Notre Dame Basketball: 8 early candidates to replace head coach Mike Brey

Ryan Humphrey

When Brian Kelly left the Notre Dame football program for LSU, there were a number of directions the Fighting Irish could have gone, but the athletic department stuck with someone they already knew, promoting Marcus Freeman to the top job. While it remains to be seen if this was a smart hire, the basketball program could easily make a very similar move in bringing Humphrey back home.

A native of Tulsa, Humphrey played his college ball at Oklahoma and Notre Dame, actually spending Brey’s first two seasons on the roster. A 1st round draft pick of the Utah Jazz, he had a 12-year professional playing career that included parts of three seasons in the NBA and a number of international teams. His coaching career began on Brey’s staff at Notre Dame seven years ago, and he only just left this past summer to join Porter Moser’s staff at Oklahoma, the other school he played for.

Clearly, Humphrey has no head coaching experience, and these past months with the Sooners have been his only non-Notre Dame experience in coaching at any level. He’s relatively raw and might not be ready for an ACC head coaching job, but he knows the program and they know him. It’s not a move that would wow anyone, but there are far worse choices that the Fighting Irish could make.