Notre Dame Basketball Notebook: Antoni Wyche Hired As Assistant Coach
Notre Dame basketball’s offseason staff retool has brought back another familiar name.
Mike Brey completed his assistant coaching overhaul Monday by hiring Siena assistant and former Irish guard Antoni Wyche to his staff, according to multiple reports. Wyche, 43, is a 1999 Notre Dame graduate and played 10 professional seasons, most of them overseas. He spent the last two seasons at Siena and was an assistant at Lehigh from 2009-19.
Wyche joins Anthony Solomon as new Notre Dame assistant hires this offseason. His arrival will move assistant Rod Balanis from associate head coach to an administrative role. He was reportedly in the mix to be the head coach at Albany this spring.
Solomon returns for his third stint with the program and will coach the Irish’s defense. He was named the associate head coach and replaced Scott Martin, who was elevated to an interim assistant role last season after the September 2020 departure of Ryan Ayers. Brey has placed him in charge of running Notre Dame’s defense.
Wyche, though, has some defensive acumen as well. He served as the defensive coordinator and recruiting coordinator in his two seasons at Siena. In 2019-20, he was on staff for the Saints’ Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference regular-season championship.
At Lehigh, Wyche was involved in recruiting and developing current Portland Trail Blazers guard and NBA All-Star C.J. McCollum. He was also with the Mountain Hawks for their upset of No. 2 seed Duke in the 2012 NCAA Tournament.
Wyche averaged 7.6 points per game in his Notre Dame career, playing for head coach John MacLeod. He was a captain as a senior in 1998-99 and averaged 11.6 points per game. His professional career included stops in Mexico, Japan, Finland and Macedonia.
ACC/Big Ten Challenge Matchup Set
Notre Dame’s 2021 ACC/Big Ten Challenge opponent is reportedly finalized.
The Irish will play at Illinois on Nov. 29, the conferences announced Monday. The two teams last met in 2018 in South Bend, a 76-74 Notre Dame victory, which stands as the Irish’s most recent win in the annual event.
Notre Dame is 4-4 in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge since joining the ACC prior to the 2013-14 season. It lost at home to Ohio State 90-85 in the 2020 challenge.
Notre Dame’s non-conference schedule has eight of 11 games filled. The Irish will play three times in the Maui Invitational Nov. 22-24, play at Illinois, host Kentucky Dec. 11, face Indiana in the neutral-site Crossroads Classic Dec. 18, host Western Michigan Dec. 20 and travel to Howard in January 2022.
Opponents for the Maui Invitational are still to be announced. Notre Dame will play three of Butler, Division II Chaminade, Houston, Oregon, Saint Mary’s, Texas A&M and Wisconsin.
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