SOUTH BEND, Ind. – The pregame clock ticked past five minutes, and the Notre Dame band went quiet. Without any introduction or preamble, the video began, winding Purcell Pavilion back to the year 2000 with a clip of a new basketball coach meeting everyone for the first time while wearing a mock turtleneck.

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Through the seasons we went. Through landmark upsets and court storms. Through ACC tournament championship streamers and Elite Eight runs and a Maui Invitational title. And, yes, the aftermath, when that coach walked into the locker room bare-chested with a lei around his neck, flexing theoretical biceps.

Then a voiceover. “That’s a hell of a run for 23 years,” Mike Brey said, and moments later he walked onto this floor as this program’s head coach for the last time, pumping his fists as the people stood to applaud.

The building was maybe half full.

This is the end for Mike Brey in South Bend, and it’s earned. Which is not the same as happy, even if Wednesday night turned out pleasant enough thanks to a 88-81 win over 25th-ranked Pitt. Nobody actually wanted things to go this way, but nobody was left with a choice. It’s awkward. It’s a divorce without the hard feelings, or at least one where everyone can still be in the same room together. It’s a weird goodbye.

There’s some poetry in that. Brey presided over the most transformative era in Notre Dame men’s basketball history and leaves with more wins than anyone to do the job, ever. It’s not a thankless gig — that’s what the money is for, and Brey made plenty of it — but it’s a complicated one. A Notre Dame basketball coach has to win just enough to give people some memories, graduate his players and avoid controversy. He can’t be a problem.

For everything, we thank you, Coach ☘️#GoIrish

— Notre Dame Men’s Basketball (@NDmbb) March 2, 2023

Here, a problem is anyone who doesn’t ask nicely for things every one of his competitors already has. Brey accepted the dynamic — all eyes on football — and navigated it well. He’d grumble privately, and rightfully so. I’m old enough to have covered games in a Joyce Center filled with technicolor seats straight out of a 1970s artifacts exhibit … and that was when Brey was seven years into the job, trying to win in the Big East while showing recruits that. His practice “facility,” lovingly but aptly, was a gym called The Pit. It was a ridiculous infrastructure. He abided, though. He nudged and delicately advocated. It only took until Year 9 to get Purcell Pavilion to look like it does and until Year 20 to get an honest-to-goodness practice facility online.

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The idea is to leave a place better than you found it, and considering the idiosyncrasies of the university and South Bend itself, Brey succeeded at a high level. For that, he deserved last March, and a rip-roaring escape from the First Four followed by another unexpected NCAA Tournament win, and all the stories about insomnia and celebratory beverages that came with it. A peak Mike Brey moment. One of those memories the school wants its athletic programs to make. A karmic reward, as Brey might put it.

He earned Wednesday, too, though. A departure that isn’t unceremonial, but only because someone made a video.

The results are the results. They’re indicative of a coach who wasn’t as invested as a coach needs to be in modern college basketball, who lately wasn’t devoted enough to providing the experience Notre Dame men’s basketball athletes are owed. Brey cared. I don’t believe a guy with the soul of a high school coach can stop caring, fundamentally. But when what you’re willing to do ceases to suffice, when your level of engagement doesn’t measure up, a merciless business extracts its price. It lays you low.

You get a 100-second scoreboard tribute before tipoff and a bottle of 23-year-old Blanton’s from Jeff Capel. That’s about it.

A little more than 24 hours before the Pitt game, Brey stood before the local media and broke some more news. He’d make his first-ever appearance at The Linebacker Lounge, the storied dive bar just across Angela Boulevard, the next night. One of the first rules of visiting The ’Backer, as anyone who’s been there knows, is to wear shoes you don’t mind ruining. It’s that kind of establishment. Brey declaring that he planned to close it down after his last home game is hilarious. His prerogative. One more very Mike Brey moment.

In reality, it was supposed to be something of a private gathering. Brey, his family, his buddy Chris Christie and something like 30 former players hanging out. Then the head coach announced it to the world — There is a fiesta in the making, it’s out at The ’Backer, everybody’s going to be there — with a game against Clemson on Saturday and an ACC tournament after that. Add it to the uncomfortable cadence of the whole evening. Or the whole year.

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The entire enterprise of Notre Dame basketball, gone strange.

A shot of Jameson for Notre Dame head coach Mike Brey.

As on-brand as ever.

— Tyler Horka (@tbhorka) March 2, 2023

This brings us to the first night of March and a not-quite-full Purcell Pavilion, and a scene the head coach owned in every way.

Celebration was mandatory, whether everyone’s heart was in it or not. At the under-12 media timeout of the first half, all those former players lined up on the logo at midcourt, a legacy personified. At the under-8 timeout, the game hosts brought out the bit where a fan attempts to interpret the meaning of the three emojis on screen. Spoiler: A microphone plus the letter B plus a sun bursting through a skyline spells Mike Brey. There was a countdown of Brey’s greatest moments as head coach. There was a Look-Alike Cam segment that closed with Brey and his lookalike: The giant picture of Mike Brey held aloft in the student section.

Competitively, the Irish complied, which has not necessarily always been the case this season. A 14-point halftime lead suggested they were out to do right by the soon-to-be-former coach. The lead grew as large as 20 points. Capel got dinged with a technical foul midway through the second half. Some deep, visceral, undulating angst set in when a painfully thin Brey rotation lost two of its mainstays to foul trouble late, and Pitt ran through what was left of Notre Dame to cut the lead to five in the final minute. There was even a mini set-to in the handshake line. In the end, Brey stood arm-in-arm with seniors Dane Goodwin and Nate Laszewski as the alma mater played, and then he walked off with a smile.

Another charged night on these grounds. Also just the third ACC win of the season. A fair enough farewell.

“We wanted it bad, for a variety of reasons,” senior guard Cormac Ryan said. “This has obviously been a challenging season. That’s been draining physically, mentally. But at no point have we given up. Nobody wanted it more than the guys in that locker room, and to send Coach out with a win means everything to us.”

Brey opted to spend time mingling on the floor afterward, extracting what he could from the moment, so there was no traditional postgame media debrief for an emotional reckoning or a storytime stroll down memory lane. He did stop for his standard radio hit, though, and played some of the hits. He pointed to the mass of former players and talked about how he remembers each of their commitments, because Notre Dame hears no a lot. He referenced the 45 straight home wins this program once compiled, somewhat miraculously. He recalled the epic five-overtime win over Louisville. He determined former players David Graves and Matt Carroll can pick up the bar tab, because all they did was shoot when they were here.

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“It was neat to feel this atmosphere in here one last time,” Brey said. “It was sentimental to be here and very cool. I’m thrilled that we have this memory of our last game.”

Soon, someone else will be on the sideline, for the first time this century. Maybe someone like Colgate’s Matt Langel, an Ivy League grad who built a struggling small-conference program into an annual NCAA Tournament participant. A guy not altogether unlike the last guy to take the job, who could be around for just as long. Or maybe it’s a bigger name, which would be something like an acknowledgement of what Notre Dame men’s basketball has become over the last two-plus decades. Who knows. (Other than athletic director Jack Swarbrick and his small cadre of in-house confidantes, anyway.)

All we know is it will be someone else. And that person will face an enormously difficult, studs-up rebuild.

As for what comes next for Mike Brey? “We may lose games, but we never lose a party,” he said, his final words before heading out of sight. As last nights go, it was about what you’d expect, and nothing like it at all.

(Top photo: Matt Cashore / USA Today)