Mike Brey still remembers a reporter's question after Notre Dame hired him in 2000 as its basketball coach.
"First question was, 'Is this a job you want to stay at? If you get it going, are you going to leave?' " Brey recalled. "My answer was, 'My god, first of all, I want to do well enough to not get fired.' But, boy, if this could be your last coaching job, it would be awesome."
The program was searching for footing after Matt Doherty's quick departure for North Carolina after one season in South Bend. Many wondered if the Irish also would serve as a stepping-stone for Brey, a former Duke assistant and head coach at Delaware considered an up-and-comer in the industry at age 41.
When reporters stopped by his office, he would take his Duke championship rings from his desk drawer and jokingly offer them away, a shtick to show he wanted to win his own with the Irish.
Brey has since become a cornerstone not only in Notre Dame athletics, but also in college basketball. When he took over, the Irish hadn't been to an NCAA Tournament in a decade. Tumbleweeds would have looked appropriate rolling through the Joyce Center, with many of its multicolored, 1970s-style cushioned seats wrapped in duct tape.
Brey, the self-described "loosest coach in America," infused the Irish with new energy and success. They have been to 12 NCAA Tournaments in his tenure, advancing to the Elite Eight in 2015 and 2016 and winning the 2015 ACC tournament in just their second season of membership.
With a victory Saturday against Georgia Tech, Brey would match Irish hoops icon Digger Phelps (1971-91) with 393 wins at Notre Dame. Two more victories will cement his legacy as the winningest coach in program history.
"I just thought it was a destination place," said Brey, 58, who called Phelps a "good friend." "It was one of those things where, if you can get it going, it's one of those places you can retire at. It's really played out that way. It's humbling."
In an era of cynicism in college basketball, especially amid an FBI investigation into several major programs for bribery and other corruption charges, Brey provides an antidote of happiness. In an impromptu moment after the Irish won the Maui Invitational in November, a shirtless Brey jubilantly bounded into the locker room with a lei around his neck and flexed for his players.
Is anyone in America having a better time at work?
"He's the ultimate ambassador for the sport, and for us," Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick said. "I can't tell you the number of people I hear from (saying), 'Hey, I love what your coach does,' or, 'I wish more coaches were like him.' In the current debate about what's going on in college athletics, and college basketball in particular, he has never been seen as more of a representative of how it should be done."
