Notre Dame's Mike Brey Will Step Away at End of 2022-23 Season After 23 Years as HC

AP Photo/Adrian Kraus

One of college basketball's coaching staples is ready to call it a career.

Notre Dame announced that head coach Mike Brey plans to step away at the end of this season, ending his 23-year run with the Fighting Irish.

"It has been a great run for me and our program over the past two decades, but it is time for a new voice to lead this group into the future," Brey said in the release. "I want to thank our student-athletes, assistant coaches and support staff who have played such a key role in the culture we have created."

Brey was hired as Notre Dame's head coach in July 2000. He made an immediate impact, leading the team to a Big East regular-season title and its first NCAA tournament appearance since 1990 in his first year at the helm.

During Brey's tenure, the Fighting Irish have won at least 20 games in 16 seasons, including each of his first three years and a seven-year stretch from 2006 to 2013. He is the winningest coach in program history with a career record of 481-269, surpassing Digger Phelps' 393 wins in 2017.

Notre Dame's best season under the 63-year-old came in 2014-15 when it went 32-6, won the ACC tournament championship and reached the NCAA tournament Elite Eight. It was the first and only time Notre Dame won 30 games in a season. The team advanced to the Elite Eight again the following year, but never made it past that point in 13 NCAA tournament appearances.

This season has been a bit of a struggle for the Fighting Irish, as they have a 9-10 record after starting the year 5-0. The team is riding a two-game skid into Saturday's matchup against Boston College (8-11).

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Brey was the seventh-longest-tenured head coach in the country behind Syracuse's Jim Boeheim (1976), Oakland's Greg Kampe (1984), Houston Baptist's Ron Cottrell (1991), Michigan State's Tom Izzo (1995), Gonzaga's Mark Few (1999) and Yale's James Jones (1999).