Mar 26, 2015 07:00 PM EDT By Russell Westerholm, UniversityHerald Reporter

Notre Dame Fighting Irish (3) head coach Mike Brey will lead his team against the Wichita State Shockers (7) with a heavy heart, mourning the death of his mother.

According to the Associated Press, Brey knew of his mother's passing before his team played Butler, a game they won to get to the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16. Betty Brey was an Olympic swimmer; she died at the age of 84.

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Brey said he gets his competitive intensity from his mother, which was why he chose to let his players focus on Butler rather than his family. The coach said that would be something his mother would not have allowed him to do.

"To be around that intensity every day, maybe it wasn't the healthiest," Brey said jokingly in a pregame press conference, according to the AP. "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.

"She always made me feel like I could be special because she was," he said. "[It] gave me a lot of confidence."

His attention is now on Wichita State, a team on a similar journey. Like how Notre Dame knocked off Butler to be the last team from Indiana standing, Wichita State did the same with Kansas last weekend.

Wichita State may come from the non-Power-5 Mountain Valley Conference, but their recent track record in the Big Dance is nothing to scoff at. The Shockers added Kansas to a list of defeated foes that already included Ohio State, Louisville and Kentucky.

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