” Brey said. “I think that last play, if you have an ‘A’ officiating crew and that was not an ‘A’ crew, you say, ‘basketball play.’ And we shoot the free throws and play basketball. I think we got a little over analyzation on that part of it.”

Brey seemingly wanted no flagrant foul called and instead, wished the officials deemed it a “basketball play.” He believes if there was a top crew on hand, that’s how the scenario would have played out. Even so, he gave credit to Virginia Tech and how the game ultimately finished.

“Look, Virginia Tech made plays, but I don’t think that was handled right,” Brey said. “Now, we had some turnovers and made mistakes too, but I think you go ‘basketball play’ in a great game and you shoot the free throws and you let the game play out. That’s a big-time crew.”

At the very least, Brey was able to get his opinion out there on the officiating. He would likely tell you one call does not determine a basketball game, especially in the postseason. However, there was nothing for the head coach to lose, leaving the ACC.

On3’s Griffin McVeigh contributed to this article.