SOUTH BEND, Ind. — An hour or so before his Notre Dame team reconvened Sunday to prep for the postseason, the self-proclaimed loosest coach in America revealed how he'd been advised, fairly regularly, to get the hell out of the place.



Coach Kyle Brey, as his father dubbed him, has offered a thought: Dad, you maxed it out. You got to go. Mike Brey gets a kick out of it.



The thing is, after 12 seasons and a shot at a fourth Big East Coach of the Year award this week, he might just be getting started.



"Last year I said I've never had more fun coaching," Brey said. "I think I just topped it."



The Irish coach spoke with the Tribune about his tenure, the borderline paranormal run his club made this year — and how, with top-100 talent en route, it might perfectly set up reaching the kind of heights his program has not reached. It's the mission that consumes Brey at a place he isn't leaving anytime soon.



When do you think you came to the conclusion this was probably where you were going to be for good?



Nothing's changed. I remember (being asked) when I got hired, because Matt (Doherty) left after a year, they were so insecure around here: 'Well, how long are you going to be here?' Without saying 'Duke' — 'Would you go back to Duke?' I wasn't insulted, but I said, I hope I'm good enough to retire here. And I really firmly believe that's really never changed for me.



We get out of the gate really good, and then we go to three NITs. … After the third NIT (in 2006), I actually thought to myself, maybe you just go reinvent. Six years — are you trending the wrong way? It's all about survival. You just move on. Matter of fact,N.C. State offered me the job. I remember talking to (wife) Tish: What do you think? We love Raleigh-Durham, maybe we go back there. What the heck, it's been a great run here.



At the end of the day, though, for me — and that's the hardest I ever thought about going — for me to go in front of these guys we recruited and say I'm leaving, I don't know if I could have done that. It was hard for me to leave Delaware. If it didn't happen in the summer, when half my team was home, I don't know if I would have left. I'd always get back to, if we go to N.C. State, when's the team meeting — aw, (shucks), how do I look these guys in the eye? They're in with both feet and they've had my back.



That was probably the only time. Since then, I've had two different athletic directors. I told Jack (Swarbrick) the other day, 'I've had a pretty good run since you've been the AD, that's not lost on me.' He's kind of re-energized me a little bit with things we've done for the program and talking about a practice facility and things like that. But at the end of the day, when you really think about going to reinvent, it takes a lot of energy.



George Blaha, the voice of the Pistons, was here for the (Adrian) Dantley (Ring of Honor induction). He said to me: 'You are Notre Dame basketball.' It's my program now. You have an identity. People see a recruit in the summer and say, 'He'd be great for Mike and how they play.' That's what you kind of work to get it to. I really feel we have it at that point. And I feel with what we have coming, can we break barriers? Breaking some barriers that way is kind of the challenge now.



To get it to this point is a lot of work. So if you're going somewhere else, you're running for mayor again. I was like, I don't want to do that.



Did you even talk to Maryland last year?



I did not. Not a word. They called my attorney, Jordan Bazan, up in New York. Tish and I were at the (Kentucky) Derby. I never wanted to be in a position to turn the job down. Maybe it never would have been offered to me, we never got that far. But I didn't even want to meet, I didn't want to get on the phone with him.



The week before, N.C. State put a package together again that was through the roof. Jordan said, 'You may just want to meet with them.' I said no. Once you get into that territory, you better be ready to go. … You're thinking, I don't see myself going, so I don't want to get into this drama each spring.



You're at a different time in your life, and you're following a tough guy. Gary Williams won it there. If Maryland hadn't have won it? Maybe it would have been different.



There's a six-year window there that anybody gets.



And never say never. Because what's going on with our league? That's not lost on me. Not only have you put your name on this program, you have quite a presence in the Big East. It's hard to get to that point. That concerns me. What are we going forward there? I like the Big East thing and I certainly like being connected to the East. That's very important to our basketball program. Ending up in a conference that's not in the East, if something happens, I don't think that's good for our program. And I've certainly voiced that.



I've kept a close eye on that, and I think a lot of things will come to fruition this summer, after our TV deal is done and after the BCS decisions are made in June.



I like the Memphis thing. I like the Temple thing. I love the Big East. Being connected to that I-95 corridor is important for us. But if something changes? If it ends up the ACC? The northern division of the ACC would be the old Big East. But if we start getting out toward this way too much? That concerns me.



You mentioned the "breaking barriers" thing. You're settled in here, so how important is hitting the trio of regular-season, Big East postseason and NCAA postseason success?



That drives me, that drives me to go farther. You've heard me say getting to Saturday night (in the Big East tournament) — I always say that first. I don't want to get ahead, because that would be a step for us to do better in the NCAA tournament, too. But playing past the first weekend — that's the thing that kind of drives you now.



One of the things that's a Catch-22 for our program in this league — you have to invest a lot of emotional and physical energy to make a run in the regular season to get the bid. I would say at times, we have exhausted ourselves a little bit getting there. You gotta do it, or you're not in the damn thing. It's funny, somebody dropped me a line in the midst of our nine-game (win streak): 'Don't peak too early.' I said, 'Shut the (bleep) up. What? Don't peak too early? Baby, we better ride this as long as we can.'



