by Jordan Beckley
Nobody ended the season hotter last year than… well National Champion UConn I guess. But Micah Shrewsbury, Jalen Pickett and the Nittany Lions ended the season on a pretty high note too. Winning 9 of their final 12 games down the stretch put a National spotlight on Happy Valley and specifically Shrewsberry. His stock had risen and every AD with an open spot wanted him.
Shrewsberry had quickly rebuilt Penn State, undoubtedly a football school, to be relevant in College Basketball. Not only were they relevant but the fans cared again. Micah had built a home in Happy Valley and his son, Braeden, was on his way to play for him. It would be a difficult decision to leave town. However, there was one job Micah Shrewsberry couldn’t pass up.
After 23 years of Mike Brey being the man in charge, the Notre Dame job opened up with Brey stepping down. Brey had a legendary career in South Bend ending as Notre Dame’s all time leader in wins, but it was time for him and the university to move on.
An opportunity to take the mantle in one of the Big three universities in his home state of Indiana was one that might never be there again for Shrewsberry. He couldn’t say no.
We Grow Basketball Here
The Indiana Pacers’ eye-roll inducing motto from a few years back, “We Grow Basketball Here” was a not so subtle nod to corn, Larry Bird, and all of the stereotypes about the state. Still, if you ever take a visit to New Castle, Indiana and walk through the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame, you get a better understanding of how much the state does grow Basketball players and minds.
Everyone knows Bird, John Wooden, Oscar Robertson and the movie Hoosiers. Not everybody realizes the great minds that have come from the state. Walk through the museum and you can learn all about the many great coaches grown in Indiana. Scott Drew, Steve Alford, Matt Painter, Brad Stevens even Greg Popovich are some of the great coaches with a connection to the state. Pretty soon, Shrewsberry might be apart of this list.
Grow up in Indiana like I did and you will constantly hear the phrase, “In 49 other states it’s just Basketball” to describe the state’s passion for the sport. I didn’t understand it until I lived somewhere else.
In Ohio, basketball is like hockey, lacrosse or any other sport. I mean they probably like Baseball better in Ohio. Baseball! So, when I went to Ohio State and found out that people didn’t grow up obsessed with Basketball, I was shocked.
Where I grew up you were categorized based on what College team you rooted for. Most kids were either a Purdue fan or an IU fan. Notre Dame fans were the third group and it was usually from some sort of a grandparent or family connection.
The worst kids were the Notre Dame football fans who became IU fans for basketball. As we got older Notre Dame became better and better under Brey and those split fans started to disappear.
Brey got the Fighting Irish fans to care about another sport.
The Brey era peaked in 2014-16 range when Jerian Grant, Demetrius Jackson, Zach Auguste and Pat Connaughton starred in South Bend. The 2014-2015 team won the ACC Conference Tournament and came just short of a Final Four berth as Jerian Grant’s three was just too long against unbeaten Kentucky.
The 2015-2016 team rebounded from losing Grant and Connaughton to the NBA, and made another run to the Elite Eight beating Michigan and Wisconsin along the way. Still, the Fighting Irish and Brey fell short of the Final Four again after being beaten up by UNC for the second time in 16 days.
The Brey era had tremendous highs but was inconsistent. Notre Dame missed the tournament 9 times under Brey’s term. No matter what though, the Irish consistently had great players. From the Jerian Grant and Demetrius Jackson backcourt, to the gaudy box scores of Luke Harangody, to the other All-American Hansbrough brother in Ben, to the bowling ball that was Bonzie Colson, and all the way back to Troy Murphy.
Brey (almost) always put a fun form of basketball on the court.
Mike Brey is the all time leader in wins and will go down right there with Digger Phelps as the best coach in Notre Dame History.
So, who do you hire after the best coach in school history? How about one of the hottest names in coaching, who was raised in Indiana and has coaching ties all over the State.
Micah Shrewsberry, Indiana Journeyman
Micah Shrewsberry is tied to Indiana like a bowline knot to a dock.
Shrewsberry was born and raised in Indianapolis. He went to Cathedral High School in Indy. He played College Ball at Hanover College in southern Indiana. After graduating, he went into coaching and stayed in state of course. His first few seasons were spent on opposite sides of the Monon Bell rivalry working for both Depauw and Wabash. From 2003-05, he took a brief break from the Hoosier State to be an assistant at Marshall before returning to be Head Coach at Indiana University – South Bend.
After going 15-48 in two seasons at IUSB, Shrewsberry took a job under new Butler Head Coach Brad Stevens. Shrewsberry was back in Naptown and his career was about to take off. Sometimes coaching careers is all about timing, and Micah timed it perfectly.
Stevens was an up and coming assistant to Todd Lickliter, who used a Sweet 16 run at Butler to land the Iowa job. We all know what happened next, as Stevens would guide Butler to be a perennial top 10 type team and make two National Championships in 2010 and 2011. Shrewsberry was right there the whole time on the bench and in the huddle with Brad Stevens, Gordon Hayward, Shelvin Mack, and Matt Howard.
