Everything Notre Dame coach Micah Shrewsberry ahead of trip to Las Vegas for Players Era Festival

Notre Dame men’s basketball will play in the second annual Players Era Festival in Las Vegas next week. The Irish, led by head coach Micah Shrewsberry, played in the inaugural event last year, which offers NIL money to programs for participation, and came home with three losses to Rutgers, Houston and Creighton after guard Markus Burton suffered a knee injury in the Rutgers game.

This year the Irish (4-1) will play against No. 24 Kansas (3-2) on Monday at 3:30 p.m. EST on TNT, Rutgers (4-1) on Tuesday at 1 p.m. EST on TNT and third team to be determined on Wednesday or Thursday.

Shrewsberry met with reporters Saturday before the team started it travel to Las Vegas. Below is a transcript of that press conference. Questions may be paraphrased. His answers aren’t.

How would you describe the state of the program after five games into the season?

Shrewsberry: “I guess it’s about where I thought we’d be. I think we’ve definitely improved defensively. I think we’ve definitely done some things to help us in that area. Our transition defense has been pretty good. Our defensive rebounding has been pretty good. Us protecting the paint has been pretty good.

I feel like our defense is ahead of our offense, but it also is we have to adjust to how people guard us. Different people guard us in different games. They try and take away certain things from game to game. Some of it’s new, because we don’t go against it every day. Now with the more games that we get, the more comfortable I think we’ll get. So, I think our offense will keep improving, and I think our defense will keep improving, because we’ll keep getting better at the fundamentals and things we’ve kind of already installed.

Why is playing in Las Vegas for the Players Era Festival, which includes NIL money opportunities, important?

Shrewsberry: “First and foremost, the obvious answer is we’ve recruited really well. It’d be cool to keep all these guys together. It’s a way we have to do it right now. We got to recruit well and you got to retain well. This helps us retain. It helps us keep our current guys on our team. That’s more important than anything.

“Then you got to challenge yourself. We’re gonna play three really good teams. We don’t even know who the third team is. Don’t even know the day and don’t know who the third team is. This is a — all right, end of the year you get to the ACC tournament and you got to play a bunch of games in a row, at least you’ve done it. At least you’ve had experience doing it.

“Everything we do throughout the year usually comes back at some point in time in the season. This could hopefully benefit us late in the year testing ourselves against three really good teams right now.”

Big picture what can this trip to Las Vegas tell you about the growth in your program from year one to year three?

Shrewsberry: “You get a chance to prepare for game one, and then it really flips on you pretty quickly. For us, we’ve prepared for Kansas. We know we’re playing Rutgers, so we got somebody working ahead on Rutgers that will help us. But what we give to our team is not going to be as in-depth as a normal game. And then game three, you gotta trust your system.

“I think we’re in a much better position system-wise, offensively and defensively, in how to handle something unknown. It’s much different than where we were last year. We feel good about what we’ve done up to this point to be able to handle this.”

Is something you personally relish— the chance to trust your system and find out for yourself how it is in year three with that third game?

Shrewsberry: “Yeah, I think so. You really got to believe it. But you also got to believe in everybody on your team, too. The guys that we’ve brought and recruited — this is a situation where you need everybody. Some teams are built to play three games in three days, and some people aren’t. It’s going to be taxing even if we sub and do whatever. But I feel good about the guys that we have coming off the bench that they can play long stretches if guys get in foul trouble or guys need to rest more. Being able to play some of these games early and get different guys different minutes, different experiences. The younger guys would be better equipped to be ready for whatever happens out there.”

Speaking of guys coming off the bench, Cole Certa and Ryder Frost obviously bring the shooting threat, but the minutes have been a little inconsistent. What are you looking for from them to stay on the court longer?

Shrewsberry: “Cole, he’s really only had one game that his minutes weren’t consistent. That was more matchup dependent. He’s gonna play for us. He’s gonna play for us every game. There’s times even throughout this year going into the season where we’ve talked about trying to get him and Braeden [Shrewsberry] out there together. I think there’s lineups where we can do that.

“Ryder’s just in a tough spot. Sometimes it’s situational, game to game and what we need, too. Garrett [Sundra]‘s done a good job. He’s not flashy. He’s steady. He may not put up crazy numbers, but our defensive numbers are off the charts when he’s in the game. So sometimes you got to play him, but there’s 20 minutes left that we’re just kind of waiting for Ryder or Brady [Koehler] to kind of take those minutes. Either one hasn’t been really consistent, but it’s hard to be consistent with inconsistent minutes. If we can get him to be a little bit more consistent, I think it will really help him. But you still want to use him because of his shooting ability.

