After 23 years as an assistant coach, and after a long stint as Mike Brey’s right-hand man, Irish basketball associate head coach Sean Kearney has accepted the job to become the head coach at Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass. An official announcement from the university is expected later today or tomorrow.
Kearney, 49, replaces former head coach Ralph Willard, who left his post at Holy Cross last month to become a top assistant at Louisville under Rick Pitino.
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Kearney earns his first head coaching job at Holy Cross.
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It’s Kearney’s first head coaching job after a college career that started at Providence in 1986 under Pitino. He spent the last 14 years coaching under Brey at both Delaware and Notre Dame.
“We’ve been together so much, we’ve been like family,” Brey said. “This is really like your son or daughter getting good news. I wanted it for him, not only a Division I job, but a good one, and this is. I truly believe the coaching profession is happy today because they were rooting for Sean Kearney, because of the gentleman he is and how he has handled himself and people in 20 years in this profession.”
Kearney takes over program that has been a staple of success in the Patriot league, having reached the NCAA Tournament in four of the last eight years. The Crusaders went 18-14 overall last season, finished second to American in conference regular-season play, and lost to American in the league tournament final with a spot in the NCAAs on the line.
Kearney had his second interview for the Holy Cross job on Monday. He ultimately beat out a group of finalists that included Pittsburgh assistant coach Tom Herrion and Holy Cross graduate Rod Baker.
A native of Darby, Pa., Kearney held several important roles under Brey at Notre Dame, including helping to build the non-conference schedule, coordinating the recruiting efforts, and working with the post players. First-round NBA draft picks Troy Murphy and Ryan Humphrey both worked under Kearney, as did Torin Francis and Luke Harangody.
Brey said that he plans on moving Martin Inglesby, the Notre Dame coordinator of basketball operations, into Kearney’s coaching position. Ingelsby was a three-year starting point guard during his playing career at Notre Dame from 1997-2001, his senior season coming under Brey.
“Not only is he a Notre Dame man, he’s one of my guys,” Brey said of Inglesby. “I think it is important to have one of our former players recruiting. We got to move Martin right into that spot immediately for recruiting purposes. That’s my plan. I’ve been thinking about that for a while. I think he is one of the young, talented coaches in the profession.”
Brey said he hopes to fill Inglesby’s vacant position with another one of his former players or managers.
“Those are things I’m going to explore,” Brey said. “We don’t have to rush to do that as long as we have the coaching situation up and running.”
Tactically, Brey said that assistant Rod Balanis will take over Kearney’s role working with the post players.
“All I know is Rob Kurz and Luke Harangody, in getting ready for their NBA stuff, spent a bunch of time with Rod before they left,” Brey said. “Unlike football, guys have to work with everybody a little bit in basketball. They’ve got to cross over. You don’t have just true position coaches.”
Ironically, there is some recent history between Notre Dame and Holy Cross. The Crusaders came to the Joyce Center in March of 2005 and beat the Irish 78-73 in the first round of the NIT postseason tournament, in a forgettable swansong to the career of Chris Thomas.
Schedule Matters
In other basketball news, the repeat opponents are out for the Big East season and Notre Dame will play Connecticut, Cincinnati and South Florida twice this season.
It’s a bit of a downgrade from last year when the Irish had repeat opponents of Connecticut, Louisville and St. John’s.
In addition to those three opponents, Notre Dame’s other home league games at the renovated Purcell Pavilion at the Joyce Center will be DePaul, Pittsburgh, Providence, St. John’s, Syracuse and West Virginia.
The other six road games are Georgetown, Louisville, Marquette, Rutgers, Seton Hall and Villanova.
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