SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Notre Dame pulled back the curtain Tuesday afternoon and invited the media to take in 30 minutes of first-year men's basketball head coach Micah Shrewsberry directing his team in workouts at Rolfs Athletics Hall. Among the non-media observers were Irish overlapping athletic directors (in training) Pete Bevacqua and (outgoing) Jack Swarbrick.
Shrewsberry took questions for roughly 15 minutes. Here’s everything he had to say and most of what he was asked. Some questions were edited for brevity and clarity.
Q: How has the summer workouts been going?
Micah Shrewsberry: “Lot of teaching, lot of learning, trying to do small concepts. We haven’t played a lot. There’s a lot of stuff we’ve got to teach, we’ve got to change.
“Sometimes you’ve had people for a long time and they build habits. You’ve got to switch their habits a little bit, got to change their habits. Trying to figure out what we want to do and who we want to be and how we want to play, and figure out what our guys can do as well.”
Q: What do you see from Matt Zona that says maybe he can be a contributor this year?
MS: “One of the best things he does, he just talks all the time, and he leads. He’s the oldest guy that we have. So, his experience being in college, understanding what a practice looks like. And we haven’t had a practice. We're having workouts. We’ll get into some more ‘real’ practices in the next couple of weeks, so they know what it’ll look like when we start in the fall.
“But his ability to make shots stands out. His ability to rebound and be physical. But just his overall energy that he brings every day has been great.”
Q: What has your wife meant to you in the context of your career?
MS: “That’s probably the most important — I can’t do what I do if I don’t have her, because I’m gone a lot. [In] these transitions, the one thing that gets overlooked is your family and what happens. I took the [Notre Dame] job, and I just up and left. I grabbed enough clothes for me, and I left.
“And she’s in charge of taking care of everything. There are kids and activities, kids finishing up school. There’s a house that we’re trying to sell. There’s a house that we’re trying to buy. Like everything that goes with it. I’m an absentee father, basically what I’ve been since I’ve taken this job. But because of her job and her role, I can do this and feel good about it.”
Q: How cool is it going to be to be able to have your parents close enough to come to home games?
MS: “It’s cool. I didn’t get a chance to be at one of the recruiting events in Indy that my son [Nick] played in. He’s still in high school. And they were playing in Indianapolis on a Saturday and a Sunday, and we probably had 30 family members between my family and my wife’s family. So, that part of it is really cool for us, and that’s when it hit home.”
“It’s easy for them to travel to see us. It’s easy for them to jump in the car and be here soon — just to help. They love basketball. They want to be at basketball games, but they also want to see their grandkids grow up. They don’t really care about me anymore, but they want to see their grandkids, and they get to do that whenever they want to.”
Q: How would you describe the culture that you’re trying to build and what are some of the things you’re trying to get done right now to build that culture?
MS: “I think the biggest thing for us is how together we are. And that’s not always built by going to lunch or spending time together outside of basketball, but it’s how we respect each other. Those are kind of some of the biggest things.
“I talk to these guys all the time. We're going to make mistakes right now. Everybody’s trying to build habits, but the one thing we can’t lack for is energy. So, every single day that we walk in here, we’ve got to have energy, and we’ve got to have a lot of it.
“No matter what’s going on during your day. Guys are taking classes. The classes are really hard. Somebody might have broken up with their girlfriend. Somebody’s car might have broken down. I respect all of that, but when you walk in here, you better have some energy. Right? That’s what we’re trying to establish. That’s what I want this to be. It’s fun, but you’ve got to enjoy what you’re doing for us to learn, for us to be at our best.”
Q: Are they meeting those energy levels that you expect to see day in and day out?
MS: “At times. Like nobody’s perfect, but we’re going to get there. This is about establishing what it’s going to be on a daily basis, and we’re using this time to establish it. So, now when we get back in the fall, we know what the expectations are.”
Q: When you look at the players’ habits, where have you seen the most growth so far and where do you think they need to make the biggest leaps between now and when you start playing games?
MS: “We’re teaching a lot of new things. So, there are things like — not necessarily just our guys, but just about everybody across college basketball or high school basketball. Things that they aren’t talking about or emphasizing they need to work on. So, I don’t want to help every team in America. They can figure that out for themselves, but there are things we’ve got to do better, that we’ve drilled, that are going to help us be really good offensively, that we’re trying to work on right now.
