Notre Dame Basketball: Mike Brey says Irish team needs to get ‘older and tougher’
By Ben Belden
Notre Dame basketball head coach Mike Brey took to the Marching to Madness Podcast for an August chat about everything college basketball.
For Notre Dame basketball coach Mike Brey, creating a culture and atmosphere of toughness has been a large part of his coaching the Fighting Irish over the past 18 seasons. Brey’s teams are typically fundamentally sound and have a veteran approach to the game.
That approach comes from Brey’s desire to get old and stay old–in other words, Brey recruits solid, four-year players to South Bend, in hopes that he, the coaching staff, and the University can mold players into mentally tough basketball players and young men.
That development, though, doesn’t happen overnight. The Irish saw that last season, as Notre Dame fielded the youngest team Brey has coached in recent memory.
Recently, Brey was a guest on the Marching to Madness Podcast and touched on the fact that the goal of this offseason was to help his team get “older and tougher.” He cited Notre Dame’s new state-of-the-art practice facility and the willingness of Notre Dame basketball alumni to return to South Bend as reasons why the Irish will do just that.
Brey mentioned how the new facilities at Notre Dame will benefit the Irish moving forward: “Now that we have this new practice facility, which is just state of the art, our pro guys now want to come back more because our facilities are just so much better for them to work out and rehab in.” He went on to say that “it was great because they worked out against our current team, as we both know is young and developing.”
In short, playing against pro talent every day helped the current Irish players to develop that toughness.
Brey went on to elaborate about the new facilities, navigating injuries, revitalizing TJ Gibbs, and much in regard to Notre Dame and college basketball, in general.
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The Irish are poised to have a very nice, resurgent year in the 2019-2020 season. As Brey pointed out, “Our league loses some men.” In the ACC, 13 out of the 15 all-conference players are gone. The two that remain: Notre Dame’s John Mooney and Louisville’s Jordan Nwora.