* Doherty leaves for alma mater North Carolina
By KATHLEEN O'BRIEN
Associate Sports Editor
When Notre Dame hired basketball coach Matt Doherty in March 1999, little did fans know it would be a short love affair with the popular new coach.
Doherty led the Fighting Irish to the finals of the National Invitation Tournament and a 22-15 record, also bringing swarms of fans back to the Joyce Center. But in July, Doherty fled the blue and gold of Notre Dame in favor of the blue and white of his alma mater North Carolina, bringing his 16-month stint at the helm of the Fighting Irish men's basketball program to an end.
"I never thought that this would come about so soon in my career," Doherty said. "I was never set in my mind that I was going to leave. I was the most confused I'd ever been in my life because I didn't know what I wanted to do. It was the hardest decision I've ever had to make."
That opened up the possibility for Delaware head coach Mike Brey to take a second shot at his dream job. Notre Dame passed Brey over in `99, but new athletic director Kevin White jumped at the chance to hire Brey this time around. The new Notre Dame head basketball coach hopes to usher in a long-term era of success and stability.
"I'm here to stay. They're going to have to kick me out," Brey said. "A year ago it was an opportunity and I came up short. I always thought it was a good fit for me with how I've been trained. But I never thought the Notre Dame job would come up again so soon."
Brey had an idea the Notre Dame position might come open before Doherty's name was even mentioned in conjunction with the North Carolina spot. TarHeels coach Bill Guthridge resigned June 30, and once former North Carolina assistant coach Roy Williams announced his decision to stay at Kansas on July 6, Brey knew Doherty might make the short list of possible Carolina successors.
"As soon as I saw that Roy Williams did not go to Kansas, I knew that Matt Doherty would be someone they would look at closely," Brey said. "With how the dominoes fall in this business, and I've been in this business for awhile, I knew that something like this could happen."
He was right. Within a week, Doherty had been installed as the new head coach of the North Carolina TarHeels, and Brey had taken over as the coach of the Fighting Irish.
Doherty arrived at Notre Dame after coaching under Williams at Kansas for seven years, but with no head coaching experience. In his first year as a head coach, Doherty led the Irish to their best record in 11 years, with upset victories over top teams such as Connecticut and Ohio State.
But perhaps his biggest accomplishment was as a salesman. Doherty sold Irish fans on coming back to the stands, making basketball bigger news than football in South Bend for the first time in recent memory. He sold Notre Dame to recruits, luring Torrian Jones, Tom Timmermans and Chris Markwood for this season, and two top-100 recruits for the 2001-02 season in Chris Thomas and Jordan Cornette. And he sold All-American power forward Troy Murphy on returning to Notre Dame for his junior season instead of heading for the NBA.
Influencing Doherty's decision to leave were his wife's roots in North Carolina, his experience playing for the TarHeels under Dean Smith and a conversation with TarHeels teammate Michael Jordan urging him to take the position.
"I didn't have any vision of leaving," Doherty said. "Only two places intrigued me, Kansas and North Carolina. Looking back, I wouldn't have left Notre Dame but for one place, and that's the place I'm at now. This was my alma mater, and this is where my wife was from. At times, I wonder what it would have been like if I had stayed."
White, Notre Dame's new athletic director, found himself in position to prove his worth as director sooner than he had expected. Most would say he succeeded, snagging a top young coach to replace Doherty and doing so in a matter of days. White chose Brey over a host of prospects, including former NBA coach P.J. Carlesimo and Oregon coach Ernie Kent.
Brey shares Doherty's qualifications as a top recruiter. While at Duke coaching under Mike Kryzewski, Brey pulled in many of the top players in the nation. He also has major inroads in the New York-Washington, D.C. area as a result of his five years at Delaware and his seasons coaching under the legendary Morgan Wooten at DeMatha High School in Washington, D.C.
Brey cemented his reputation as a great recruiter by convincing Thomas and Cornette to reaffirm their plans to attend Notre Dame. He also ended rumors that current Irish players such as sophomore guard Matt Carroll or sophomore forward Jere Macura might transfer because of the coaching change.
The players may have suffered the most in the hoopla, being left to rally around one another for the second time in two years.
After Doherty announced his resignation, junior David Graves said in a press conference, "It is going to be our third coach in three years, which is difficult. When you come to a school, you hope you will have the same coach for four years. It's tough for us to swallow, but we will move on."
Once Brey was brought in, the players began to feel more at ease about their Irish future.
"It just felt like a connection with him as soon as I met him," sophomore guard Matt Carroll told the South Bend Tribune. "He seems very genuine and an easy guy to get along with. I'm definitely staying, and I think everyone else will."
Brey emphasized getting to know the current players.
"I think they've been really good, considering for some of them, it's the third coach in three years," Brey said. "A guy has to earn their trust and that's what I've been trying to do. For me the first priority after getting the job was the current team."
There was no time to kick back and relax at Brey's vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, Del., after taking the Notre Dame job. Besides getting to know the Irish players, he had to hire a new staff, hit the recruiting trail, make plans for the upcoming season and move his family out to Indiana. Brey hopes to fulfill the predictions of preseason polls that have Notre Dame ranked among the top 20 teams in the nation.
"They [the players] took a step last year, but they really didn't get where they wanted to get, and that was the NCAA Tournament," Brey said. "Our goal has to be to be high-fiving on Selection Sunday. I told them that I think I can help with that. This program has not been in the NCAA Tournament since 1990 and that's an amazingly dry spell.
"There's expectations now, and we've got to back that up," Brey continued. "I think this group's ready to do that. They weren't last year, but with the leadership this year, I think they're ready, especially Martin [Ingelsby] and Troy [Murphy], the team's captains. It's their team."
In the past month, Brey has filled out the rest of his coaching staff.
Sean Kearney, Brey's top assistant at Delaware, followed Brey to Notre Dame, and will serve as associate coach. Anthony Solomon comes to Notre Dame as an assistant coach following two years as assistant athletic director for basketball operations at Clemson. Assistant coach Lewis Preston hails from Coastal Carolina University, where he was an assistant coach. Rod Balanis will be the new director of basketball operations, coming to Notre Dame after being an assistant coach at Colgate.
The biggest question for Brey is whether the team can recapture last year's camaraderie.
"With some talented new faces, but with a lot of guys back from last year, are we still going to be an unselfish group that can throw itself in for the team goals?" asked Brey. "I think this group can be, with the leadership from Murphy and Ingelsby."
All Sports Stories for Saturday, August 19, 2000
