Notre Dame Syracuse Basketball

Notre Dame’s Mike Brey plans to retire from coaching at the end of this season. Adrian Kraus/Associated Press

Mike Brey needed only one season to turn Notre Dame from a forgotten program into an NCAA Tournament team.

He spent the next 22 seasons chasing the school’s second Final Four appearance, and this season will be his last chance.

On Thursday, Notre Dame announced Brey would be stepping down at the end of the season after winning a school-record 481 games and leading the program for a school-record 23 years. In a statement, Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick indicated Brey would remain on staff in an as-yet undefined capacity.

“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,” the 63-year-old Brey said in a statement released by the athletic department. “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.”

Notre Dame scheduled a news conference for Friday.

Brey left Delaware in July 2000 after taking the Blue Hens to two NCAA Tournaments in three seasons – something that seemed little more than an afterthought in South Bend, considering that in the nine seasons following Digger Phelps’ retirement in 1991, Notre Dame’s once blue-chip program had been shut out of the NCAA tourney and had earned only three NIT bids.

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But the man who served as an assistant under America’s best-known prep coach – Morgan Wootten at Maryland’s DeMatha High School – and under Division I’s winningest college coach, Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski, helped Notre Dame return to its more glorious days.

Notre Dame snapped a 10-year tourney drought in 2001 and made 13 total tourney appearances under Brey. He won 15 tourney games, tying the school record, and Notre Dame reached back-to-back Elite Eights in 2015 and 2016.

“That Mike is the winningest coach in the 119-year history of Notre Dame men’s basketball speaks to his skill as a teacher of the game,” Swarbrick said. “His even greater legacy, however, lies in his achievements as an educator and mentor of the young men who played for him. In that sense, he represents this university as well as any coach I have worked with during my time at Notre Dame.”

VERMONT 66, MAINE 45: Finn Sullivan and TJ Hurley each scored 13 points, and the Catamounts (9-10, 3-2 America East) beat the Black Bears (6-12, 0-5) for the 25th consecutive time, in Burlington, Vermont.

Gedi Juozapaitis led Maine with 13 points. LeChaun DuHart had 11.

(3) PURDUE 61, MINNESOTA 39: Braden Smith had 19 points, seven rebounds and seven assists to help the Boilermakers (18-1, 7-1) overwhelm the Gophers (7-10, 1-6) in Minneapolis.

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MICHIGAN STATE 70, (23) RUTGERS 56: A.J. Hoggard had 16 points and seven assists to help the Spartans (13-6, 5-3 Big Ten) beat the Scarlet Knights (13-6, 5-3) in East Lansing, Michigan.

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

(12) VIRGINIA TECH 69, PITTSBURGH 62: Georgia Amoore scored 16 of her 21 points in the second half, Taylor Soule and Elizabeth Kitley had double-doubles and the Hokies (15-3, 5-3 ACC) defeated the Panthers (7-11, 0-7) in Pittsburgh.

(16) GONZAGA 81, PACIFIC 78: Yvonne Ejim had 22 points and 12 rebounds, McKayla Williams added 19 points, and the Bulldogs (18-2, 8-0 West Coast Conference) held off the Tigers (7-12, 2-6) in Pacific, California.

Gonzaga led for 39 minutes, 18 seconds, with an advantage as high as 16 points. But Pacific scored 30 points in the fourth quarter took their first lead at 74-73 on a 3-pointer from the corner by Anaya James, who later missed a short jumper in the closing seconds with her team trailing 79-78.

(20) NORTH CAROLINA STATE 71, MIAMI 61: Saniya Rivers scored 14 points, Mimi Collins and Camille Hobby each added 11, and the Wolfpack (14-5, 4-4 ACC) beat the Hurricanes (12-7, 5-3) in Raleigh, North Carolina.


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