Longtime Notre Dame Basketball Assistant Rod Balanis Taking Job At Howard
Mike Brey’s longest-tenured assistant is moving on.
Rod Balanis is headed to Howard as the associate head coach, per a report from Yahoo! Sports’ Pete Thamel. He has served on Notre Dame’s staff in various capacities for all 21 seasons of Brey’s time as the Irish’s head coach. He moved into the director of basketball operations role this offseason after six years as the associate head coach.
At Howard, Balanis reunites with former high school teammate and Bison head coach Kenny Blakeney. The two played together at DeMatha Catholic outside Washington, D.C. Brey also coached Blakeney when he was an assistant at Duke in the 1990s.
Balanis’ original role at Notre Dame was coordinator of basketball operations. He was elevated to assistant coach in 2003 and associate head coach in 2016. His move back to an operations role this year came as part of Brey’s staff shakeup after a fourth straight year without an NCAA Tournament appearance.
Notre Dame went 11-15 and 7-11 in the ACC, ending its season with a 101-59 ACC tournament loss to North Carolina. The Irish’s defensive efficiency ranking of 203rd was their worst in the 20-year KenPom era.
Brey decided he needed a new defensive voice in the building. He hired Dayton associate head coach and twice-former Irish assistant Anthony Solomon to the same position this spring, placing him in charge of the defense. He made another staff addition by hiring Siena assistant and ex-Notre Dame guard Antoni Wyche in June.
With just one of the three assistant spots open, though, Brey needed to create space. The solution was Balanis’ move to director of basketball operations — replacing Harold Swanagan, who shifted to an athletic administration position this year. Notre Dame will attempt to fill Balanis’ vacated spot before the season.
After two-plus decades together, Brey and Balanis will coach against each other this season when Notre Dame visits Howard in January 2022. The game was supposed to take place last year, but was canceled due to COVID-19 complications.
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