Notre Dame Men’s Basketball Coach Could Be on His Way Out of South Bend
Notre Dame men’s basketball has lost its footing in their third year under Micah Shrewsberry, dropping their last five games, moving to last place in the Atlantic Coast Conference, and is 2-10 overall in conference play. So, how did Notre Dame get here? The Irish were off to a good start to the season, despite going 1-2 at the stacked Players Era Festival, as they were off to a 9-4 start, beating two good teams in the same week, Missouri at home back on December 2nd, and TCU on the road in overtime three days later. That all changed when Markus Burton went down in the TCU game, putting Notre Dame’s go-to scoring option on the shelf and the ACC-leading scorer a year ago out indefinitely. After that game, Notre Dame has gone 4-12 and has struggled to find its identity and a new scoring threat, which has reopened the question: How much time does Shrewsberry have left as the coach for the Irish? Notre Dame men’s basketball head coach is running out of excuses. He can recruit anybody to the university, as proven by receiving a five-star commit in Jalen Haralson. Shrewsberry has the talent, the staff he wanted, and he redefined the culture for Notre Dame.
The Irish have been a respectable program for a long time, dating back to the Mike Brey Era, winning an ACC title and appearing in the Elite Eight two times, but NIL chased him away to the NBA. Brey did it with less, running guys for 40 minutes a game in his last year and only going one to two deep off the bench, which was a huge depth concern. The Irish nation has been blessed with what Brey has, the fans, and what Shrewsberry has not, progress. It took Brey only two years to get Notre Dame to the NCAA Tournament, something Shrewsberry has failed to do and has stayed at the bottom of the ACC, with no initial progress, and it does not seem like that will change.
Shrewsberry has yet to give the Irish 20 wins in a season, hasn’t created depth or have a backup plan for if Burton gets injured, and has yet to get the Irish to the middle of the conference. However, he recruits great, but why keep him around? The only possible answer to keep Shrewsberry around is Burton being injured and the season going downhill. Plus, Micah’s son, Nick Shrewsberry, is enrolling next fall along with a good recruiting class, such as Jon Sanderson, who could be Burton’s backup point guard. Things are not looking great for Notre Dame or for Shrewsberry; fans are getting impatient and frustrated, and his time could be over sooner rather than later.
