Mike Brey Recalls Memories Of Abrupt And Unforeseen End to 2019-20 Season
In nearly 40 years coaching, Mike Brey still finds himself encountering firsts.
The latest ones, though, were not exactly imaginable until COVID-19 became a life-altering reality.
Speaking in an appearance on Notre Dame’s “The Fight” fundraiser Tuesday, Notre Dame’s basketball coach recalled informing his team its season was over. They were on the way to a March 12 afternoon shootaround prior to playing Virginia in the ACC Tournament, one day removed from beating Boston College in their first game of the postseason.
Five minutes before they arrived, an assistant athletics director told Brey the conference told Florida State and Clemson – who were preparing to open the day’s games – to leave the floor. The ACC Tournament was canceled. Brey told the bus driver to turn around and head back to the team hotel.
He delivered his first: news about an out-of-control end to their season
“We would have at least been an NIT team,” Brey said. “We were all in shock. I have never given a speech on the back of the bus like that.
“I’ll never forget body language of our three seniors, T.J. Gibbs, Rex Pflueger and Johnny Mooney. They slugged.”
Instead of a few more games, the seniors will venture into the professional basketball world. All want to play at some level, Brey said. How soon those opportunities become available is up in the air.
Meantime, all of them graduated. Pflueger earned his MBA after finishing Notre Dame’s accelerated program.
“I use him as an example with our younger players,” Brey said. “He got everything out of his Notre Dame experience.”
Brey’s attention has turned to his current team, which returned seven players and welcomes four newcomers. The team is spread out across the country and convenes once per week on Zoom with Brey and his staff.
“They need it,” Brey said. “They’re struggling. They missed two months of spring workouts and finishing up academically on campus. … I’m pretty sure they’ll miss the full summer. I’m trying to keep them upbeat and talking about the season.
“I’m looking at them up there on the screen, I miss them.”
Two of those four new faces committed in April without having visited campus: three-star wing Tony Sanders Jr. and Santa Clara transfer guard Trey Wertz. Wertz is the third transfer Notre Dame has taken in the last four offseasons, joining Stanford guard Cormac Ryan, who committed last year, and former Connecticut forward Juwan Durham, who Notre Dame picked up in 2017.
A vote on immediate eligibility for transfers coming later this month, and it is gaining momentum to pass at some point. Brey sees it as accelerating the transfer churn and further highlighting the important of recruiting an avenue that has been helpful to him in recent years.
“You talk about the transfer situation, it’s almost a rite of passage,” Brey said. “It’s another pool of players to pick from. I live by this theme: you have to get them, you have to keep them and you have to coach them. It’s on me to retain my group. Overall we haven’t lost a lot of guys to transfer.”
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