NIL era has overhauled ACC basketball coaching ranks and positioned Pat Kelsey to thrive

Posted by Admin January 20, 2025 Basketball

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Over the last few years, half a dozen of the ACC’s most accomplished basketball coaches have decided to walk away from the sport. After years of sustained success, many are suffering from burnout.

Jim Boeheim, Roy Williams, Mike Krzyzewski, Mike Brey, Tony Bennett and Jim Larrañaga have all departed from the ACC since 2021. They were responsible for 30 Final Four appearances and 10 NCAA titles.
“There’s no question it pushed my burnout quicker,” Mike Brey said. “And, again, 23 years was a long time, but my last couple years, man, I was hanging on for dear life. I was worn out.”
“God works in mysterious ways,” Pat Kelsey said. “A lot of areas that college basketball has moved to, I’m pretty good at them. And I actually even enjoy them.”

Notre Dame basketball player Nate Laszewski graduated with a bachelor’s degree in management counseling in 2022. He wasn’t going to be an NBA player, but he was out in Las Vegas practicing and looking for an agent to help navigate a professional career in Europe when Mike Brey called.

Brey — with an infantile collective (Notre Dame’s “FUND” launched in January 2022) and unsure whether what he was about to say was entirely legal — propositioned Laszewski: “Nate, I’ve got $100,000 if you come back.”

Laszewski thought it over and called Brey back two days later.

“Thanks, coach, but I’m gonna move on.”

“So I double down,” Brey said, breaking the fourth wall for a moment in an interview with The Courier Journal. “And (this is) a total fabrication.”

Brey told Laszewski: “It’s funny you call. Pat Connaughton, who plays for the Milwaukee Bucks and played for me, he just gave me $50,000 more for the collective. I got $150,000 if you come back and get your master’s.”

“OK,” Laszewski replied. “I’m back.”

Great news, except Brey didn’t actually have the money. Or any idea whether Notre Dame would be able to get it. Laszewski also sold his car before returning to campus, so he went to Brey asking for a new one. A name, image and likeness deal with a local dealership was set up to make it happen. But when Laszewski made his obligatory Instagram post about the car, tight end Michael Mayer asked for one, too.

That’s when, after decades in college basketball, Brey knew he had to retire.

“That’s how freaking crazy it was,” Brey said. “… My assistants would go, ‘What do you think?’ I go, ‘I have no (expletive) idea, fellas. Let’s just try and figure this (expletive) out.’… It’s a whole ‘nother level of managing, and there ain’t a whole lot of coaching in college basketball. It’s probably 20% basketball and 80% all that other stuff.”

Over the last few years, half a dozen of the ACC’s most accomplished basketball coaches have decided to walk away from the sport — most recently Virginia’s Tony Bennett less than three weeks before the 2024-25 season began and Miami’s Jim Larrañaga on Dec. 26. Many cite feeling like they’ve lost their “edge,” like they’re not the “right man for the job” anymore and the changing landscape of college athletics as reasons why.

After years of sustained success, some of the game’s most accomplished leaders are suffering from burnout. Monumental issues coaches didn’t have to deal with 10 years ago like the transfer portal, revenue sharing and NIL deals grow more convoluted and influential with each passing day. But folks like Louisville’s Pat Kelsey are savvy and have been able to thrive in areas their Hall of Fame predecessors did not — because they didn’t have to.

Management versus leadership

Many coaches get into the profession with the desire to develop and mentor athletes. To work with young people. To make an impact.

As their job description grows, coaches feel being pulled away from that. Denied their purpose. Dragged away from their why.

“Coaches have always worked as much as they’re working right now,” Dr. Marc Cormier, director of sport and performance psychology services for UK Athletics, told The Courier Journal. “… We’re asking them to do the same amount of work, but in areas that are pulling them away from the things that they may feel super confident about, or the things that feed their purpose.”

For Kelsey, new responsibilities don’t detract from his purpose. A lifelong basketball fan and admirer of the coaches in his life — from dad Mike to the late Skip Prosser — Kelsey views the profession as a combination of his two passions: hoops and teaching. The most joyful part of the job is when he’s in the classroom — better known as the film room or the practice floor.

But Kelsey didn’t obtain a bachelor’s degree at Xavier with coaching or teaching in mind. He wanted to be a businessman, like his father, who owns a car dealership in Indiana. His first Power Five job was director of basketball operations at Wake Forest. These experiences and Kelsey’s innate entrepreneurial spirit have prepared him for this era of college sports. See how his successful selling of Louisville’s “ReviVILLE” campaign has reinvigorated the fan base.

“God works in mysterious ways,” Kelsey told The Courier Journal. “A lot of areas that college basketball has moved to, I’m pretty good at them. And I actually even enjoy them.”

The transfer portal has created a year-round free agency window. In the NIL era, coaches find themselves at the mercy of boosters and collectives, which may or may not be able to compile the funds to sign high-profile recruits. Conferring with athletes’ agents and coping with year-over-year roster turnover doesn’t leave a lot of bandwidth for player development or genuine relationship building.