“There are days where you’re like, ‘Wow, we’re making progress.’ And there are days when you’re like, ‘We’re not making any progress at all and we’re back to square one.’ That’s where the habits have to come in. We’ve got to do it more. We've got to drill it more. The thing that’s hurt us is the summertime is crazy for us, as coaches. Like, we’re on the road recruiting a lot, and it takes away a lot of the time that you have to grow as a team, to build as a team.
“I think we’re getting better individually, which we put a major emphasis on, but I think our cohesiveness as a team has been slowed.”
Q: How has J.R. Konieczny been developing so far?
MS: “He’s a guy who brings a lot of energy. He plays at a fast pace. We've got to get him to slow down some. Everything can’t be at the same speed. That’s something he’s really worked on. But he’s way more comfortable shooting the basketball. He’s making a lot of open shots. He’s taking his time when he is getting those opportunities, which is going to open up some of those straight-line drives.
“He’s really good at those. Now, him being able to play off his shot is going to open that up even more. He's comfortable shooting. I don’t know if he was comfortable shooting when we first got here.”
Q: What is your offensive approach?
MS: “We haven’t put in any offense. We haven’t played five-on-five very much, because there are concepts of the game that are going to be different, that are going to take some teaching and some teachable moments. So, we try to fast-forward to other parts of it.
“We’re going to run some plays, but I don’t have a vast playbook. Everybody talks about this vast playbook. It’s not. It’s a lot of reads of what guys are doing. I try to teach those reads. I try to teach what’s going to happen, and then we react to that. But we’ll figure it out. We’ll get there. We’ve got more guys who haven’t played [in former coach Mike Brey’s system] than those who have. So, there’s no learning curve with those guys, trying to figure out what I’m trying to do.”
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Q: What’s the one word you would use to characterize this team, in a very short time of being together?
MS: “That’s a good question. One of the best things I could say about them is their determination, I think. We’ve worked them really hard. Guys are in the gym. How we’ve set up our schedule and how we’re doing things, like you’ve got to have some determination to get through it.
“School’s already hard, but we’re also doing a lot of stuff on the court. Like, [strength coach] Greg Miskinis is working them in the weight room, and when you see some of them, you’re probably going to notice that their bodies have changed in a short amount of time.
“Guys are getting bigger and stronger or slimmer, with what they need to do, but that takes a lot of effort. And that’s from everybody on staff. We’re putting them into the fryer a little bit and making things tough, to see how they’re going to get through it, how they’re going to fight through it. And I think they’ve shown a lot of determination.”
Q: Do you feel that it’s a new era for the team?
MS: “It is new, right? It’s new for me, and I love experiencing this. And it’s new for them, so I think they’re enjoying coming to practice every day, because they’re learning brand new things. They’re seeing brand new things. So, that part of it’s been fun. Now, we’ve got two more weeks left on what we want to do and sharpen up before we head home on our break.”
Q: Has anything surprised you about your team so far in preseason?
MS: “No — I didn’t have any expectations. That’s the one thing, I’m not really thinking about coming into this like, ‘this is who are.’ I didn’t have any preconceived notions of that. We took the first two weeks to decide and look at them and say, ‘What does this guy do best? What does this guy do best?’ I can recruit them all I want, but I want to work with them to see it up close and personal.
“And I think we build that. Now we’ve seen it. Now we try to develop a plan to make them the best players that they can be and then try to help them do it within our team structure.”
Q: You promised there’d be a lot of conditioning, and we’ve seen videos of it on social media. How have the guys responded to it so far?
MS: “There have been some really, really tough days, which is fun for them. They’re coming together. They’re in small groups. They’re challenging each other. They’re competing against each other. I think that’s one of the biggest things. I’ve talked about our camaraderie as a group. I’ve talked about our energy as a group, but competitiveness is one of the things I really lean on.
"I want guys who want to compete against each other and want to compete every time we step out here, because that’s me. I’m a competitor, and if I can’t beat you, I’m going to fight you. I want our group to be the same exact way that I am.”
Q: What has been the reception on the recruiting trail with the rising sophomores and rising juniors, and what has been your message?
MS: “It’s been good. We're excited about where we are. We’re excited about what we’re selling. I think that’s the biggest thing. We've got a lot to sell. We’ve got great guys. Like getting people here has been great for us, because they get a chance to see what Notre Dame is all about, but they get a chance to spend time with our guys. And I think that’s the important thing.
