Keeping It Loose: Patience, Passion, and My Life in Basketball

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About Keeping It Loose: Patience, Passion, And My Life In

Product Description When the game is on the line, some coaches tense up. They scream, they yell. But Mike Brey remains calm, having instilled confidence in his players and having built a system in which they have great freedom. Fueled with a competitive streak that belies his fun and easygoing demeanor, Brey has turned Notre Dame into a national contender. When he took over Notre Dame, the school had not reached the NCAA Tournament in a decade. Under Brey the Fighting Irish have qualified for the Big Dance 12 times in 17 seasons, reaching the Elite Eight in 2015 and 2016. And in 2018 he passed the legendary Digger Phelps to become the winningest coach in program history. In this autobiography Brey, the son of educators and athletes, depicts the culture he has created at Notre Dame while profiling his amazing basketball path, having learned from coaching legends Morgan Wootten and Mike Krzyzewski. From the whirlwind turn of events during Matt Doherty’s departure that led to his hiring, to recruiting battles, to changing conference affiliations, to epic NCAA Tournament games against Kentucky and Wisconsin, to defeating Tobacco Road powers en route to winning in the ACC, Brey reflects on his remarkable life and career in Keeping It Loose. That includes growing up in the Beltway, teaching at DeMatha Catholic High School, coaching under Krzyzewski, and guiding Delaware into the NCAA Tournament. Brey shares insider stories and memories of Fighting Irish stars Troy Murphy, Luke Harangody, Jerian Grant, Bonzie Colson, and many more. You’ll learn why the man described as the “loosest coach in America” is also one of its finest. About the Author Mike Brey has coached men's basketball at Notre Dame since 2000 and is the winningest head coach in program history. John Heisler has spent 40 years as a member of the University of Notre Dame athletics staff. He has written or edited several other books on Notre Dame athletics. A former Duke assistant with Mike Brey, Jay Bilas has been an announcer and college basketball analyst for ESPN since 1995. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Keeping It Loose Patience, Passion, and my Life in Basketball By Mike Brey, John Heisler Triumph Books LLCCopyright © 2018 Mike Brey and John Heisler All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-62937-597-7 Contents Foreword by Jay Bilas, Introduction, 1. From the Mock Turtle to the Open Collar, 2. The Notre Dame Way, 3. The Chase to 400, 4. Growing Up on the Beltway, 5. Working for DeMathaâ&8364;(tm)s Master Mentor, 6. The Duke Years, 7. The Delaware Years, 8. Coming to Notre Dame, Finally, 9. The Early Years, 10. Players from the Early Years, 11. Feeling the Burn, 12. From the Big East to the ACC, 13. Triumph in the ACC, 14. From Harangody to Grant, 15. Connaughton, Colson, and Co., 16. Coaches vs. Cancer and the NABC, Afterword by Morgan Wootten, Acknowledgments, Photo Gallery, In Praise of Coach Brey, CHAPTER 1 From the Mock Turtle to the Open Collar I wore a tie the whole time I was on the Duke staff and my first two years as head coach at Delaware. Then, of course, when I got out to Notre Dame, everybody thought the mock turtleneck was some sort of fashion statement. If you really do your homework on me, I'm not really a fashion statement guy. It was all for comfort reasons. When I was coaching at Delaware, it was in the America East Conference and it was a bus league. A lot of times those bus rides were six hours to Boston University and Northeastern, and it was just a more comfortable way to travel. In my third year at Delaware when we won our first league championship, we started playing really well. And, man, I'm superstitious, so I decided to keep wearing the mock turtleneck. Then we won it again my fourth year and in my fifth year we got to the championship game. So I figured, I'm riding this out, man. This is the look, and it's comfortable. Even for a home game, you could go out to dinner afterward and you were comfortable. It's