Notre Dame reportedly targeting Albany’s Hamlet Tibbs for open assistant position
Notre Dame head coach Mike Brey initially targeted Labor Day as a timeline for filling the vacant assistant job created by Ryan Humphrey’s late June departure for Oklahoma. It appears he’s operating well ahead of schedule, though.
Brey is targeting Albany assistant Hamlet Tibbs for the same position on the Irish staff, according to a report from ESPN’s Pete Thamel.
Tibbs spent one season at Albany and joined the Great Danes’ staff after seven years at Vermont. The Catamounts won four America East regular-season titles and reached three NCAA tournaments during Tibbs’ tenure. They went 16-0 in conference games and set a program record with 29 wins in 2016-17.
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Before Vermont, Tibbs was a high school assistant coach at The Albany Academy from 2009-14. He also was the head coach of the junior varsity team and a history teacher at the school. In that same time frame, Tibbs served as the assistant director and a volunteer assistant coach of the Albany City Rocks AAU program, which plays on the Nike EYBL circuit.
Tibbs was a student manager at West Virginia and graduated from there in 2007. He is a native of Troy, New York.
Brey stated this month he was willing to give a younger coach a look for the third spot. His two hires last season sided more with experience. He brought associate head coach Anthony Solomon for a third stint on staff. He hired former Irish guard Antoni Wyche, who had been an assistant at Lehigh and Siena from 2009-21.
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“A year ago, we came back with experience with [Solomon and Wyche],” Brey said. “You can maybe come back a little younger. That has been on my mind.”
Tibbs fits the up-and-comer mold. He has eight years of experience as a Division I assistant, but all at the mid-major level.
Humphrey, an All-Big East forward at Notre Dame in 2001 and 2002, left the staff June 29 and was announced as an assistant at Oklahoma July 1. He’s a Tulsa, Okla. native who played two seasons for the Sooners before transferring to Notre Dame after the 1998-99 season. He joined the Irish’s staff in June 2016.