Even without Darryn Peterson, what kind of challenges can Kansas present? What have you seen from them?

Shrewsberry: “I was thinking about this. Last year we played the number two pick in the draft (Dylan Harper on Rutgers), and this year we were slated to play the number one or number two pick in the draft out here (Peterson). There’s still opportunities. There’s a lot of good teams out there.

“Last I checked, Kansas is still Kansas. Bill Self still recruits really good players. I’ve watched Flory [Bidunga] play so many times in high school. He’s an Indiana Mr. Basketball. He’s a fantastic player for them. Talking to the Duke guys — one of my buddies there, he’s like he’s my favorite player in college basketball besides the dudes on Duke that he coaches. He’s an awesome player.

“Bryson Tiller’s a McDonald’s All-American. He’s a great player. Now you have some older guys with them that are veterans of college basketball. I think Tre White is 4-for-4. We played him two years ago at Louisville. Now he’s at Kansas as a senior. Melvin Council [Jr.], a senior. They got an older experienced group and then some super talented guys and a Hall of Fame coach. It’s gonna be a challenge no matter who they have on the roster or on the court in that uniform.”

How will facing a team like Kansas earlier in the season help your team grow?

Shrewsberry: “We haven’t really seen it. They’re gonna play with Peterson out, they start two bigs. This is the first time we’ve really played against it. Ohio State played a 4 that was bigger, but then they downshifted some a lot you. Their two best players now are their two bigs. Going against those two guys, how do we handle that? Which we can see more as we get into ACC play. This is our first opportunity to kind of play against a double big lineup, kind of see where we’re at. We got to be able to keep rebounding the ball on both ends of the court versus big lineups. This will be our first test to do it.”

How much does it help to be able to go deeper into your bench at an event like this?

Shrewsberry: “It’s quick turnarounds. You’re gonna need everybody. And there’s also the unexpected. Hopefully nobody gets hurt while we’re out there. That’d be cool. Whatever way we go out there, we come back in the same condition. But if something unfortunate would happen, we got guys that can move and shape and do different things.

“You take a guy like Sir Mohammed, for instance. Sir has never practiced at the 4 in practice. Not one day. But we’ve put him into that in big situations this year, and he’s just like, yeah, I can do it. I know what everybody’s supposed to do on the court, so I can slide over here and do this. We have a few people that can do it. Having more depth and having more pieces that are multi-positional can really help you from game to game just based on what you need.”

How much has being healthy and making strides helped Sir Mohammed?

Shrewsberry: “Being able to move and do different things, but also his level of how comfortable he is this year. Never being healthy last year, he didn’t show a lot of things that he can do. We played him out of position a little bit. Now he’s got the ball in his hands more. I recruited him because of his passing ability, because of his thinking. Now he’s attacking off the bounce, he’s getting into the pain, he’s scoring and he can pass it. He can help us run offense.

“This is a team — Melvin Council’s a really good defender and is gonna push up full court. You can give the ball to Jalen [Haralson], you can give the ball to Sir, and those guys can bring it, initiate and start our offense. Having different guys that can move around — Sir being one of those guys, his versatility really helps us.”

How has Kebba Njie embraced a different role this season? What’s the key to keeping him engaged and prepared for moments where he may be needed more?

Shrewsberry: “He’s all about team. He’s all about winning. He is the lone guy that’s been in an NCAA Tournament on our team. He really cares about that, and he wants to get back to it. So, he’s kind of taking it like, all right, this is what the team needs from me. But there’s games where he doesn’t play much. He didn’t play much against Bellarmine, and he was back here that night working. Then he was back the next day with Coach [Kyle] Getter getting on the court. Continuing to do what the team needs is not gonna be an issue with him. He is as team-first as they come.

“This is a big game. We’re gonna play a big team. We need his defense and rebounding to go up to whole other level this week. That’d be really important for us.”

Do you stay on Eastern time next week? How nice is it to have relatively nice start times instead of the late tips last year?

Shrewsberry: “We can stay on Eastern time, because of how early we play. But because of how quick the turnaround is, it’s a lot different than going to Stanford and Cal and being there for a week. We’re only there for four days maybe. Something like that.

“The early times really help you. Where you get crushed is going West and playing late. I forget what time we play it’s like 3:30 and one o’clock. That’s pretty cool for me and for our guys. They should be excited about that whole atmosphere. Just as long as we’re not staying up late.”