The Maryland job is not as good as the Notre Dame job, all things being equal. But he is from there, so who knows.
Brad Stevens would leave Butler, but not for Notre Dame. I think he would take one of the Big-5 jobs, should one become available (UNC, Kentucky, UCLA, Duke or Kansas). I also think he would have to consider the Indiana job. But Notre Dame is not on that level as a basketball job.
Disclaimer: I am not really a ND basketball fan. I don't root against them, but my opinion that Maryland isn't as good of a job as Notre Dame at this point is not because I'm a ND fanatic. I just think Maryland is a middle-tier program in the ACC, and the ACC is probably the 5th best basketball conference now. I'd rather be in at a good Big East program than a middling ACC program.
I have to completely disagree.
If you look directly at the comparison between just the jobs, ND Basketball Coach vs. Maryland basketball coach, the Maryland position is a much better situation.
For one, just look at the recruiting ranks of the players brought in. Gary Williams was notorious (by Maryland fans) for being a poor recruiter, yet looking at the players brought in, he still was still ahead of most players we brought in (according to most recruiting sites). Like it or not, basketball recruiting is TOTALLY different from football, where the elite of the elite look for ways OUT of college in one year, and not a second past. Notre Dame is never going to be that place, but Maryland could be.
To win at Notre Dame, as much as most fans dislike hearing, you're going to need the perfect storm of upperclassmen. Face it, 1 and done players aren't coming to South Bend. But at Maryland? You can get those one and done guys, the types that Mike Brey has never had the ability (read: Oppertunity) to recruit.
Couple that with the idea that Maryland is a "Basketball first" school that, on the outside, will let you slide as long as you're respectable, and it seems like a win-win. Place 3rd in the ACC with a respectable showing in the conference tourny and a win or two in the big dance, it's a winner. In South Bend, put together a top 25 season with a group no one expected much from, finish the regular season in the Top 10, and have your job get called into question.
As Mike Brey looking at it, you're program is now second fiddle to no one at Maryland, you can recruit a new breed of player that you couldn't at Notre Dame, yet it doesn't seem like the fan base is near as punishing as the one in South Bend. Plus, with his personal ties, I wouldn't be shocked in the least to see him go.
And if that happens, I'll predict it now, ND fans will WISH, for the next 5-6 years, the Brey was still the coach. As much belly-aching that goes on, in today's basketball climate, he does one hell of a job.
Of course, I've had quite a few "Cinco De Mayo" drinks, so I could be wrong.