Moving forward, forget this year — I do really like the personnel we have coming. And could we be in a position to do it all? Are we going to be in our best position to do it? I think we are.



Do you need to do it, for you?



I'm 52 in the business, I don't think I take myself too seriously, I think my ego is in check. I ain't gonna lose any sleep. I got in perspective. But I'm very competitive. And it's the thing in the offseason I think about all the time. How to get all three. That drives me.



It is what consumes me in the offseason, when I have a free mind. How do we get all three of these things going?



You see the talent in Eric Atkins and Jerian Grant, the top-100 guys coming in in Cameron Biedscheid and Zach Auguste. Did you change anything in recruiting?



Maybe we recruited a little smarter. Who you can get here and what fits can get tricky at times. Our pool to pick from is smaller. I think we got smarter about it, we capitalized on some momentum of our program and probably some real strong momentum of how I'm thought of in the profession the last couple of years. We've done a good job of capitalizing on that, but it's all timing.



We'll still make runs at (elite) guys. But for the most part, we've been pretty good getting the guys that will be with us for a while, there's not as much of a chip on their shoulder, they have freer minds to coach. That'll always be the case here.



I remember Jack Swarbrick asked me, first month on the job: Would we be interested in a one-and-done? I said, sure. Absolutely. But the way that culture is, and how we do business — probably just not going to fit. So we're not going to waste a lot of time chasing down a one-and-done guy that's going to be here seven months. He's going to stay in a dorm, he's going to have to do stuff academically. And I get that. He needs to do basketball. I can't give him as much basketball.



Again, if one pops up, we're on it. But we've been more those four- and five-year guys.



In a way, the way things shook out this year, in terms of who didn't come back and Tim Abromaitis going down and guys playing more than they would have – did what happen almost become perfect for setting up the future?



Yes. Yes. We had really clear heads and fresh heads. There was no looking past just wanting to be a heck of a college player. You had such a captive audience and great students who hung on every word, and then when we got smacked around a little bit, they really hung on every word.



We had such an innocent climb. And man, did we know we needed each other. We were so scared. We're in different territory now. That's some of the things I want to talk to our team about (Monday). We'll have some individual awards, they're patted on the back. There's no question – after the shock of Abro, I got excited. Because it was a nothing-to-lose challenge. And I knew if we could get it going, it would be an unbelievable story and be really rewarding. And you know what, it's moved past what I thought we could do. That's what's been at times mind-blowing.



Young guys playing a lot, combined with the guys coming in, now you're thinking top 20, top 15 next year.



And I know the challenge will be different, with expectations on us. That's kind of new territory for us, but that drives me. I'm excited about that. How do I manage these guys when we're playing a bunch of Saturday-Mondays and the heat is on us?



As a matter of fact, we were going to go on a foreign tour this summer. I canceled it. I don't want to do it, because of what this nucleus has done, and we could have all of them back. … I didn't feel we needed to do basketball a whole bunch. And I need a little break, because I'm going to need a lot of bullets next year. And I don't want to use any of them up. We'll catch (the freshmen) up in September, October.



What you had to go through personally even before last year – how rewarding does that make both getting through that and having success?



My wife's health situation was something that was a bit of a distraction at times. It's much improved. When she was back East, that was harder, because you didn't really have your right-hand person there, to kind of bounce things off of. It made me think all basketball, even though I don't know how healthy that was. A little bit of a distraction, that's why I think I was fortunate I had really good assistants. But I don't think it ever took away from production.



Sometimes I think to myself, maybe that really was the ultimate challenge, especially last year at times. Because she just wasn't functioning great at times. Starting at Christmas, we started talking about that a little bit, and through this run, and she's traveled more with us this year, which has been great.



Some might say, miss the Sweet 16 this year, whatever. You're playing with house money. How do you frame it?



I'm going to ask them (Monday) if they want a pass. After we beat Syracuse (Jan. 21), I said, 'You know fellas, we get a pass Wednesday (at Seton Hall). We can get our ass whooped. But if you beat Seton Hall after what you did Saturday, you start to show signs of maybe being special.' And they really liked that challenge.



One of the signs I put up in their locker after we beat Seton Hall was 'Striving to be special.' And then after we came back at Villanova (a 74-70 overtime win Feb. 18), I came back in the locker room and said: Forget striving. We're special.



I'm going to use that for a reference point: 'Remember when I said you get a free pass? Do you want it? Let me know.' Because I can make some plans to get to Key West the second weekend.



It really drives me. My first focus is Saturday night. Those are things we need to do. Now, my phrase of 'loosest coach in America,' that can't change.



You're going mock turtleneck at MSG, right?



The theme is, The Mock In March, baby. The Mock In March. We're going back to it.



bchamilton@tribune.com



Twitter @ChiTribHamilton