“I’ve heard a lot from coaches, both at UK and elsewhere, that coaching has become a lot less about coaching,” Cormier said. “There’s a fundamental difference between managing and leadership. And coaches see themselves as leaders. That’s why they get into the industry in the first place. But with this new structure, they end up doing more managing than actual leading. So I think a lot of them become a little bit discouraged with ‘This is not what sparks joy.’”

In 23 years as head coach of Notre Dame men’s basketball, 80 of Brey’s players obtained a college degree.

“That’s like 80 sons out there in the world,” he said.

Reunions, wedding invitations and the occasional “Coach, I appreciate everything you’ve done. … You made a man out of me,” kept Brey going as college athletics lurched toward professionalism.

“There’s no question it pushed my burnout quicker,” Brey said. “And, again, 23 years was a long time, but my last couple years, man, I was hanging on for dear life. I was worn out. The routine of it, and then the new stuff coming at you.

“… I was blessed. But, man, did it start changing.”

After two seasons in the NBA, where coaching retreats and musings over pick-and-roll defense aren’t interrupted by impromptu recruiting visits and whatnot, Brey has recognized that his system at Notre Dame got stale. He was pulled in so many different directions that the actual basketball suffered.

“In college, you were the mayor of your town, the fundraiser of your program, the recruiter,” Brey said. “You just didn’t have time. And I looked back like, ‘God, you’re learning again even though you’ve been in the game 40-some years.’”

Coaching has always been about multitasking. It is now more than ever, though. One must plan for the future while living in the moment. Stay in touch with former players while nurturing current ones and forming relationships with prospects. All while the pros and cons of the transfer portal and NIL market loom large.

In reality, multitasking isn’t actually a thing. “The idea behind multitasking is almost like a myth,” Cormier said. “Our brain is never really actively focusing on two things at once.” Instead, one quickly transitions from task to task.

Think about it like driving a car. One is either focused on the road, the music coming out of the stereo or the conversation they’re having on speakerphone. None of these tasks are being done simultaneously.

At one point during the drive, maybe they took a wrong turn and got lost. Time to hang up the phone and focus on rediscovering the route. Or suddenly the sky opens up and starts pouring rain. Time to turn down the music and concentrate on the road.

“The coaches that have the ability to recognize when this needs to be done are the ones that tend to be very successful,” Cormier said.

Defining burnout: ‘It’s very lonely being the leader’

The last five years or so at Notre Dame were the hardest for Brey. His blood pressure was really high then. He had trouble sleeping. And his doctor pleaded with him to make changes.

“It’s very lonely being the leader,” Brey said. “… You can get to some dark places when it’s not going good.”

Coaching isn’t just a career, UK sports psychology professor Dr. Ashley Samson told The Courier Journal. “It’s a lifestyle.”

A lifestyle that’s always been prime for burnout. The World Health Organization defines burnout as “a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.” There are three main components of burnout: depersonalization (“where you just sort of feel like you’re going through the motions,” Samson said), emotional exhaustion and reduced sense of accomplishment.

People-facing professions, as Samson refers to them — like teachers, nurses, journalists and coaches — are jobs that require a lot of emotional resources and often become an integral part of one’s identity. Individuals who chose these careers do so because they want to make a difference.

So when they feel they are, when they enjoy what they do, it can be incredibly fulfilling. But when they’re forced to complete tasks they feel take away from that purpose, it can be incredibly draining. For many coaches, NIL and college athlete free agency are incredibly draining.

In both their retirement news conferences, Bennett and Larrañaga detailed how these new elements of the job played a role in their decisions to step down:

“I think it’s right for student-athletes to receive revenue,” Bennett said. “Please don’t mistake me. The game and college athletics is not in a healthy spot. It’s not. And there needs to be change, and it’s not going to go back. I think I was equipped to do the job here the old way. That’s who I am.”

Larrañaga also lamented the current system: “The opportunity to make money someplace else created a situation that you have to begin to ask yourself as a coach what is this all about. And the answer is it’s become professional.”

He added, “They’re a great group of kids. It’s not their problem. It’s the system or the lack of a system. I didn’t know how to navigate through this.”

In 2018, Brey knew his Fighting Irish were on the NCAA Tournament bubble. He didn’t want to host a Selection Sunday watch party for fear of catching everyone’s disappointment live on TV. So instead he drove to the Grotto, a Catholic shrine on campus described as “a special place to spend a few quiet moments,” and listened to ESPN Radio on the way.

Brey prayed to God and Mother Mary on the Golden Dome as he braced for the list of ACC schools that made the field. In alphabetical order, Brey heard North Carolina State then Syracuse. Notre Dame was “first team out.”

The Fighting Irish wouldn’t make the tournament again until 2022. That, on top of all those South Bend winters and impending changes coming to college sports (the transfer portal would open for the first time six months later) weighed heavily on Brey.

