When Digger resigned under pressure everyone thought Pete Gillen was a lock but he decided to stay at Xavier and ND was forced to settle for John McLeod. The program became a laughing stock.

Matt Dougherty showed promise but couldn’t resist the lure of his Alma Mater (not to mention the pressure applied by a phone call from Michael Jordan.)

That brings us to Mike Brey. McLeod and Dougherty did not leave the cupboard empty. He inherited the likes of Troy Murphy, Harold Swannigan, Ryan Humphrey and Matt Carroll and experienced early success. Then came a few NIT appearances as he found his niche and developed his recruiting network. His success has been built on the development on two and three star recruits but he’s been able to upgrade that to three and four star recruits recently and is starting to compete with Duke for accademically viable recruits. Although Luke Zeller and Chris Thomas were notable busts who wanted to shoot three point shots and not much else Brey has done an outstanding job with player deveopment.

Notre Dame’s administration is not going to lower it’s standards to those of John Calipari, Jim Calhoun (yes, I know he retired), and Rick Pitino – all with graduation rates under 40% – nor should they. Brad Stevens and his 83% graduation rate would seem to be a good fit but he could take a well funded, elite position. Shaka Smart and his 56% graduation rate are probably not an option.

As long as Brian Kelly is winning football games and the men are getting to the post season Mike Brey is safe. After all FOOTBALL is what’s driving conference realignment and is where the real money is.

No doubt its talent as they pull in McDonald’s AA by the bushel. They don’t always have a top ranked recruiting class but they are up there every year.

Two things impress my about Coach K and the program. He looks ahead in recruiting and he does it in scheduling. He knows the capabilities of his team and he plays to those strengths. He gets the best recruits he can team wise and adapts the Offense to their capabilities. Defensively he tweaks every year but offensively he can make very significant changes, year to year, based on the talent on hand,

In terms of scheduling, he looks to March. His game plan is to build a team and test it in different environments before he gets into the ACC schedule. He consistently plays a very tough OOC schedule in the Fall. If he avoids injury, it pays off come March.

When I look at the ND program, I don’t see it. I don’t see a coach maximizing talent and trying to cover weaknesses. ND looks like a bunch of big, usually thick guys trying to finesse a game. I haven’t watched that many games but enough to be surprised at a lack of coaching impact. The one time I saw Brey make a big difference was two years ago with that “take the air out of the ball, grind slowly” offense.

Other than that I would be hard pressed to see a strategy at work. The CBS panel before last nights game was talking about ND’s discipline and ball control. Guess I have to watch more because last night all I saw were turnovers.

I like Brey. I just don’t see him as a great coach.

It may be joining the ACC will make for better recruits but it certainly won’t make for better competition. The ACC is a very weak outside the top 2-3 teams. It will NOT prepare us for NCAA like the Big East. Maybe give Brey a couple years here and if the same disappointing finish occurs take a different direction. I have to believe the 10 year contract has some way out without breaking the bank.

The difference in these situations is that, in Chicago, many thought at the time that Collins was the man for the job and could get them to point C. Here, no one that I know of genuinely sees Brey as someone who can accomplish that. I find it hard to imagine that Swarbrick fails to see that. While an inadequate practice facility undoubtedly limits recruiting, and while admissions presents a significant obstacle, the biggest hurdle to recruiting is the head man. For better or worse, succesful college basketball programs are inextricably linked to the head coach. What legitimate championship level recruit (and, no, ND has none on the roster for next year )would commit to playing for a coach who can’t get his teams to perform at even the level of mediocrity in the tournament. And that is with a very large sample size.

Mike Brey is not a bad guy or a bad coach. Yet, he is not a championship level coach. As long as he remains the head man, the administration signals to everyone–most importantly recruits–that the University is not truly committed to achieving championship success. All the sparkling practice facilities won’t change that perception. Reinsdorf was willing to take the criticism by making an unpopular choice in order to get the Bulls to a championship. Unlike that moment, if ND fired Brey, the decision would–appropriately–be met with understanding and even praise by those who matter, the people who closely watch and care about the program. Only until then does ND gives itself a legitimate shot to contend.