When Notre Dame lost by 15 points at home to Louisville last February, then second-year head coach Micah Shrewsberry stood firm in his conviction to rebuild his struggling basketball program, which eventually finished 15-18 in 2024-25 and 13-20 the prior season. “Don’t give up on these kids,” he implored in the post-game press conference, “I know I can coach basketball and I know I’m turning this program around.” Almost a year later, on Jan. 27, despite displaying immense grit and tenacity, Notre Dame lost at Purcell Pavilion to No. 17 Virginia 100-97, dropping the Irish to 0-11 against ranked AP opponents under Shrewsberry. In short, the team and its head coach desperately needed to break through on Tuesday night, but again fell short. While passionate displays during press conferences and post-game meltdowns with refs show you care, wins show you can coach basketball. Shrewsberry’s seat is growing hotter as his promises seemingly appear empty.
Shrewsberry arrived in South Bend in 2023 with a strong resume from his time at Penn State; he developed a quality offense and led the historically bottom-tier Nittany Lions to their 10th NCAA tournament appearance in program history earlier that year. With former Irish head coach Mike Brey leaving the Irish and Shrewsberry in full rebuild mode after a largely successful 23-year tenure, the team needed a shift in identity. In his introductory press conference in March 2023, Shrewsberry emphasized two things: defensive identity and individual player development. “I'm a defensive guy first … I think that gives you a chance to win,” he said. “[Notre Dame is] a program built on player development and built on improvement … I think if we’re growing and getting better as individuals, we’re getting better as a team, and that’s what we want. We want our team to get better, and we want to peak in March.”
After his first season, while his team’s 13-20 record did not exactly reflect it, Shrewsberry appeared to be on the path of securing this intended outcome. Though the offense struggled immensely, the team’s surge of impressive conference wins against Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Wake Forest and Clemson late in the season proved the Irish had a defense — and therefore, as he argues, a capable team — steeped in promise. Shrewsberry also found an elite centerpiece in ACC Rookie of the Year guard Markus Burton. While the Irish finished 352nd in scoring offense at 64.0 points per game, they were 50th in scoring defense with 67.2. In retrospect, however, the early potential has been unfulfilled thus far.
Before the 2024-25 season opener, Shrewsberry claimed to have focused on his offense during the offseason. “Our pace has improved,” he said in a Nov. 6, 2024 press conference. “Our biggest improvement is our ball movement, how we're sharing the ball with each other." At first, it showed; the Irish won by an average margin of 19.5 in their first four matchups. However, in part due to then sophomore Burton sitting out for seven games with a knee injury following the Nov. 26 matchup against Rutgers, the offensive issues resurfaced midway through the season. The Irish did manage to improve from 234th to 95th according to KenPom; on first blush, such improvement should have led to wins. The impressive defensive display in year one, however, cratered in year two as the Irish dropped from 39th to 121st.
After ending the season with a loss to North Carolina in the second round of the ACC Tournament on March 12, Shrewsberry commented, “We were a really tough, gritty, nasty defensive team last year, and we spent a lot of the offseason trying to be better offensively. At times, we lost that grittiness and that toughness that we needed. Our numbers defensively weren’t very good."
All of this to say, entering this year, Shrewsberry still had a lot to reconfigure and needed to find a lasting bedrock in his third campaign. With 10 games left in the season and the Irish sitting at 11-10, it is clear that it is not trending in that direction. Ever since the Dec. 5 TCU matchup in which the Irish lost Burton, who was averaging a team-high 18.5 points and 3.7 assists per game, to an ankle injury, Notre Dame has lost seven of its last 11 games. In four of their last six, with games against Clemson, Miami, Virginia Tech and North Carolina, the Irish have lost by a deficit larger than 10.
While some grace must be lent to the team — the loss of an elite point guard creates an immediate crisis — the “individual player development” mentioned by Shrewsberry in 2023 is meant to shine through in times like these. After three years at the helm, there is little excuse for such a lack of contingency after the loss of one player. No team has an excuse for blowing a 19-point lead against Virginia at home as the Irish did on Tuesday night.
It is understandable if portions of the fanbase consider a change in the head coaching position necessary. To put it simply, if you consider the ACC a five-tier conference in terms of pedigree, Notre Dame has no reason to be in the fourth (or fifth), given its tradition and the resources available. Brey led his team to the tourney 13 times in his 23 seasons, with regular appearances in the rankings. No one expects them to be as good as Duke or North Carolina, but Notre Dame clearly can and should be on the level of Virginia Tech and NC State.
While not an annual powerhouse, the Irish should certainly be making the tournament more often. The 2026-27 Notre Dame team must hear its name called on Selection Sunday next March; it must finally peak then, or anytime post-early December. It is certainly possible. Although he has a young roster, Shrewsberry has delivered plenty of talent to South Bend; sophomore and junior guards Cole Certa and Braeden Shrewsberry, freshmen wing Jalen Haralson and forward Brady Koehler have flashed enough talent to translate into wins. If Shrewsberry can deliver on his promises, the team should be more than enough for the Irish to do a jig, especially if Shrewsberry can recruit an experienced big man out of the transfer portal.
If not, there should be no more post-game press conferences for Shrewsberry after next season. It is long past time to deliver.
