Micah Shrewsberry makes pitch for Notre Dame students to attend early games

Notre Dame head coach Micah Shrewsberry had a clear message for Irish fans ahead of a season opener next week: Get your tickets and start cheering now, because he wants people who believe.

And the Irish head coach, heading into his first season, thinks he has a group of players easy to root for. He made an impassioned pitch after a recent exhibition game.

“If you can’t get behind this group, I don’t know who you can get behind. Like these dudes, like I said, we’ve got good kids. We’ve got really good kids but nobody’s perfect. We all make mistakes. We’ve got really good kids. We’ve got kids that had committed to Notre Dame when a lot of other people bailed on Notre Dame. There were a lot of people that had an opportunity to stick around here. A lot of people we recruited had an opportunity to come here and be a part of this, and they said no to it. Because they didn’t believe in what we were doing. These kids did. They did. They believe in Notre Dame. They love this place. And they compete as hard as possible with that Notre Dame on their chest, man. Like, if you can’t get behind that, I don’t know what you can get behind, man,” Shrewsberry said.

Shrewsberry continued, highlighting the “purity” of Notre Dame and all it entails.

“There’s a purity to this place. I see people show up at a lot of places and the coaches are doing bad stuff, man. The players are doing bad stuff and they show up and celebrate that. Like if you can’t get behind this group right here, then you’re not like us, then. You’re not like. These are great kids, and you can support these kids and be a part of this trajectory. Like, show up. If you don’t show up, it means you’re really busy or you believe that we’re going to be 15th in the ACC. I don’t prepare like we’re 15th in the ACC. Not at all. I prepare like we’re going to the tournament. I prepare like we’re going to the national championship game. And that’s how those guys give up their hearts every single day while still going to class, while still doing everything to be really good basketball players, but they’re fighting for Notre Dame, man,” Shrewsberry said.

And Shrewsberry wrapped up his call to action for Notre Dame fans with a simple bet: Come to a game, cheer the Irish on, and if someone isn’t in on what’s going on after that, Shrewsberry can be fine with that.

“Show up and support them in that same exact way. Just give us one chance. Just give us once chance — if you don’t like us, don’t come back. Don’t come back. But if you do like us, you’ll be like, ‘Man I was here from the start’ when this thing takes off. Because it’s taking off and it’s taking off in a hurry,” Shrewsberry said.