Notre Dame Men’s Basketball: Hamlet Tibbs Officially Announced as New Assistant Coach

It’s been almost a month since the reports circulated online that head coach Mike Brey was targeting Albany Great Danes assistant Hamlet Tibbs as the newest addition to his Notre Dame Fighting Irish men’s basketball staff, and after ND’s typical delayed background check/HR processing and procedures, it’s finally official.

Tibbs will replace former Irish assistant Ryan Humphrey, who left his alma mater for the first collegiate program he played for, taking an assistant role on Porter Moser’s Oklahoma Sooners staff. Humphrey had assistant-coached the Irish since 2016.

Brey himself said he would be targeting a youthful, energetic, hungry assistant to go along with the more experienced guys he now has in Anthony Solomon and Antoni Wyche, and sure enough he went with a somewhat green (at least, in terms of high-level collegiate coaching experience) but promising young assistant in Tibbs. His most impressive coaching accomplishments came during a 7-year stint with the Vermont Catamounts, serving asn an assistant and helping the team go 166-61 (92-18 in conference play) during that time. Vermont won 4 regular season titles and 3 conference tournament titles while he was on the staff.

Following his time there, Tibbs coached last year at Albany under their new head coach Dwayne Killings, with the team going 13-18 in that initial season as Killings started working on rebuilding that program.

Prior to those two jobs, Tibbs coached for 5 years at The Albany Academy and also was an assistant director and volunteer coach with the Albany City Rocks, an AAU program with numerous successful college and pro players comprising its former rosters, including Tobias Harris, Jimmer Fredette, Kevin Huerter, Isaiah Stewart, and current Irish freshman J.J. Starling.

Before his coaching days, Tibbs played basketball at Hudson Valley Community College and then transferred to West Virginia to get a degree specializing in coaching while serving as student manager for John Beilein’s Mountaineers.

Overall, it’s nice to see a young, promising assistant with some nice success at the small-conference level (and some exposure to Beilein, which never hurts) being added to Brey’s staff with a chance to prove himself in the ACC, as he can probably bring a lot of energy and relatability both to coaching the Irish and in hitting the recruiting trail.

Welcome Hamlet, and go Irish!