June 8, 2016
University of Notre Dame men’s basketball head coach Mike Brey has announced the addition of 2002 Notre Dame graduate Ryan Humphrey to the Irish coaching staff. Humphrey, an All-American forward for the Irish from 2000-02, was most recently the Director of Player Development at Northwestern after completing a long professional basketball career in 2014.
“I’m so thrilled to have Ryan Humphrey back home with us,” Brey said.
“I’ve had my eye on him the last couple years as he was paying his dues to get into coaching and I am so excited to get him working with our front-line guys. Our big guys don’t know how lucky they are to have a guy like Ryan Humphrey, someone who developed into a first-round pick out of our system, working with them on a daily basis.”
“He is a class act, a winner and he adds great energy to the program.”
“I’m elated about the opportunity to return to my alma mater and coach alongside my friends, former coaches and mentor,” Humphrey said.
“Coach Brey and his staff have done an exceptional job of mapping Notre Dame as a national basketball powerhouse. Reuniting with the Notre Dame basketball family is definitely a privilege and an honor.”
Humphrey was a key component of Mike Brey’s first Notre Dame squad that returned Irish basketball to national prominence. A transfer from Oklahoma who sat out the 1999-2000 season due to NCAA regulations, Humphrey averaged 14.1 points and 9.0 rebounds per game in 2000-01, earning third-team all-BIG EAST honors and helping the Irish finish with a 20-10 record and claim the program’s first-ever conference title by finishing first in the BIG EAST West Division.
Moving to a captaincy role in 2001-02 with David Graves and current Director of Basketball Operations Harold Swanagan, Humphrey was named the Notre Dame Monogram Club Team MVP after leading the Irish with 18.9 points, 10.9 rebounds and 2.8 blocks per game. He finished the season with 11 straight double-doubles and helped the Irish return to the second round of the NCAA tournament with a 22-11 record.
In his two years with the Irish, Humphrey blocked 166 shots, just 35 off the school record (201 by Jordan Cornette from 2001-05) and his 2.8 career blocks per game average is the best in school history. In his final season, Humphrey established the school record for single-season blocked shots with 87 and his 2000-01 and 2001-02 blocked shot average of 2.7 and 2.8 rank first and second, respectively, on the Notre Dame single season lists.
Humphrey spent the first two years of his collegiate career at Oklahoma and was a third-team all-Big 12 selection as a sophomore. Searching for a change of scenery from OU, Humphrey transferred to Notre Dame in part to play for Matt Doherty, who recruited him while an assistant at Kansas. Doherty coached the Irish during the 1999-2000 season, then left to coach North Carolina at the end of the season.
“He was instrumental to me getting our program started here,” Brey said.
“The first two years he was eligible, we went to the NCAA tournament which was so important because we had a 10-year drought before that. He was a great captain his senior year.”
His professional career started when he was drafted by the Utah Jazz with the 19th selection of 2002 NBA Draft. Humphrey was traded to Orlando Magic on draft night for the rights to the 20th overall selection, Curtis Borchardt. His first season with the Magic was limited to 13 games by knee tendinitis and he was traded to the Memphis Grizzlies in March of 2003.
Humphrey played for the Grizzlies through the 2004-05 season and finished his NBA career appearing in 85 games and averaging 2.3 points and 2.2 rebounds per contest. He continued his career in Italy for the 2005-06 season, playing 17 games for Bipop-Carire Reggio Emilia and three games in the Spanish League for Polaris World Murcia. Humphrey’s stops around the world playing professional basketball included Puerto Rico, Cyprus, Uruguay, Argentina and Venezuela. His lifetime statistics from the collection of `Euro League’ games are 127 GP, 1,644 points (12.9 pg) and 778 rebounds (6.1 pg).
Humphrey also enjoyed a stand out season in his hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma, with the NBA D-League’s 66ers in the 2008-09 season, averaging 15.7 points and 7.4 rebounds per game.
“Ryan Humphrey is a rising star in the coaching profession,” said Chris Collins, head coach at Northwestern University where Humphrey spent the last two seasons as the Director of Player Development.
“Our Northwestern program was able to reach new heights this past season and a large part of that is directly correlated to Ryan’s work ethic and all that he did to help move our program forward. We will miss him in Evanston, but we couldn’t be happier for him to earn this opportunity to return to his alma mater and wish nothing but the best for him, RaSheda and their boys.”
Humphrey In The Notre Dame Record Book –
1st in blocked shots average (2.8)
3rd in total blocked shots (166)
10th in rebound average (10.0)
16th in scoring average (16.6)
College Basketball Honors and Awards –
2002 Basketball News Second-Team All-American
2002 All-BIG EAST First Team
2002 Basketball Times All-Mideast Team
2002 Notre Dame Monogram Club Team MVP
2001 Hawaii Pacific Thanksgiving Classic MVP
BIG EAST Player of the Week (Nov. 26, 2001)
2001 All-BIG EAST Third Team
1999 All-Big 12 Third Team (at Oklahoma)
1998 All-Big 12 Honorable Mention (at Oklahoma)
Big 12 Freshman of the Week (Dec. 29, 1997) (at Oklahoma)
Professional Basketball Honors and Awards –
2012 Latinbasket.com All-Liga Sudamericana Second Team
2012 Latinbasket.com All-Uruguay LUB Second Team
2011 Eurobasket.com All-Spanish LEB Gold Third Team
2010 Eurobasket.com All-Spanish LEB Gold Second Team
2010 Eurobasket.com Spanish LEB All-Imports Team
2007 Eurobasket.com All-Cyprus League Second Team
2007 Eurobasket.com Cyprus League All-Imports Team
HUMPHREY NOTES: Participated in the 2002 NCAA Final Four Slam Dunk Contest … in the summer of 1998 was one of 32 collegians who participated in the USA Goodwill Games Team trials and was one of the last two players cut before the final roster … saved some of his best basketball at Notre Dame during the NCAA tournament, averaging 16.3 ppg, 10.3 rpg and 3.5 bpg in four appearances … if his total rebounds from Oklahoma were added to his Notre Dame totals, would rank sixth all-time in Notre Dame history with 1,040 rebounds … was just three points shy (997) of scoring 1,000 points in his two-year Notre Dame career … a powerful post presence and slam dunk specialist, Humphrey is still remembered for shattering a fiberglass backboard on a rebound dunk during practice in November of 2000 … has a twin sister, Robyn, who also started college at Oklahoma and transferred to Notre Dame … spent time in the summer pro leagues for the Orlando Magic (2002), Memphis Grizzlies (2003, 2004) and Golden State Warriors (2006) … also spent some time on the Minnesota Timberwolves preseason camp in 2006 and the Los Angeles Clippers roster during the 2006 season … the program will welcome Ryan’s wife, RaSheda and his sons, Ryan and Rylan to the Notre Dame Basketball Family.