Brey ended up taking an assistant coaching job with the Atlanta Hawks soon after leaving Notre Dame, so he clearly wanted to stay connected to the game. North Carolina’s Roy Williams didn’t want to walk away from the sport, either. When he announced his retirement in April 2021, Williams said he wished he could’ve won a championship and then “croak the next day.”

He added: “I just didn’t feel like I was the right man for the job. Because I didn’t think I was doing as good a job as I’ve done in the past, and I’ve had a hard time getting past that.”

Combating burnout and what ACC turnover means for Pat Kelsey, Louisville basketball

Having lost several titans of coaching in the last few years, the ACC — once the country’s premier conference for college basketball — is having a down year. Well, a down period.

In 2019, the league produced three No. 1 seeds in the NCAA Tournament. This year, ESPN Bracketology projects five ACC teams will dance come March — North Carolina and Pitt as No. 9 seeds, Clemson as a No. 8, Louisville as a No. 6 and Duke as a No. 1 — fewest of the Power Four conferences. The SEC leads with 12 projected bids, followed by the Big Ten’s 11 and Big 12’s seven.

Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim, Williams, Mike Krzyzewski, Brey, Bennett and Larrañaga have all departed from the ACC since 2021. They were responsible for 30 Final Four appearances and 10 NCAA titles.

“It’s a cycle,” Brey said. “… It’ll fall on the young guns that are at these places that are trying to move the needle.”

Kelsey is one of those young guns. Brey called him a “fabulous” hire. By mid-January, Kelsey surpassed the Cards’ win total from 2022-24 in one campaign and has given his squad full possession of second place in the ACC (behind No. 3 Duke).

“I’m going to do this for 20 more years, and I love what I do,” Kelsey said. “I made the choice to really embrace and see joy and see possibilities and see challenges in this new era. To capitalize on the new seismic shifts and run toward it. That’s what I try to do, centered in the sense of gratitude for what I get to do.”

For those like Kelsey who wish to adapt or seek longevity in the profession as it looks today, there are strategies for success.

First, reimagining work-life balance.

“We have a misconception that balance equals perfectly balanced,” Samson said. “… We think that means ‘I’m doing all the things perfect at work and all the things perfect at home all at the same time,’ and that’s just not realistic, right? So when we put that as the standard, sometimes we can become even more stressed out because we think we’re failing at work-life balance, because it doesn’t look pretty like we think it should.”

Kelsey feels this support from his wife, Lisa, and leadership at Louisville. His ethos and that of athletics director Josh Heird feel in sync. They’re both men of faith, husbands and fathers. Kelsey would understand if Heird was wary of 11-year-old Johnny Kelsey spending his after-school evenings at the Kueber Center with Dad. But Heird isn’t.

“There’s no such thing as true life balance,” Kelsey said. “I think if you want to be at the height of your profession and be successful at that, you have to have your work life and your family life all come into one. I’m really blessed, because I think it starts with having a boss whose values align with yours.”

Second, deemphasize winning and losing. Focus on behaviors that bring about positive results. Build culture, trust and communication. Delegate tasks to assistant coaches and support staff. (Sports administrators can be a huge help, Brey said, singling out his first basketball administrator at Notre Dame Jim Phillips — the ACC’s current commissioner.) Set boundaries like shutting off the phone after a certain time and getting eight hours of sleep a night.

Dr. Andreas Stamatis, mental performance specialist for Louisville Athletics, calls this “proactive adaptation.” He urges coaches to look within, identify symptoms of burnout — decreased motivation, mood changes, chronic fatigue — early and alleviate pressures best they can to avoid a full-on collapse.

“Focus on what you can do, the controllables,” Stamatis said. “… Everything else, it is what it is.”

And then more sweeping, widespread changes should be made as well. Stamatis called burnout a “systemic issue.” One we’ll “see more of” with “evolving pressures.” To combat that, more athletics departments need to provide genuine support for mental health resources rather than simply giving it “lip service,” as Samson put it. Efforts must be made from the athletics director down to create a culture where “It’s OK to be vulnerable, to make mistakes,” she added. “To be human, really.”

Stamatis also believes it would be beneficial if conferences created more programs centered around education on stressors like the transfer portal and NIL as well as mental health.

Just as well-known athletes like Simone Biles, Michael Phelps and Dak Prescott have opened up about their mental health struggles publicly, bucking the stigma that associates depression and anxiety with weakness and vulnerability, it could benefit the coaching profession if coaches took this cue from their players.

“They don’t talk (about it) so much because the coach is supposed to be the leader,” Stamatis said. “And if the leader is not super tough, how do you expect everybody else (to be)?

“Not everybody’s willing to open up and work with us. We are trying to help them, because by helping them, we don’t only help them, we help everybody on the team. If the leader is OK, the ship is going toward wherever it’s supposed to go. If the captain is not well, where are we going?”

Reach college sports enterprise reporter Payton Titus at ptitus@gannett.com, and follow her on X @petitus25.