With Wednesday’s top-10 clash between Duke and Notre Dame quickly approaching, the game’s most important matchup may come on the sideline rather than on the court.
Fighting Irish head coach Mike Brey was hired by Mike Krzyzewski in 1987, leaving behind his role as assistant coach at the legendary DeMatha Catholic High School to take a spot on the Blue Devil bench. Eight years, six Final Fours and two national championships later, Brey decided to branch out to pursue a head coaching gig of his own and has now been at Notre Dame since 2000.
“[Notre Dame is] very unselfish, and that all just stems from who he is as a coach and obviously what he’s learned from coaching under Coach K,” Duke associate head Nate James said. “He’s been a guy that I’ve admired for some time.”
The Fighting Irish did not seem to be off to the strongest of starts this season when they dropped a thriller to Providence in the Hall of Fame Tip Off tournament. But Notre Dame slowly began to silence any doubters throughout the course of the next 16 games, as it now boasts a 19-2 ranking and a No. 8 ranking in the AP Poll.
The progression of junior Zach Auguste and sophomore V.J. Beachem—both have at least doubled their offensive production this season—paired with the continued success of Jerian Grant and Pat Connaughton have the Fighting Irish sitting as the No. 2 team in the conference.
“Coach Brey is an outstanding coach. He does a terrific job of recruiting and going after the player that fits his program and his style,” James said. “He does a phenomenal job of coaching them and bringing players in that when their sophomore, junior, senior years roll around, they’re big-time players.”
Grant is a redshirt senior and has been a double-digit scorer since his sophomore campaign, but it was not until this season that he has come on as a bona fide star. The Bowie, Md., native—who is also a DeMatha alum—missed the second half of the 2014 season due to an academic-related suspension. He was forced to watch from the stands as Notre Dame went from a 10-4 squad coming off an upset victory against then-No. 7 Duke to a 15-17 disappointment by season’s end.
But as with Grant, Brey would not let the 2014 portion of their season detract from his vision of the 2014-15 Fighting Irish.
“He’s been doing it for so long that he rarely gets rattled out there, and I think his personality and his style, it just goes well with his players,” James said. “They play with a level of confidence and comfort, he allows them to play their game.”
This season, Grant has come on strong, which has been great for Brey and Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish are off to their best start of Brey’s tenure, and Grant’s 17.1 points per game and 62.1 two-point field goal percentage have been the catalysts for an offense that ranks 10th in points per game at 81.9 and second with a 52.1 field goal percentage.
Grant is not the only senior on Brey’s roster that has made an impact. Connaughton is the team’s second leading scorer with 13.9 points per game, but it is on the boards where he dominates. Coming off a 2013-14 campaign in which he was the ACC’s leading defensive rebounder, Connaughton has continued to make the most of his 6-foot-5 frame, as he averages 8.3 rebounds per game.
“Coach Brey does such a phenomenal job with his program as a whole,” James said. “But whenever he has senior leadership, it’s really critical to your success as a program and [Grant and Connaughton] are two of the best.”
In the two teams’ sole meeting last year—the first since a Blue Devil win in the second round of the 2002 NCAA tournament—Notre Dame upset then-No. 7 Duke in South Bend, Ind., in what was the conference opener for both squads.
But just as it was with head coach Mike Krzyzewski’s 1,000th win Sunday, the Blue Devils are doing their best to focus solely on collecting their 18th win of the season.
“It’s a different team. We’re older and have some young players that have shown they can play and play at a high level, whether that be home or away,” James said. “We don’t talk about what happened last year.”
One thing James does not mind speaking about is the job Brey has done in South Bend.
James came to Duke the year after Brey departed to take over the program at Delaware in 1996. But the current Duke associate head coach has kept close tabs on the job Brey has done with the Fightin’ Blue Hens and Fighting Irish.
Although he used to be an avid fan of the Krzyzewski-mentored Notre Dame head coach, he makes it clear that all the cheering went out the window when the Fighting Irish became a conference opponent last season
“Before they joined the conference, I would root for them in the Big East,” James said. “But now they’re in the conference, so we do our best job that our guys are ready to compete with him. But there’s so much respect for Coach Brey and his program and what he’s done over the years.”
Amrith Ramkumar contributed reporting.
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