During his nearly nine-year run as the Notre Dame head coach, Mike Brey has demonstrated one thing above all else.
Over short spurts, he can be quite good and produce solid results. But over the long haul, Brey clearly falters and runs out of gas.
In other words, Brey has little trouble covering short distances but when asked to stretch it out, he all but stumbles. Put another way, Brey seems equipped to handle sprints but don't expect him to manage a marathon.
And because of that fact, the 49-year-old Irish coach has a major problem, as does his program.
It's irrefutable that under Brey, Notre Dame basketball can't sustain any sort of excellence. Brey must own up to the truth that during his watch, the Domers have shown absolutely no staying power.
Although the shocking collapse of Brey's current team has left the Irish faithful distraught and stunned, it nonetheless follows a pattern that has long since been established. With Brey running the show, ND's fortunes fluctuate wildly. The Irish are up, they're down, they even spend some time in the middle.
But one thing they're not is consistent. Nor dependable. And reliability and stability are the bedrocks of any top-notch program. In this regard, with Brey at the helm, the Irish have fallen woefully short.
Inheriting a team on the rise when he took over for the departing Matt Doherty, Brey helped guide the Domers to three straight seasons of 20 or more wins that culminated with a berth into the Sweet Sixteen in '02-'03. At that juncture, the program seemed positioned for a memorable era. Happy days were here again. Or so everyone thought.
But instead of building on that success, Brey's Irish started to slide. Over the next three years, the Domers wallowed in mediocrity in the Big East and could only secure postseason spots in the unsatisfying NIT. Needless to say, that amounted to a huge letdown.
Legitimate questions began to be raised about Brey's recruiting skills as well as his ability to coach up some of his more notable players such as Chris Thomas, Torin Francis and Dennis Latimore.
Much of the cache that Brey had built up early in his Irish career was all but gone in the wake of his failure to get back to the NCAA tournament. Reporters were starting to take their shots at him and the dissatisfaction among Irish fans was palpable.
At a stage when he should have already established a firm foundation from which to operate, Brey had instead created an expanding cloud of doubt about his aptitude to get the job done.
But then, just in the nick of time, Brey seemed to find an answer during the next two campaigns. Totally overlooked and not considered to be a factor in the Big East, the Irish confounded the experts by finishing fourth and tied for second in one of the nation's toughest conferences.
Plus, ND's eye-popping totals of 24 and 25 wins seemed to signal that Brey had gotten his team out of the doldrums and had it primed for a lengthy resurgence.
But not so fast. Brey was about to take another deflating trip south.
And this with a team that was a consensus preseason top ten selection. A team with the reigning Big East Player of the Year in Luke Harangody, tons of experience and nary an excuse not to succeed. The feeling was that the Irish were almost a lock to reach the Sweet Sixteen, if not advance even further. Optimism abounded.
However, Brey's troubling pattern of inconsistency reared its ugly head. Once again, he was about to get caught up in a down cycle. Oh sure, one can lay a good deal of the blame on underachieving players as well as you should. But make no mistake, Mike Brey's fingerprints are all over this catastrophe.
And unless the Domers can do something miraculous and roust themselves, this will arguably be one of the most disappointing and frustrating seasons in the annals of ND hoops.
When he was tabbed Big East Coach of the Year in successive seasons, Brey was justifiably praised to the hilt and was the recipient of countless bouquets. Now that he's helped put the Irish in the toilet, he should be condemned and criticized with equal fervor.
The trouble with Brey is that you're never really sure what he'll produce. While it might be something highly satisfactory, it just as easily could be sub par or even a downright bummer.
No one, least of all this writer, would ever claim that Brey doesn't have plenty of selling points. In some respects, such as the classy manner in which he represents his university, they don't come any better. He's great with the media and, by all accounts, he connects with his players on many levels.
Yet, there's no getting around the fact that Brey is very much a mixed bag. Sure, there's the good Mike but neither can you close your mind to the bad Mike. As much as it may pain his supporters, for every one of his positives, it's not hard to come up with a counterbalancing negative. Those who view Brey honestly, must acknowledge his ledger sheet is full of both pros and cons.
And some of those cons are quite damning.
For whatever reason, Brey has never been able to impart to his teams how to play sound and tenacious defense. Throughout his tenure, the Irish have been extremely vulnerable when defending and, in critical spots, seem incapable of getting big stops. So much of succeeding at the defensive end is about fundamentals, desire and want-to. Brey has failed miserably in getting that message across.
Brey has also lagged in demonstrating he can develop depth coming off the bench. Can anyone remember the last time ND went eight deep? And what's been the result of this paucity of help off the pine? Overworked and rundown starters who often labor at season's end. It's perplexing and inexcusable that Brey hasn't figured out a way to get a bigger contribution from more of his reserves.
Brey must also take a hit for his inability to land more pure athletes. The type that are long and excel at jumping, getting out on the break and can cover like the devil. Brey has greatly limited himself by recruiting too many of the same type of player. He should have broken out of his box and made it a higher priority to import more physically gifted recruits.
Add to all this the fact that when you breakdown Brey's numbers, you don't come away overly impressed. Sorry but making the Big Dance only five times in nine years counts as failure to me. There's no reason whatsoever that the Irish shouldn't be a regular participant in the NCAA tourney.
Here's another damning stat against Brey and this one is chilling. Unless the Irish dramatically revive themselves this year, Brey will have had but a single Big Dance win over the last six seasons. That kind of futility usually gets you fired.
And be sure to shade your eyes when you get a load of Brey's mark in the Big East Tournament. Abysmal doesn't even begin to describe it. Nor does embarrassing. How does a pathetic 3 and 8 grab you?
So while Brey might have some things over which to be proud, not the least of which was a magnificent 45-game home winning streak that only recently ended, the turtlenecked one also has more than a few faults for which he must answer.
There's just no getting around it. There's the Brey that wears the white hat and there's the Brey who's just as likely to don a black one. In many ways, what you'll get out of Brey is impossible to predict.
But of one thing I'm certain. While Brey might be great coming out of the gate, he's not likely to be there at the finish. Stamina isn't one of his strengths. He's fine for short clips but you can take it to the bank that he'll fade down the stretch.
As a sprinter, Brey can hold his own. But when it comes to going the distance, he seems truly out of his element. After nine years, Notre Dame was hoping its coach would have developed a lot more endurance. Short bursts just don't cut it anymore.