Interview with Mike Brey

[NDinFL]

Brad Stevens has coached for 5 years at Butler. He has had two great years, two okay years with an exit in the tourney in the 1st and 2nd round. This year he has had a pretty down year for being in the HORIZON Conference. They are not even projected to make the tourney this year.

So after this year will determine how good he really is, if he doesn't get hired somewhere else. But he has two great years, but even last year they should have been beat by PITT in the second round but some crazy events happened and they went on a run.

He may be a "great" coach but any coach could playing in a weaker league and having some luck in the tourney. I cheered for them throughout the tourney I won't lie but I never thought they were the better team or better coached team on the floor.

Took the words right from my mouth.

To say Stevens is better than Brey isn't accurate.

Conference talent level makes ALL the difference in this comparison.

 

[Patulski]

Brey has built his team around a bunch of slow, nonathletic jump shooters. This works for him at the Purcell Pavillion, which is a difficult place to shoot if you have not played there a lot. I say this, having played there 10 times. Unfortunately, on the road those non athletic jump shooters' shooting percentages decline rapidly, and we get pounded by more athletic teams.

I expect us to lose in the first round. Again.

 

[Patulski]

Took the words right from my mouth.

To say Stevens is better than Brey isn't accurate.

Conference talent level makes ALL the difference in this comparison.

This is absurd. Brey hasn't -and will never- coach a Final Four team. Stevens has already done it, twice. You don't get to a Final Four with luck. You get there by peaking at the right time, and beating the competition. UCONN last year being a prime example.

 

[CarrollVermin]

Brey has built his team around a bunch of slow, nonathletic jump shooters. This works for him at the Purcell Pavillion, which is a difficult place to shoot if you have not played there a lot. I say this, having played there 10 times. Unfortunately, on the road those non athletic jump shooters' shooting percentages decline rapidly, and we get pounded by more athletic teams.

I expect us to lose in the first round. Again.

I tend to agree with this assessment and feel that it is accurate of the talent that we put on the court. While I feel that Brey has done a great job of coaching them, putting them in the right position to win games, I have never felt that this team can compete on a national level away from home.

Georgetown, St. John's, heck even Georgia exposed this. ND does not deal well with long, athletic athletes and until he starts to recruit at a higher level, with more physical, gifted athletes, the program will struggle to win the Big East and may not get out of the second round.

 

[JD Irish]

You need to go to games before you criticize Brey. The arena was half empty for just about every game. The Syracuse and Marquette games were attendance anomalies.

My point is the guy gets absolutely no support from anyone, even including fans. The administration doesn't care at all--AT ALL--about whether he ever gets to the final four. In last week's senior game against Providence when ND was inducting Adrian Dantley into the ring of honor, president Jenkins referred to him as "this player"--the guy completely forgot his name, and Jenkins went to ND as a student.

I don't think anyone else could win here, I really don't. I genuinely think Brey is the best coach in the NCAA.

 

[CTIDANDREW]

Uhh because the stars talk about player development. Good coaches can do a lot with less while bad coaches waste 5 stars. This season was a rebuilding year which is normal for teams who lose 2 players surprisingly early. Stevens did a great job with this team with all teams considered, and next year's team should be pretty great again.

I mean if you want to look at Player Development Mike Brey coached two BE players of the years in Ben Hans, and Luke Harangody ( Ben was a 2 star, Luke a 3 star according to rivals.)

And if going 20-14(11-7) in a mediocre conference is a great season for him no wonder you think he is God.

Mike Brey went 22-10 (13-5) in arguably the hardest conference in the country. That is with a team that had one returning starter who was a role player on last years team.

To say Mike Brey is not on Stevens level is absurd, but everyone is entitled to their opinion.

 

[NDinFL]

I mean if you want to look at Player Development Mike Brey coached two BE players of the years in Ben Hans, and Luke Harangody ( Ben was a 2 star, Luke a 3 star according to rivals.)

And if going 20-14(11-7) in a mediocre conference is a great season for him no wonder you think he is God.

Mike Brey went 22-10 (13-5) in arguably the hardest conference in the country. That is with a team that had one returning starter who was a role player on last years team.

To say Mike Brey is not on Stevens level is absurd, but everyone is entitled to their opinion.

Bingo

 

[NoJusticeNoPeace]

I mean if you want to look at Player Development Mike Brey coached two BE players of the years in Ben Hans, and Luke Harangody ( Ben was a 2 star, Luke a 3 star according to rivals.)

And if going 20-14(11-7) in a mediocre conference is a great season for him no wonder you think he is God.

Mike Brey went 22-10 (13-5) in arguably the hardest conference in the country. That is with a team that had one returning starter who was a role player on last years team.

To say Mike Brey is not on Stevens level is absurd, but everyone is entitled to their opinion.

Hardest conference in the country is the Big Ten, but that's a different argument. It was a good season with all things considered after everyone good from last year's team left and it was led by sophomores and freshmen. This was the expected season. Teams have down years.

