May the road rise to meet him ...

 ... which is part of a traditional Irish blessing, and that seems appropriate this morning, because this morning a man who has been Irish to the soles of  his shoes for 23 years begins the road to retirement.

This upon the news that Mike Brey will be stepping aside as Notre Dame's men's basketball coach at the end of this season, and what you can read between the lines of that is he's tired. He's got a team that surprised a lot of people last season in a good way, and now it's surprising a lot of people in a bad way.

Based on last year's 24-win, NCAA tournament run with a team that was expected to do nothing, see, the Irish were expected to do something this season. Instead they're 9-10 and 1-7 in the ACC, and Brey (according to insiders) can't seem to reach his guys anymore.

This likely isn't the only reason he's decided to hang it up, mind you. He is, after all, 63 years old and has been coaching a long time. And mostly doing so very well.

If Digger Phelps was Notre Dame buckets back in the day, Mike Brey is Notre Dame buckets now. He's won more games than any coach in the program's history (472). He's overseen 16 20-win seasons. He's taken the Irish to 13 NCAA Tournaments, including back-to-back Elite Eights in 2015 and 2016, 

When he inherited a program that had fallen down and couldn't get up 23 years ago, he immediately took it to three straight Dances. Even made it to the Sweet 16 in 2003.

So, the guy could coach. Perhaps just as importantly, he wasn't a dick about it.

He is, in fact, one of the best people in the profession, and you'll hunt a long time before you find anyone who says otherwise. Those of us who covered him, even if only occasionally, recognized instantly that here was not only a good coach but a good man. If the University of Notre Dame has ever had a better representative, I can't think of one.

Which means a school as fiercely protective of its public image as Notre Dame got not only a coach who could coach, but a coach who buffed that image to a high gloss. Talk about your luck of the Irish.

Talk about looking over at the Irish bench next season, and seeing an awful hole there.