NCAA Basketball: Way-too-early hot seat power rankings for 2021-22
8. Mike Brey
The latter half of the 2010s were not kind to Mike Brey, whose first 13 seasons at Notre Dame yielded a postseason bid each year – nine in the NCAA Tournament, and four in the NIT. A brief losing campaign in 2013-14 was an unfortunate precursor, as three straight NCAA Tournament berths – which included two Elite Eight runs – from 2014 to 2017 would mark the end of the Irish’s success in the NCAA Tournament.
Since reaching the NIT in 2017-18, the Fighting Irish have yet to reach the postseason – and instead, both the 2018-19 and 2020-21 campaigns yielded losing records and bottom-three finishes in the ACC. The former saw Notre Dame record its lowest conference win total ever, between both the ACC and Big East, at 3-15.
This past season saw Notre Dame fight impressively against a load of marquee teams, with their first nine losses coming to teams that, at some point throughout the season, had been nationally ranked – and four of those games were decided by single-digits. The Fighting Irish could not string together any actual success, however, dropping five of their last seven games – including a bad loss at Boston College, and nearly falling to Wake Forest in the opening round of the ACC Tournament.
While it appears as if Notre Dame vocally has Mike Brey’s back moving forward, it is worth keeping the Fighting Irish in the spotlight when it comes to the hot seat. With leading scorer Prentiss Hubb slated to return for another season, the Fighting Irish should be prepped to roll it back with nearly everyone returning – and will also be bringing in a pair of two three-star commits and a double-digit scoring transfer from Yale in Paul Atkinson.
Brey is more than likely a case of a coach having at least another year or two before administration finally considers making a decision – and, with his prior success, it is very much likely that he could return Notre Dame to the postseason. But the lack of a deep postseason run in nearly five years leaves much to be desired, and time will tell if the Fighting Irish may finally need a new identity at head coach in the ACC.