How is Mike Brey on Brad Stevens' level? Stevens has 2 Final Four appearances in which they beat both the #1 and #2 seeds. He has the most wins in the first 5 years of any coaches' career. Brey hasn't made a Sweet Sixteen in almost 10 years. He's never even won a conference tournament. He has no postseason success. There's a reason why every school goes after Stevens and Brey comes after that. You are literally the only person who would put Mike Brey who has zero postseason success on the level of the 31 year old who took a mid-major to 2 national championship games.

 

[NDinFL]

Hardest conference in the country is the Big Ten, but that's a different argument. It was a good season with all things considered after everyone good from last year's team left and it was led by sophomores and freshmen. This was the expected season. Teams have down years.

How is Mike Brey on Brad Stevens' level? Stevens has 2 Final Four appearances in which they beat both the #1 and #2 seeds. He has the most wins in the first 5 years of any coaches' career. Brey hasn't made a Sweet Sixteen in almost 10 years. He's never even won a conference tournament. He has no postseason success. There's a reason why every school goes after Stevens and Brey comes after that. You are literally the only person who would put Mike Brey who has zero postseason success on the level of the 31 year old who took a mid-major to 2 national championship games.

I won't argue these points, my only comment is..

If you gauge a coach by how many Final Four's they've been to, then how many Cinderella stories from the tourney truly have a better coach, meaning teams like George Mason, etc...

 

[CTIDANDREW]

Hardest conference in the country is the Big Ten, but that's a different argument. It was a good season with all things considered after everyone good from last year's team left and it was led by sophomores and freshmen. This was the expected season. Teams have down years.

How is Mike Brey on Brad Stevens' level? Stevens has 2 Final Four appearances in which they beat both the #1 and #2 seeds. He has the most wins in the first 5 years of any coaches' career. Brey hasn't made a Sweet Sixteen in almost 10 years. He's never even won a conference tournament. He has no postseason success. There's a reason why every school goes after Stevens and Brey comes after that. You are literally the only person who would put Mike Brey who has zero postseason success on the level of the 31 year old who took a mid-major to 2 national championship games.

This convo is going nowhere, you dont want to give Brey any credit for taking over a dying program and making them into a consensus top 25 program in one of the best conferences in basketball. Stevens is a great coach but if Nored doesn't make the three vs Murray State two years ago, and Gilbert Brown makes a foul shot and Nasir Robinson doesn't make very stupid play. He would just be another good coach.

 

[anarin]

Hardest conference in the country is the Big Ten, but that's a different argument. It was a good season with all things considered after everyone good from last year's team left and it was led by sophomores and freshmen. This was the expected season. Teams have down years.

How is Mike Brey on Brad Stevens' level? Stevens has 2 Final Four appearances in which they beat both the #1 and #2 seeds. He has the most wins in the first 5 years of any coaches' career. Brey hasn't made a Sweet Sixteen in almost 10 years. He's never even won a conference tournament. He has no postseason success. There's a reason why every school goes after Stevens and Brey comes after that. You are literally the only person who would put Mike Brey who has zero postseason success on the level of the 31 year old who took a mid-major to 2 national championship games.

Guess thats why he put "Mike Brey went 22-10 (13-5) in arguably the hardest conference in the country."

And everyone knows that its the talent on the court that makes/breaks the coach in basketball. It is no where near the level of football when it comes to coaching up a kid. The year that Butler went to the championship; Gordon Hayward and Shelvin Mack led the USA team to a gold medal during the off-season. And guess what? They are in the NBA now.

Also, they are 11-7 this season in the VAUNTED Horizon league. Give me a break and get of this coach's nuts.

He's been good early in his career, but to say that Brey isn't on his level is crazy talk.

 

[NoJusticeNoPeace]

I won't argue these points, my only comment is..

If you gauge a coach by how many Final Four's they've been to, then how many Cinderella stories from the tourney truly have a better coach, meaning teams like George Mason, etc...

2 times, especially with a team that was an 8 seed, is a trend. I wish ND would schedule Butler in a home-and-home. Maybe they could break their losing streak against us.

 

[NDinFL]

2 times, especially with a team that was an 8 seed, is a trend. I wish ND would schedule Butler in a home-and-home. Maybe they could break their losing streak against us.

Openly rooting for Butler to beat ND.

Classy.

 

[BlackburnB]

In his interview Mike seems to me too tired and maybe that influenced on his answers because I cannot agree with his point of view on many things.

 

[RDU Irish]

"Mock in March"

How about clown shoes and a red nose in March? We plain don't win when it is all on the line. I picked us to lose first round because I can't remember the last time we showed up to play in the NCAAs. Big East tourney isn't much better, when is the last time we won two big east tourney games?

 

[Patulski]

You need to go to games before you criticize Brey. The arena was half empty for just about every game. The Syracuse and Marquette games were attendance anomalies.

