Brey, ND proving doubters wrong

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Notre Dame coach Mike Brey watches his team in an NCAA college basketball game with Marquette Feb. 4, 2012 in South Bend, Ind. (AP Photo/Joe Raymond)

Updated: March 9, 2012 8:19AM

(Mike) Brey is in the fight of his professional career at Notre Dame to avoid the worst season he’s had as the Irish coach. The Irish finished 16-14 in 2006 (6-10 in the Big East). That team was different. It had a future NBA player in Chris Quinn and it was snake bit, losing 10 games by less than four points. It was, though, marginally talented.

It’s hard to even use “marginal” at this point to describe the potential.

Who was the idiot who wrote the above about Notre Dame basketball this year after the Irish looked like a mule against Indiana in a 11-point loss at Conseco Fieldhouse?

Forget about words like marginal, awful, snake bit and consider this new updated phrase as an apt description of the Irish: NCAA Tournament team.

It’s not an understatement to call the turnaround and the coaching job by Mike Brey stunning, unprecedented and predictable. Predictable because every year it seems like the Irish are banished to the middle or the lower half of the Big East by the professional prognosticators and almost every year, they sneak up on the league like one of those summer storms that sweeps through in the middle of a sunny day. Almost every year, Brey puts himself in the running for Big East Coach of the Year.

He has already won three and looks like he is on his way to a fourth. No one should ever be stupid enough to write off a Brey-coached team unless a wave of malaria ravaged the players. Some people are, though.

The Irish were picked to finish ninth by the coaches — that was before their leading scorer Tim Abromaitis was lost for the season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament. On Saturday, they defeated No. 15 Marquette by 17 points at home. Notre Dame beat Syracuse when it was ranked No. 1. The Irish beat Connecticut and Louisville, both ranked at the time, on the road. They are currently tied for second place in the Big East and are the best team in Indiana despite the loss to the Hoosiers.

When Abromaitis was lost for the year on Nov. 25, the season looked like it was going to be a referendum for next year. Scott Martin didn’t seem comfortable as the go-to guy offensively, which is what Brey wanted. Jack Cooley looked promising inside but there were questions about his durability. Jerian Grant was an unknown as a redshirt freshman. Aside from Martin, point guard Eric Atkins was the Irish’s only proven commodity. The truth is, they were positively awful through the Indiana game — at least offensively. Defensively, ND wasn’t bad. The Irish are sneaky long and good position defenders.

After the loss to the Hoosiers, Brey even admitted that in his own mind he was hoping for an NIT bid.

A funny thing happened, though.

The Irish routed Pittsburgh at home, scoring 47 in the second half. Pitt, which has since fallen off a cliff, was ranked at the time. That’s when Brey started to believe the possibility — just the possibility — for something better existed. The Irish were mishmash between good and mediocre early, defeating Louisville on the road in double overtime, but losing to Connecticut at home and Rutgers and Cincinnati at home.

Then, the four-game winning streak started with a decisive victory over the Orange, ranked No.1.

Brey’s creativity and willingness to experiment has made him the best regular-season game coach in college. He first made Martin the offensive guy then he backed off when Martin wasn’t comfortable jacking it up all the time. He also took the pressure off Martin by naming Atkins a co-captain after the season began.

He is infinitely and ridiculously positive with his players in the worst of times in a way that is genuine and real.

He knows how to make the necessary tweaks — playing at a faster pace against Marquette because he guessed they might tire out after pressing for most of the game and deciding to have Scott Martin blanket Jae Crowder, a 6-6 scoring machine. He is not beholden to one offense or one way of playing and he rarely says stuff like, “We just weren’t tough enough” after a loss.

ND also caught a bit of a break with the injury to Abromaitis. It forced the team to figure out how good Pat Connaughton, a 6-6 freshman, really is. With Abromaitis there, it’s possible that Connaughton, who has NBA potential, isn’t getting major minutes.

The whole scenario is fairy tale-like, given the state of the team the week before Christmas.

It was also enough to make the experts look ridiculously wrong. Good for Notre Dame and good for Brey. Couldn’t happen to a more deserving coach.

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