What Mike Brey is thinking ahead of his final trip to Duke, the place that ‘opened up everything’ for him

The “lasts” are nearing for Mike Brey at Notre Dame. He has just two more home games left. His last ACC Tournament is less than a month away. His final game — period — could be just seven contests away.

Before any of those, though, comes Tuesday’s “last.” And it’s a big one.

Brey will make one more trip to Cameron Indoor Stadium Tuesday as Notre Dame head coach. It might be his last as a coach of any team. For Brey, a road game at Duke is not just a chance to play in college basketball’s most famous home environment. It’s a return to the place that launched his coaching career all the way to Notre Dame.

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This is where Brey worked after breaking through into college basketball in 1987. Where a 28-year-old history teacher and assistant coach at DeMatha Catholic High School became a multi-time national title winner and a Mike Krzyzewski confidant. Where he helped recruit some of college basketball’s biggest stars and coached in the sport’s biggest games. Where he grew into a head coaching prospect himself, a role Delaware finally offered to him and he accepted in 1995.

“It opened up everything for me,” Brey said.

Road trips to Durham to face his mentor felt different than the rest, even in the grind of a season. Tuesday’s visit, his first without Krzyzewski on the opposite bench, will carry even more meaning despite its lack of postseason or ACC title race consequence.

Brey is stepping down at season’s end, which these days feels like it can’t arrive soon enough. The Irish are 10-15 overall and 2-12 in the ACC, on the road to nowhere fast. Everyone’s ready for something new. Maybe even Brey, who told Stadium’s Jeff Goodman Monday that he plans to keep coaching after leaving Notre Dame.

A road trip to play Duke (7 p.m. ET, ESPN) doesn’t usually lend itself to finding good vibes. The Blue Devils (17-8, 8-6 ACC) aren’t ranked and are a disappointment themselves, but they’re still a tournament team with loads of future pros playing on their vaunted home floor. Brey, though, might not be able to fight off the nostalgia that comes with the last trip to Durham. He will meet with Krzyzewski, who retired last spring after a 42-year stint at Duke but still has an office on campus.

“I’m going to touch base with Mike K a little bit on gameday,” Brey said. “I haven’t really been able to talk to him since I made the announcement I was stepping down. I’d love to pick his brain on advice. There will be a lot of memories in that building.”

No kidding. This is where he first chased a dream and worked with a legend. As a visiting coach, it’s where he experienced stirring wins and stinging losses in Notre Dame’s first 10 years as an ACC member. The high was a 95-91 win over Duke on Jan. 16, 2016, a pivotal point in a season that ended in the Elite Eight. That game marked the first of his two victories at Cameron as Notre Dame head coach.

“To win one in there when the place is rocking is unbelievable,” Brey said. “That’s one of the great things you remember in your career here. That was awesome. Anytime we were able to beat them, it gave our program great credibility.”

Brey’s Cameron Indoor low, meanwhile, was a 94-60 dusting on Feb. 15, 2020 in the second leg of a two-game road trip to Virginia and Duke. Losses in both games all but crushed the Irish’s tournament hopes. They were 6-6 in the ACC heading into that trip to face two top-10 teams, their last regular-season chance to add a signature win to the tournament résumé.

A win Tuesday won’t put Notre Dame on any sort of postseason trajectory or even spoil Duke’s ACC title chances. It won’t be one last chance for Brey to beat his old mentor for the seventh time. (He is the only former Krzyzewski-era Duke assistant to beat Krzyzewski at Cameron). But in a season full of largely fruitless searches for prolonged confidence, there’s no better potential mood-changer than beating Duke at Duke.

“I’m glad our guys get to compete in there,” Brey said. “It’s a great opportunity. It’s a great experience. We’ve had some success in the past. But man, we’re going to have to score. I hope we put 80-something up on the board, because they can score.”