My point is the guy gets absolutely no support from anyone, even including fans. The administration doesn't care at all--AT ALL--about whether he ever gets to the final four. In last week's senior game against Providence when ND was inducting Adrian Dantley into the ring of honor, president Jenkins referred to him as "this player"--the guy completely forgot his name, and Jenkins went to ND as a student.

I don't think anyone else could win here, I really don't. I genuinely think Brey is the best coach in the NCAA.

All true. The worst part is that the students don't care. This was truly an overachieving team that played very well at home. The students could have cared less. ND is now basically a Hedge Fund sitting inside an upper crust educational institution, where they were once a middle class school with middle class values.

 

[DillonHall]

All true. The worst part is that the students don't care. This was truly an overachieving team that played very well at home. The students could have cared less. ND is now basically a Hedge Fund sitting inside an upper crust educational institution, where they were once a middle class school with middle class values.

I'd argue that most sports fans are apathetic toward college basketball until March. Compounding the problem at ND, it's hard to care when you know how the season's going to end; Brey simply can't win in the tournament.

 

[jimmymac]

All true. The worst part is that the students don't care. This was truly an overachieving team that played very well at home. The students could have cared less. ND is now basically a Hedge Fund sitting inside an upper crust educational institution, where they were once a middle class school with middle class values.

Hey now, some of us on this board are students at ND. Before you start trashing the student body for "not caring", maybe you should be a little more knowledgeable. The student body likes seeing winning teams; the basketball team at the beginning of the season was not supposed to have success. We packed the stadium for Syracuse, and after that the stadium continued to be filled. Marquette. West Virginia. Providence. And a lot of basketball games occur during the school week- are you going to blame students for studying and staying in on a week night? I could really go off on the later part of your post as well, but I'll let you think what you what to think while I work my *** off at this school to get a degree and do good for myself in the world.

 

[gkIrish]

All true. The worst part is that the students don't care. This was truly an overachieving team that played very well at home. The students could have cared less. ND is now basically a Hedge Fund sitting inside an upper crust educational institution, where they were once a middle class school with middle class values.

This really pisses me off as well. I understand where you are coming from but you can't generalize the school like that. My parents make less combined than the tuition at Notre Dame per year. And I was a huge basketball fan while I was at school, and still am.

 

[returnofthemack]

All true. The worst part is that the students don't care. This was truly an overachieving team that played very well at home. The students could have cared less. ND is now basically a Hedge Fund sitting inside an upper crust educational institution, where they were once a middle class school with middle class values.

This is wrong on so many levels. The students absolutely care. There are plenty that don't care about bball, but I don't think I've ever seen a Big East game on the weekend where the student section wasn't mostly full. For any big game, I would get to the games 3 hours early to get good seats, often taking textbooks with me for tests I had the next day. So don't try to tell me or the many other students that would come early that we don't care. We're not Duke or UNC, we don't have a respectable bball history, and it's common knowledge on campus that the team will have an early exit from the tourney, and for these reasons, a lot of students don't buy the ticket booklets. And yet, for any big game, there lines form outside the entrance. ND students love winners. Throughout our lives, we've been winners on the field and in the classroom. It's easier to get behind a team that wins, but Brey gets as much support as he deserves. I don't know what game you guys went to where the student section was empty. If it was, it was either one of the atrocious non-conference games, or one of the scrub Big East teams during the school week.

As for the second allegation, I wish it were true. The amount of debt I am in could pay for an exotic supercar. Yes, there are rich kids at ND, but for the most part, you could never tell them apart from the other kids, and their mentality has nothing to do with their support of the teams. In a lot of cases, they're the biggest fans because their parents went to ND and became successful.

 

[returnofthemack]

You need to go to games before you criticize Brey. The arena was half empty for just about every game. The Syracuse and Marquette games were attendance anomalies.

My point is the guy gets absolutely no support from anyone, even including fans. The administration doesn't care at all--AT ALL--about whether he ever gets to the final four. In last week's senior game against Providence when ND was inducting Adrian Dantley into the ring of honor, president Jenkins referred to him as "this player"--the guy completely forgot his name, and Jenkins went to ND as a student.

I don't think anyone else could win here, I really don't. I genuinely think Brey is the best coach in the NCAA.

I don't understand what you're getting at by saying the administration doesn't care at all about whether he gets to the final four. If anything, that eases pressure on him. What's the administration supposed to do? They're not going to lower academic standards when they barely do that for ND football, and basketball has a drop-dead gorgeous arena in Purcell Pavilion.

As far as who else could win here, I'm fairly sure Brad Stevens would do quite well. It's not like he's fishing the same pool Calipari is, and he took them to two straight NCs. Brey is obviously a good coach. A bad coach could never take the "talent" we have to such heights in the Big East. But he consistently chokes in the tournament, usually against teams much worse than what we faced on a regular basis in the Big East, and that's an indisputable fact.