Former Notre Dame Guard Martin Ingelsby Making His Mark As A Head Coach
After spending all but 10 months of his adult life either competing, studying or working at Notre Dame, former basketball captain turned assistant coach Martin Ingelsby was comfortable at home but knew it was time to leave.
Ingelsby’s 17-year run at Notre Dame as a point guard, a basketball operations director and an assistant coach — 14 of those years served under Irish head coach Mike Brey — ended in May 2016 when Ingelsby accepted the head coaching position at Delaware.
“It was the right time. I was ready to be a head coach and lead a program,” Ingelsby said. “I was so excited to be a head coach, but you had such strong relationships and friendships at Notre Dame, it wasn’t easy to leave.”
Ingelsby’s relocation decision was clouded further because during his final two seasons coaching at Notre Dame, the Irish twice played for a Final Four berth (’15 and ’16) and won the 2015 ACC Tournament championship.
“Those last couple of years were so fun,” Ingelsby, 41, recalled. “In part, because we were having success, but also through the relationships you develop with our student-athletes.”
Ingelsby The Player
Ingelsby arrived at Notre Dame in 1997 as a self-assured 18-year-old point guard from Archbishop Carroll High School out of the powerful Philadelphia Catholic League.
Growing up a Catholic kid and an Irish football fan in Philly, Ingelsby accepting his full-ride scholarship to Notre Dame seemed like a storybook moment. The ensuing chapters didn’t always follow script.
Considering that only four men have coached Notre Dame men’s basketball in the last 49 years, it’s a novelty to think that Ingelsby played for three of the four during his Irish career.
A freshman starter under head coach John MacLeod in 1997-98, Ingelsby earned Big East All-Rookie Team honors. Playing alongside Troy Murphy, David Graves, Harold Swanagan and other notable alumni, Ingelsby averaged 8.2 points, 4.2 assists and 1.9 rebounds per game as a sophomore in 1998-99, MacLeod’s last season.
Matt Doherty made a one-year fly-by as Irish head coach when Ingelsby was a junior in 1999-2000 before Brey took the job in 2000.
“There was some uncertainty, who knows?” Ingelsby said in anticipation of meeting Brey for the first time. “This is going to be your third coach in three years.”
As two talented high school point guards from the basketball-crazed I-95 corridor in and around Washington, D.C., Brey and Ingelsby hit it off face-to-face in Philly over common experiences, future plans and Uno Pizza.
“[Brey] really invested in me before my senior season as a leader, a captain and a point guard,” Ingelsby said. “That meant so much at the time. Mike is a guy that just has our student-athletes’ best interest at heart.
“I am not where I am without Mike and the relationship we developed.”
Playing only one year under Brey as a senior in 2000-01, Ingelsby logged 193 assists which still ties for seventh all time in a single season. Ingelsby’s 13 assists against Rutgers that year ties for third most in a single game.
Ingelsby The Coach
Notre Dame playing career over and degree in hand, Ingelsby briefly considered playing professionally but instead moved into coaching.
Coached in high school by his father, Tom — a second-round NBA pick in 1973 out of Villanova — the younger Ingelsby became the quintessential coach’s son, blending a combination of skill, smarts, savvy and leadership.
“Martin Ingelsby has that ‘it’ factor that can’t be taught,” said Brey, who named Ingelsby and Murphy co-captains of his first Irish team in 2000. “Martin is a true educator that young people believe in.”
Among those believers is former two-time Irish captain Pat Connaughton (2011-15), who parlayed his time at Notre Dame working under Ingelsby into a solid backup role with the Milwaukee Bucks of the NBA.
“Coach Ingelsby knew how to connect with players while also understanding how to implement game plans at a high level,” Connaughton said. “I think it’s important to have both abilities to be a successful head coach, and he’s shown that.”
Ingelsby’s only time away from Notre Dame between 1997 and 2016 came during a 10-month stint in 2002 when he worked as an assistant coach at Wagner College.
Accepting a job offer from Brey, Ingelsby returned to his roots after one season at Wagner and ended up staying at Notre Dame for the next 13 years — the first six working in basketball operations, that last seven as an assistant coach.
Ingelsby met his wife, Colleen, at Notre Dame. They were married on campus. Three of their four children were born in South Bend, Ind. Rocco’s Pizza was a way of life.
“All I knew was Notre Dame,” Ingelsby insisted. “I have such a great affinity for that place. It was such a great area to raise a family.”
Starting From Scratch
Basketball acumen, fierce competitiveness, a winning edge, big-program experience and proven recruiting skills made Martin Ingelsby the leading candidate to land the Delaware job when the previous coach was fired in mid-March 2016.
Ingelsby’s hiring provided little surprise. The massive fix-it list he was handed on day one at his new job did.
Administrative turnover and hiring delays left Delaware without an athletics director for nearly five months and without a basketball coach for 67 days.
By the time Christine Rawak became the new Delaware AD on May 13, 2016, and hired Ingelsby later that month, two important basketball recruiting periods were gone, chaos ruled, the cupboards were bare and Ingelsby was left with a nine-player roster, five of which had already asked for their release to transfer from a program that went 7-23 the previous season.
“Guys were leaving, guys were transferring, it was a lot to pull together,” Ingelsby said of the immediate challenges he faced. “You’re at a place like Notre Dame for so long, where things are done the right way and taken care of, it was eye-opening — but we had to start somewhere.”
Culture shock, a player shortage and no overnight solutions left Ingelsby overwhelmed at times.
“I’d go home some nights and have a glass of wine with my wife and say, ‘What the hell did we get ourselves into?’” Ingelsby explained.
Delaware’s four-year improvement under Ingelsby hasn’t been overly dramatic, but it has been incrementally impressive.
Following the seven wins under the previous coach in 2015-16, Ingelsby jumped to 13 victories as a rookie coach in 2016-17; then to 14 in 2017-18; then to 17 in 2018-19; and most recently, 22 wins in 2019-20.
“You’re trying to take the framework and the blueprint for how you did it at Notre Dame and then apply it here, but it takes time,” Ingelsby said. “We’ve made some good progress. It hasn’t been easy, but we’ve gotten to a good space.”
And might the positive momentum and steady turnaround at Delaware someday bring him back again to Notre Dame when Brey retires?
“Are you kidding me?” said Ingelsby, laughing off the notion. “Those would be big shoes to fill.”
----
• Talk about it inside Rockne’s Roundtable
• Watch our videos and subscribe to our YouTube channel
• Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes
• Learn more about our print and digital publication, Blue & Gold Illustrated.
• Follow us on Twitter: @BGINews, @BGI_LouSomogyi, @BGI_MikeSinger, @PatrickEngel_, @ToddBurlage and @AndrewMentock.
• Like us on Facebook.