Report: Notre Dame’s Rod Balanis A Candidate For D-I Head Coach Opening
Mike Brey’s longest-tenured assistant is reportedly in the mix for a Division I head coaching gig.
Rod Balanis, who has been with Brey for all 20 seasons of his Notre Dame tenure, is one of four candidates to be the next head coach at Green Bay, per Stadium’s Jeff Goodman.
Balanis has served as Notre Dame’s associate head coach since 2016-17 and has been an assistant since 2003. He was one of Brey’s first hires in July 2000 and spent his first three years as coordinator of basketball operations.
Notre Dame is 417-221 (.654) under Brey, with Balanis a presence through it all.
Balanis’ ties with Brey go back to DeMantha Catholic High School in Maryland in the 1980s. Each is an alumus of the school, and Brey was an assistant basketball coach there during Balanis’ playing days. Balanis played for Georgia Tech from 1990-94, spent a year playing professionally in Greece and was an assistant at Colgate from 1996-2000 before coming to Notre Dame.
Balanis’ father, George, was the head coach at William & Mary from 1974-77.
The three other names in consideration for Green Bay's job, per Goodman, are Virginia assistant Brad Soderberg, Bradley assistant Jimmie Foster and Wheeling University (Division II) head coach Will Ryan, the son of former Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan.
Green Bay dismissed former head coach Linc Darner in May. He was 92-80 (51-39 Horizon League) in five seasons and went to the NCAA Tournament in 2016. Green Bay began playing as a Division I member since 1981 and has reached five NCAA Tournaments. Four of those came in the 1990s.
The Phoenix went to the NIT in 2014 and 2015 under current Bradley head coach Brian Wardle. They went 17-16 and 11-7 in conference games in 2019-20.
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