'It really affected me': Everything Micah Shrewsberry said at Notre Dame media day

Notre Dame men’s basketball head coach Micah Shrewsberry spoke to local reporters before Wednesday’s practice in the Rolfs Athletics Hall for the program’s media day.

Shrewsberry is preparing for his third season as Notre Dame’s head coach, which unofficially started Friday with a 77-76 exhibition win at Butler. Below is a transcript of everything Shrewsberry said in his press conference with reporters.

Questions below may be paraphrased. The quotes from Shrewsberry aren’t.

Last year was about survival. How can this year be about sustaining success at Notre Dame for the long haul?

“There’s days and there’s groups as you coach. And even here, recruiting-wise, like who we recruit, the number one thing for me is they got to fit Notre Dame. You have to find guys that fit Notre Dame that know what it’s about. Those are guys that are probably going to have success here and probably guys you’re probably going to keep here.

“Number two, you need guys that fit you. I got a group of guys that fit me this year. Practice has been fun. Practice for me has been encouraging every day, because these guys, they fit what I’m looking for. They are good kids. They love basketball. They have our assistants on the court nonstop, because these dudes are in here — every single guy from Markus Burton to Luke Devine. These dudes are in the gym nonstop on a daily basis.

“Then they are super competitive. You got to cut practice, because there’s a point in time where it’s like we have to play games. If we keep going in practice, we’re going to tear each other apart. So, we got to stop at certain moments, because that’s how competitive they are too.”

The one word that keeps coming up with this group is belief. How important is believing not only that they can be good, but they will be good?

“Belief’s a crazy thing, isn’t it? One way or the other, you usually trend that way. They believe it. That’s step number one. It’s a message that we’ve preached, but it’s also a message that when I’m not around them and they’re in the weight room, they’re getting the same exact message.

“That’s a benefit of having [director of men’s basketball strength and conditioning] Jon Sanderson, who’s been around successful teams, has been around teams that have gone to the tournament, that’s had pros — whatever it may be. He’s preaching the same exact thing in that belief. They’re starting to see the results of it. So, yeah, let’s keep doing it. Let’s believe in the right way this year.”

What has the Sanderson effect meant to this team, both physically and from a confidence standpoint?

“I think physically you can see differences in guys. We’ve got a few more guys that have hit the over 200-pound mark. Just body-wise. Braeden [Shrewsberry], Logan [Imes] and Cole [Certa], all those guys that have gotten stronger and bigger. That’s a part of when he got here — what is the message and what is the philosophy for us offensively and defensively? He’s a guy that’s played.

“So, he’s spending a lot of time with Coach [Kyle] Getter, who’s running our defense, talking about what do we need to get better at. Let’s get better guarding the ball. OK, let’s work on our hip mobility and our slides guarding the ball. Let’s be physical with our upper bodies, hitting people. Just little things like that with somebody that understands it.

“And then we’ve talked about our mentality as a team. We’ve got to be tougher. We’ve got to win games down the stretch. We were 6-7 in games that were six points or less. We’ve got to win those games down the stretch, and that starts with your mentality. Six of those were we had double-figure leads. Let’s be tougher mentally and physically this year. That’s been a cumulative effect from our staff of what we’ve really harped on.

What mentality does Notre Dame have to have to close those games?

“Just gotta be better. You’ve got to be able to handle failure better. You’ve got to be able to handle success better. We were the same team that got those leads. Now when we get those leads, let’s handle it the right way. When we get those leads and it starts to go the other way, let’s handle it the right way. So, our physically and mentally being stronger in all those areas has been an area that we’ve all really talked about.”

What are some of the differences people would see between last season and this season?

“I think we’ve changed a few things schematically. If you watch us offensively and defensively, you’ll see a lot of differences. If you’re paying a lot of attention, you’ll notice the differences of what we’re doing. It fits our group better in how we’re playing.

“We really struggled at the rim, guarding people at the rim. We’ve been good on the perimeter and how we’ve guarded. We need to get better guarding the ball one-on-one. I think everybody in America talks about that. We haven’t allowed people at the rim much. When they’ve gotten there, they’ve scored. So, now let’s keep them outside of that area. Let’s not let them get to that area.

