CLEVELAND - The blessing of being the son of an Olympic athlete meant Mike Brey grew up in a house where excellence wasn't requested from his mother but required.
It brought its own sense of pressure, one that Brey says fueled his rise from gym rat to Notre Dame head coach.
"To be around that intensity every day, maybe it wasn't the healthiest," Brey said with a laugh. "I'll probably need therapy later in life because of it, but I'll tell you one thing: she made me think about competing every day."
That drive is what kept him from telling his players about her death last Saturday at age 84 until after the Irish had held off Butler in overtime to earn a spot in the NCAA Tournament's Sweet 16. No need to burden his players with his grief. Betty Brey didn't do self-pity anyway. Not her style.
"She always made me feel like I could be special because she was," Brey said. "(It) gave me a lot of confidence."
Something Brey has passed on to his overachieving team. The third-seeded Irish (31-5) will try to reach the Elite Eight for the first time since 1979 when they face seventh-seeded Wichita State (30-4) in the Midwest Regional semifinal tonight. It's a dizzying precipice for a program that lost 17 games a year ago, one that has roared back much like its resilient coach.
Brey didn't share the news of his mother's passing until after the 67-64 win against the Bulldogs. Sunday morning, he told the Irish about his mother's remarkable life, from her spot on the 1956 U.S. Olympic swimming team to her role as the swim coach at George Washington University and her spot in the Indiana swimming Hall of Fame. Then it was a short trip to Florida, where he smoked a cigar with his father and celebrated his mother's memory.
By Monday, Brey was back on campus in the safe cocoon basketball has always provided from the time he first slipped off to camp with his brother at age 9.
"I think coaches are the greatest compartmentalizers in the history of the world and have to be to survive this thing," Brey said. "There is such a good vibe and positive energy coming off this team, it's really good for me to be around it this week and get back and be busy and teach."