When Duke opens ACC play on the road against Notre Dame Saturday, the matchup will pit Fighting Irish head coach Mike Brey against his former team. Before becoming the head coach at Notre Dame in 2000, Brey was an assistant for Mike Krzyzewski from 1987-95.
One of the players Brey coached was current Duke associate head coach Steve Wojciechowski, who began his career with the Blue Devils in 1994. Nearly two decades later, Brey took the time to laud Wojciechowski for his coaching ability in his weekly press conference, and said his former player could be making the jump to the head coaching ranks sooner than people think.
"Steve is a head coach. He is really ready," Brey said. "Somebody is going to get a really good head coach here, probably this spring. I loved him as a player, loved him as a person, certainly he has a lot of input in that program right now."
Duke associate head coaches have been highly coveted for head coaching jobs in recent years. Stanford hired away Johnny Dawkins in 2008, and Dawkins was replaced by Chris Collins, who recently began his first season as the head coach at Northwestern. Whether or not Wojciechowski becomes the next target for collegiate programs searching for a head coach next season remains to be seen, but Brey said that if and when that day does come, any program that took a chance on Wojciechowski wouldn't be disappointed.
"I think he's destined to become a head coach very soon, and some AD is going to look real good when they hire Steve," he said.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.