“We’ve been a pretty good defensive rebounding team, so let’s continue that. Really hammering our bookends defensively, transition defense, guarding the ball better, pick-and-roll defense, defensive rebounding. Then offensively, trying to play at a much faster pace, pushing after makes and misses, having a lot of guys that can run, that can try and get up the floor and attack you. I’ve talked about with our guys, be relentless offensively in our pace for 40 minutes.

How does Jalen Haralson make Notre Dame a different team, better team?

“I talked about the teams like the groups that the best teams I’ve been around as a coach, as a head coach, as an assistant coach. We’ve always played with two point guards. Not necessarily two true point guards, but you played with two guys that are capable of pushing the pace in transition, playing in pick-and-rolls, handling the ball — two facilitating guards at one time. This is the first year we’ve had it. We’ve never had it in that way. We haven’t had the depth to do it.

“Now with he and Markus, now Logan, who’s had an unbelievable summer and fall, and now Sir Mohammed is playing back in position. Last year, he was playing out of position because of what we needed. Now he’s back handling the ball, playing in pick-and-rolls, doing that. You can constantly have two of those guys out there at the same time. Our offense flows better.

I know there’s a scoreboard and wins and losses, but what’s your measure of success this year?

“I don’t know what that is. I’m a competitor. I want to win every single game. I can’t sleep if we don’t win, and neither can our guys. But as long as we show that fight on a daily basis, that togetherness. I stayed after the game Friday, because there were probably 8-10 of those Butler guys that came back, to get a chance to talk to them after the game about what they saw. None of them mentioned anything about the game. They talked about our physicality as a team, and they talked about Sir throwing the ball off of a guy with two minutes left and the entire bench running down there and celebrating in a meaningless game with two minutes left.

“They were like, you’re culture’s strong. They know it, because they lived it. I showed our guys that clip. I said, this is a meaningless game. This doesn’t mean anything if we win or lose this game. So, it’s easy to do that. Now let’s do it on a night where I don’t score. Now let’s do it on a night where I’m not playing as much because the guy next to me is playing better. If we’re still doing that at the end of the season, then we’re getting the results that we need.”

Where have you challenged Markus and where has he improved the most this offseason?

“One of the things is he’s improved his conditioning. And that’s been a challenge. For as good as he played, as many minutes as he played, he hadn’t been in the best shape. Part of that is when you don’t have a strength coach when you’re a sophomore for most of your season. That probably affects it too. But he’s getting in better shape. We’re challenging him to pick up full court a little bit more, pushing the tempo after makes and misses. His decision-making has been really good. I know he turned the ball over the other night, but it’s also some stuff we hadn’t worked on yet. He’ll get better in that way. His leadership, talking more. And then his physical efforts to guard better in the full court, but also how he’s moving the ball. He’s really improved in those ways.

What did you see in a meaningless game that gave you something to build on?

“There were a lot of good things from it. It’s your first exhibition, so we didn’t prepare. So, not knowing how they were going to play, not knowing how they were going to try and attack us, you go in a little bit blind. So, it challenges your communication on both ends of the court. It challenges how you play.

“I thought we did a good job of like just keep playing, keep moving to the next thing, keep not getting discouraged by things that went bad. Then it’s really to get a bunch of film and learn from it. We played guys in some different shifts five minutes at a time. I wanted to see different lineups and different groups.

“I was happy with how we played. I was happy with how we competed. You say, yeah, this game doesn’t mean anything. But at the end, we wanted to win too. So, that was fun for us.

What about chemistry with so many fresh faces? How are you helping build that chemistry within this Notre Dame team?

“They’ve done it a lot themselves. We have seven guys returning. We have four freshmen that were coming in. So, automatically 11 people that were pretty connected. Even though those freshmen weren’t here, they spent a lot of time around our guys. The guys that are their teammates they spent a lot of time with during the recruiting process as well. Talking to those guys and doing things. So, 11 of them were pretty connected coming into it. Then the other guys have just seamlessly kind of easily transitioned in.

“You had Carson [Towt], who’s just a great personality and a great leader that has taken different guys under his wing and taken them out on his own and built that camaraderie with them. We have a lot of guys that if guys aren’t necessarily quote-unquote named captains, they’re still really good leaders. Sir Mohammed doesn’t say much, but he’s a great leader, and he’s all about team. We have a bunch of guys like that.