After the second Final Four trip, Shrewsberry left the Butler bench and went north to Purdue and Matt Painter. The first season was a decent one as Purdue went 22-13 and were close to upsetting no. 2 seed Kansas in March Madness. The second season was a slog. Purdue went 16-18 and missed the tournament for the first time in seven seasons.
After the difficult year, Shrewsberry left West Lafayette and rejoined Brad Stevens in Boston as Stevens became the new Celtics coach. Shrewsberry and Stevens would reconnect for the next six seasons. In that span, they would rebuild the Celtics around a core of new draft picks in Marcus Smart, Jaylen Brown and eventually Jayson Tatum. The Celtics made the playoffs five of those years and even went to two Eastern Conference Finals. After losing to the Bucks in the Eastern Semis in 2019, Shrewsberry left Boston and returned to Matt Painter and Purdue as Assistant Head Coach.
Shrewsberry coached at Purdue for another two seasons. He was known as the offensive coordinator for the team. He coached them thru the weird Covid-19 season where Purdue was a bubble team, and then the All-Big Ten Trevion Williams and Jaden Ivey freshman season.
Being mentored by two great Head Coaches in Brad Stevens and Matt Painter had built up his name and reputation. He wasn’t going to last long as an assistant coach. Shrewsberry was hired by Penn State for the 2021-22 season after the weird full interim season for Jim Ferry after Pat Chambers’ unceremonious exit.
Shrewsberry inherited a team that went 11-14 the season prior. Coach Shrews had to scratch together a roster in the middle of a transfer portal evacuation and it was too late to recruit a full class of Freshmen. He did his best and Penn State competed going 14-17 and winning 7 games in the Big Ten. Things might have started to click as the Nittany Lions won two games in the Big Ten Tournament before losing to his former school Purdue.
Next season Penn State struggled to find its form out of the gate going 14-11 and being 5-9 in conference play. That was when Jalen Pickett and Shrewsberry unlocked something. The Nittany Lions reeled off that win streak I mentioned in the open winning 5 of their last 6 Big Ten regular season games, wining 3 games in the Big Ten Tourney before again losing to Purdue and Painter in the championship, and even upset the 2nd place SEC finisher Texas A&M in their first March Madness game.
That hot streak catapulted Pickett onto draft boards and Shrewsberry back to South Bend. 18 years after the Indiana native had his first head coaching job at IU South Bend, Coach Shrewsberry was taking over the job for Notre Dame.
A New Era at Notre Dame
Alright. So this piece has been meandering a bit about Indiana and Micah Shrewsberry’s history. Time to connect some dots.
Mike Brey made Notre Dame fans care about the Basketball program again. Shrewsberry made Penn State fans care about the Basketball program again. Notre Dame hopes that Shrewsberry can rally a football fan base around the Basketball program once again.
The Fighting Irish are an undecided bachelor in the midst of all of conference realignment. Amid newly invited ACC programs and potential departures, Notre Dame will look to see where they best fit. Shrewsberry very well could coach in the ACC, coach an independent schedule, be in a new conference or a combination of all three in the next three seasons.
Year one is guaranteed to be in the ACC. I mentioned year one at Penn State wasn’t great. Year one in South Bend will likely be miserable. The Irish’s roster was left in ruin with the departure of Brey as almost every player left in the portal. But in the transfer portal era, coaches can rebuild quickly.
In just a few months to his return to Indiana, Shrewsberry has been flexing his recruiting muscles. He essentially transplanted his 2023 Penn State class to Notre Dame with Carey Booth (son of Denver Nuggets GM and PSU great Calvin Booth), Zionsville guard Logan Imes, and his son Braeden. He grabbed three power 5 transfers in Penn State big Kebba Njie, Seton Hall’s Tae Davis, and Northwestern’s Julian Roper. But what is really impressive is his class in 2024.
Coach Shrews has already landed three Top 120 recruits in the 2024 class. Top 50 4-star Sir Mohammed, 4-star guard Cole Certa from IMG Academy, and 3-star forward Garrett Sundra. It’s already a Top-5 class nationally and it’s far from finished. More impact players will come in the portal. Shrewsberry grabbed starters in Pickett, Andrew Funk, and Camren Wynter for Penn State. I’m sure he will do the same for ND.
Micah Shrewsberry has plenty of stories and seen it all. Having worked under Brad Stevens and Matt Painter twice each. Having coached guys like Gordon Hayward, Marcus Smart, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, Jaden Ivey and Jalen Pickett. Having been in Northern, Southern, Western, and Eastern Indiana as a coach. His coaching background is steeped in Indiana tradition while also constantly being around the best in the sport. His recruiting experience is proven, continues to pay dividends, and has grown past just the Hoosier state.
The Indiana native is back home again in his state completing the extremely rare Indiana Cycle having coached at Butler, Indiana (South Bend – still counts), Purdue and now Notre Dame. Success has followed him everywhere he has gone.
Notre Dame is entering a new era for the first time in 23 years right as College Basketball is caught in the demolishing winds of realignment from Football.
Fighting Irish fans should feel excited that they could have the next great Indiana basketball coach who gets that “in 49 other states it’s just basketball.”