“From [players] 1 to 11, they’re great guys, but we really sell those four freshmen, because they’re going to be here the longest. They’re going to be the guys they [the recruits] get a chance to play with. So those four as people, those four as recruiters are about as top-notch as they come.”
Q: You’ve only been here a few months and already you have a new athletic director. What do you know about Pete Bevacqua and his vision for the program?
MS: “I’m still excited about it. Nothing that Notre Dame does is not thought out. That’s the one thing. Pete and Jack [Swarbrick] align really well in their vision for this place and their vision for our basketball program as well. So, I’m excited to be here and spend more time now that Pete’s here. Really sit down and dive into him and spend a lot more time with him.
“This is fun for me, Like, he’s Notre Dame. He understands this place. He loves this place. And when you have a passion for this university like I have a passion for this basketball program, they’re going to align really well.”
Q: What have you seen from Markus Burton that leads you to believe he can be a point guard for you as a freshman?
MS: “He’s done it. He hasn’t done it at the college level, but how he’s played. The major thing for him is I want him to be himself. He doesn’t have to be who I think he should be. He doesn’t have to be [former Penn State star under Shrewsberry] Jalen Pickett. He doesn’t have to be like anybody I’ve ever coached before. He just has to be the best version of himself on a day-to-day basis.
“There’s going to be a learning curve. There are going to be some ups and some downs, but as long as he stays confident through those, I think that’s the biggest thing for us, as coaches. We've got to help him through the tough moments. Everybody’s good in the good moments. Help him through the tough moments that he’ll have as a freshman, and he’ll be OK.
“There are freshmen who are out there being successful. We played Purdue three times. Braden Smith played great against us as a true freshman, stepping out there. Now, he had a more veteran team around him, but we’ve got some guys who have played, too. So, we’ll help him. We’ll put him in the right spots. I don’t want him to overthink things. I just want him to be himself and play the way he can.”
Q: What does Northwestern transfer Julian Roper II bring to the team?
MS: “Julian brings a level of toughness that I think every team needs. Every program needs a guy like him. His energy, his toughness, his ability to fight is just something that if you have it, it’s great. I think I’d be concerned if we didn’t have that level of toughness [on our roster]. But he can score the basketball. He can do other things offensively, but I think his calling card is what he can do defensively, how he can be disruptive, how he can get into the passing lanes, how he can guard and be physical but also help us on the glass.”
Q: He was a big part of Northwestern’s turnaround. What does he bring from that perspective?
MS: “Just experience. He’s gone up against two of the better guards in the country in the last few years in practice every day, in [Chase] Audige and Boo Buie. So, he understands the level that you have to play at on a daily basis, how hard you’re going to have to play to be successful. His experience is going to be much needed for us.”
Q: What kind of player is Kebba Njie, and how does he help you guys?
MS: “Kebba has the ability to do a lot of things. He’s played in our system for a year [at Penn State], so he understands it. He understands what his role is going to be. He understands what we expect of him. But also, he’s going to have the ability to grow now.
“He played with four other — sometimes five other — seniors playing the majority of the time. So he had to be like, ‘What can I do to stay on the court?’ So, be an offensive rebounder. Be a guy who defends. His ability to score the ball with his back to the basket is going to be helpful for us. Sometimes you’ve got to throw the ball into the post and you’ve got to score in the paint, and he can do that.
“He can score with his back to the basket. He can get you offensive rebounds, get to the free-throw line, but he understands everything else on the perimeter and he’s made shots at a really good level. So, you could see how much he’s worked on it and how much he’s improved. I’m excited. He's gotten bigger and stronger. He’s gained at least 25 pounds since he walked in the door at Penn State. So, he looks like a totally different kid. We’re excited about what he’s going to bring for us.”
Q: Kebba Njie talked about being an underdog and really seemed to lean into it. How does that approach work for you?
MS: Yeah, we fit each other, man. I recruited him for a couple of years and I’ve coached him. And my personality and his personality click. He’s an easy-going kid, but he’s a competitor and a fighter. He loves it. As a freshman in college he’s starting and going against [Purdue All-America center] Zach Edey. And he’s going against [former Michigan center] Hunter Dickinson, some of the best players in the country. And he didn’t back down from any of them. Now it’s his turn to step up and deliver some of those blows and some of that punishment to other people.”
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