“The chemistry has been good, because we have so many guys that our care factor is high, which is something that you want to see from a team. We have a high care factor. We have a lot of dudes. On most teams you’re like, well, everybody cares. No, not on all teams. Everybody doesn’t care. They might care about how much I score. They might care about how much I play. But the care factor for how good our team can be, how close we can be, your culture, we have a high care factor in that.”

How reassuring is that as a coach to be at this point where you are now with your culture?

“It’s getting there. I think you have to constantly work on it. It’s something that the moment you take your eye off of it and you take your foot off the gas and it can go quickly. But we have a more player-led culture. They understand it.

“The difference between our team this year and a lot of teams across the country and maybe teams in the past, we had a real spring. We had seven guys returning, and they said they were coming back really quickly after the season ended. When you take the mandatory time off after the season, we got back to work pretty quickly and those guys got better.

“It’s little things that we didn’t talk about. Like, I come down for a workout and every single one of these dudes is dressed alike. We don’t have a rule for that. In practice, yeah, everybody wears the same practice gear. But when you’re working out, I don’t really care. I came from the NBA. Just be ready to practice. But now these guys are setting the standard. Like, no, today we’re wearing blue shorts and white shirts. It might not mean much, but they all do it. They’re all on board. So now when the freshmen get here and the new transfers in the summer, it’s a part of what we already do. And it wasn’t anything that we talked about as coaches. It’s player-led. When you have that, that’s when you have success.”

Kebba Njie talked about improving his motor this offseason. How have you seen that show up on the court?

“He’s playing harder for longer stretches. You talked about the stuff in the weight room. Those guys lift. They lift nonstop. They lift, like, seven times a day. But Kebba, Sir Mohammed, guys that needed — everybody’s not the same. So, they do different stuff. Those two dudes got on the VersaClimber all summer. So now Kebba at the end of the lift is going over there with everybody behind him cheering. He might be the only dude on it, he and Sir, and everybody else is finished. But they’re over there with him and cheering for him. It forced him to push through hard things and finish.

“He had more to give, but it was a way to kind of bring out that he had more to give. So, him getting in better shape has been great.

“And then him being pushed by Carson has been great on a daily basis. For all of our team, you line up across from somebody every day in practice and it’s like, man, that dude can play too. So, there are no nights off. And Kebba does not get a night off because Carson’s motor runs nonstop. So, his motor has to run nonstop or there’s going to be a huge difference in practice.

How influential has Towt been as far as the toughness that you’re talking about with this team?

“I told him, he’s like the perfect guy at the perfect time for what we need. I had an older sister. I had two older sisters. My older sister, Michelle, is as tough as they get. You’d be in the neighborhood. and if anybody picked on me, I would go home, and I’d tell my sister. Nobody wanted to mess with her at all.

Carson’s your big sister?

“He’s got long hair. But he gives that effect to some guys. Am I going to take a cheap shot at this dude in practice? Like, probably not, because big brother’s over there on the other side. He’s got that constant kind of presence, but he’s got that constant talking, too, and reassurance at all times.”

How do you notice yourself grow as a coach leading this Notre Dame program?

“You know what, man? I sit back and reflect on a lot of stuff. Last year was one of the more stressful seasons I’ve ever been in. And we had so much stuff going on off the court and then injuries, everything else. It affected me. It really affected me.

“Now being able to go back and look through that, being able to go back and think through that, how I wasn’t at my best for these guys all the time and letting too much stuff happen. I needed people to fit Notre Dame. And we have it on the court. But we had some things and some changes off the court that have really, really helped me. [Notre Dame men’s and women’s basketball general manager] Pat Garrity has been awesome, and a game changer for me as a coach. And Jon Sanderson has been a game changer for me as a coach. And [associate director of sports medicine] Courtney [McNamara Martin] has been a game changer for me as a coach.

“And then our assistant coaches, we’re more comfortable together. These guys, I’m giving them way more responsibilities, because now this is Year 3. We all know what we’re doing. We’re all where we’re at as a program. There’s a lot more smiles during practice for me, and a lot more smiles in the game that’s coming, because I’m really, really enjoying this right now.”