Report: Mike Brey, Shaka Smart turned down Georgetown advances

You certainly can’t accuse the Georgetown Hoyas of failing to cast a wide net in their search for a new head coach.

According to a report by Gary Parrish of CBS Sports on Tuesday, Mike Brey of Notre Dame and Shaka Smart of Texas both turned down advances from the Hoyas, who fired longtime head coach John Thompson III earlier this month.

Brey is a native of nearby Bethesda, Maryland and graduated college at neighboring George Washington University. But he’s been at the helm of the Fighting Irish for nearly two decades and has led them to two Elite Eights in the last three years. Meanwhile, Smart is best known for putting VCU, another university in close proximity to Georgetown, on the map with a stunning Final Four appearance in the 2011 NCAA Tournament. But though he has only been head coach at Texas for two years and is coming off an 11-32 season where the Longhorns missed The Big Dance altogether, Smart has a top-10 recruiting class coming in next year and seems perfectly content to stay in Austin.

Still, plenty of other qualified candidates appear to be in play, so the Hoyas should have no trouble finding a worthy heir to their head coaching throne.