Report: Notre Dame basketball coach Mike Brey plans to retire at end of season

The end of an era is near in South Bend. According to Notre Dame reporter Tim Noie, Fighting Irish head basketball coach Mike Brey will retire at the conclusion of the current 2022-23 season. Here was the news from Noie, which he shared on Twitter:

“BREAKING: Source tells South Bend Tribune that #NotreDame coach Mike Brey will retire at end of season. Brey plans to tell team after practice today. The winningest coach in program history will have spent last 23 seasons at Notre Dame.”

Notre Dame has just one NCAA Tournament appearance in the last six seasons under Brey and are on the outside looking in this year with a losing record through 19 games. He’s set to turn 64 years old this coming March, but reportedly will hang up the whistle and call it a career after 28 seasons as a college hoops coach.

Brey began his head coaching career at Delaware, where he spent five years in the late 1990’s and took the Blue Hens to two NCAA Tournaments. He joined the Irish in 2001 and never coached anywhere else, nor will he.

In his first year with the Irish, Brey immediately made himself a staple of what college hoops fans consider the Old Big East by winning the league in his first season. Back before the Big East was a non-football conference stocked with catholic schools, it was grounds for the grittiest, wildest and best basketball in the country. The Old Big East was a rodeo, and Mike Brey one of its finest cowboys. Alongside him were other legendary coaches, such as Bob Huggins (Cincinnati AND West Virginia), Jim Boeheim (Syracuse), Rick Pitino (Louisville), Jim Calhoun (UCONN), Jay Wright (Villanova) and several other prominent names as well.

Those guys represented a generation of hoops in the 2000’s and early 2010’s, especially for fans of Old Big East hoops. One of its longest keepers, Mike Brey, is finally calling it quits. Hey, at least we still have good ole Jim at ‘Cuse, and Slick Rick is still out there making NCAA Tournaments.

An ACC and Old Big East legend. Enjoy retirement, coach!