July 7, 2008
Notre Dame, Ind. – University of Notre Dame men’s basketball coach Mike Brey has signed a two-year contract extension to continue as head coach of the Fighting Irish through the 2014-15 campaign.
Brey, the 2007 and 2008 BIG EAST Coach of the Year, will begin his ninth season along the Irish sidelines in 2008-09. He has guided the Irish to five 20-win seasons during his eight-year tenure and 10 or more wins in BIG EAST play on five occasions. Brey owns a 167-86 (.662) record in eight seasons at Notre Dame and is 266-138 (.658) in 13 seasons as a head coach. Brey’s Irish teams have registered an 80-50 (.615) record in BIG EAST regular-season play and are 83-58 (.589) all-time including conference tournament action. Over the last 41 BIG EAST regular-season contests, Notre Dame has registered an impressive 30-11 (.732) mark over the last 41 BIG EAST regular-reason games.
In his first season as head coach, Brey guided the Irish to the 2001 BIG EAST West Division title. Notre Dame has advanced to the postseason all eight seasons under Brey, including NCAA tournament appearances in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2007 and 2008. In’03, Notre Dame advanced to the Sweet 16.
“As his peers have acknowledged by selecting him coach of the year the past two seasons, Mike has built one of the top men’s basketball programs in the BIG EAST Conference,” said Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., Notre Dame’s president. “His quiet confidence and class are a perfect fit for Notre Dame, and I am sure that we’ll enjoy still more success in coming years.”
Brey engineered one of the most successful campaigns in Notre Dame history in 2007-08 as he guided his team to a 25-8 record (the third most wins in school history) and a program-best 14-4 record in BIG EAST play. The Irish tied for second in the final BIG EAST regular-season standings after being chosen ninth in the Coaches’ Preseason Poll. The 25 wins were the most ever under Brey and most since the 1973-74 campaign when that Irish squad finished with a 26-3 mark.
“When I was named the head coach at Notre Dame my goal was to retire here,” said Brey. “I believe in the mission of this special place and it has been such a great fit for me and my family. I love the momentum of our program and the facility improvements that we are making at the Joyce Center. I am extremely thankful to Father Jenkins for his support of our program and greatly appreciate the confidence that he has in me.”
Selected by his conference coaching peers as the league’s Coach of the Year for the second straight year in 2008, Brey became just the third individual in BIG EAST Conference history to earn the honor in back-to-back seasons. Only Lou Carnesecca of St. John’s and P.J. Carlesimo of Seton Hall copped the award in consecutive seasons. Carnesecca was the recipient of in both 1985 and 1986 and Carlesimo was an honoree in 1988 and 1989.
The award also was the third coach-of-the-year honor for Brey during his 13-year career as he was named America East Co-Coach of the Year in 1997 when he served as head coach at the University of Delaware. Notre Dame has enjoyed unprecedented success in BIG EAST Conference play each of the last two seasons. After a 16-14 overall record and 6-10 league mark in 2005-06, the Irish finished 24-8 and 11-5 in the BIG EAST as Brey earned his first BIG EAST coach-of-the-year accolade. The 11 wins matched the most by an Irish team since 2000-01, his first season at the Irish helm.
The 6-10 BIG EAST mark in ’05-’06 has marked the only losing season for an Irish team under Brey in conference play during his eight-year tenure as Notre Dame started off with a 1-8 record.
The Irish made history this past season when they completed their second straight season undefeated at home. It marked the first time in the 40-year history of the Joyce Center that a Notre Dame team had been undefeated at home in consecutive campaigns and the first time in conference history that a BIG EAST team finished undefeated at home in consecutive seasons. The Irish finished out the ’07-’08 season 17-0 at home following an 18-0 mark in ’06-’07. Notre Dame owns a 37-game win streak at the Joyce Center heading into the upcoming the campaign – the second-longest active streak nationally. The Irish also have won 18 consecutive BIG EAST home games, a mark that is just two shy of the conference’s all-time home court win streak of 20 games held by Pittsburgh.
Brey has mentored two BIG EAST player-of-the-year honorees during his tenure — Troy Murphy in ’01 and Luke Harangody in ’08. He has had at least one player earn all-conference honors in each of his eight seasons and has mentored eight first-team all-BIG EAST selections.
Brey was named the recipient of the inaugural Skip Prosser award in ’08 and was elected to the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Board of Directors. Brey also serves as a member of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Rules Committee (he is in his second year of a three-year team) and has been a national board member of the Coaches vs. Cancer Council since February ’03. He received the CVC Champion Award in ’03 and was awarded a Notre Dame honorary monogram by the Monogram Club in ’06.