Everything Notre Dame HC Micah Shrewsberry said at ACC Tipoff

Notre Dame head men’s basketball coach Micah Shrewsberry answered several questions at Atlantic Coast Conference Basketball Tipoff Media Day on Wednesday in Charlotte, N.C. Here’s everything Shrewsberry said.

On his impressions of where the ACC stands

“I think that the ACC has such a phenomenal basketball tradition. I think that’s what stands out, first and foremost. You look back over the years, it’s a basketball league. The amount of players that have come through, the amount of coaches, and there has been turnover here recently. You think about whether it’s [former Duke] coach [Mike] Krzyzewski, whether it’s [former North Carolina] coach [Roy] Williams, whether it’s [former Syracuse] coach [Jim] Boeheim, all those coaches that have made a change, but there’s still a lot of great coaches that are here.

“Obviously, you start with Tony Bennett and the success that they’ve had at Virginia. You think about Leonard Hamilton, who’s still a pioneer of college basketball. Especially for a young Black coach like me, Leonard Hamilton is somebody that we’ve all tried to strive to see what he’s done.

“Then you have other coaches that are not as recognized quite yet as great coaches, but I know how good of a coach [Georgia Tech’s] Damon Stoudamire is, right, from his teams at Pacific and how they played, and now him gaining that experience in the NBA. I know he’s going to have Georgia Tech rolling here pretty soon.

“[Virginia Tech coach] Mike Young, who anytime I get a chance to sit down and talk to Mike Young, I sit down and talk to him because he’s a phenomenal offensive basketball coach. I don’t watch a lot of college basketball to pick things up, but I’ll watch Mike Young’s teams play because he is such a great offensive coach that there are things that he’s doing that we can pick up on.

“And then obviously I didn’t mention him at the start, and he doesn’t go with anybody else, but [Miami] coach [Jim] Larrañaga and what he’s been able to do at Miami, going to the Final Four last year. I’ve known him for a long time. I worked with his son Jay with the Boston Celtics. He’s a fantastic man and a fantastic coach.”

On leaving Penn State to go to Notre Dame and being part of the ACC

“I’ll start with [the ACC]. Being in the ACC is different. I didn’t grow up as an NBA fan. I knew Michael Jordan, obviously, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson. I followed that. But I grew up a college basketball fan. Growing up right across the river from Louisville, Kentucky, Louisville was like my team as a young kid, so I grew up knowing Milt Wagner and Billy Thompson, and Herbert Crook, [Clemson head coach] Brad Brownell.

“Brad Brownell was someone that I watched and knew about. I grew up a college basketball fan. Knowing Duke, knowing North Carolina, North Carolina State, like Chris Corchiani, Rodney Monroe, like those are players I remember way back in the day. So the ACC, this is cool for me to be a part of now and say, ‘I’m a head coach here.’

“Notre Dame is special. I’m an Indiana kid. I grew up in this state. I grew up in the state of Indiana. Now I get a chance to represent one of the major schools in our state; also get the chance to represent one of the major brands in the country.

“I walk around with [the Notre Dame logo] on my chest, and everybody knows what this is. It’s very recognizable, and not just in Indiana. It’s recognizable across the country. It’s recognizable across the world. People know what it is. It’s a major brand. It’s like the Dallas Cowboys, it’s like the New York Yankees. There’s Notre Dame, also. There’s a love-hate affair with it, and I love that people want to hate us just because I’m wearing this logo.

On if being the Notre Dame head coach is surreal for him

“It’s very surreal for me. It’s obviously a full-circle moment. I’ve said this many times, and I talked about it at my press conference, that [in] 2005 I was the head coach of Indiana University South Bend, and driving home, I came straight up Ironwood and made a right turn at the gas station at Martin’s and went to my house. But I would always see campus, and I would always go there and tailgate for football games.

“My wife would take my son [Braeden], who’s a freshman at Notre Dame now. She’d go and walk him around, push him around in the stroller around the lakes. Like this is surreal for me. At that time in 2005 I wasn’t thinking about, ‘Hey, in 2023 you’re going to be the head coach at Notre Dame, but that wasn’t a goal of mine. It’s something that the opportunity arose, and it was something that I couldn’t pass up.”

On what makes him believe this is the right time to bring the Irish back up the ranks

“For us, we’re a program that’s really built on development. I don’t think about anybody’s expectations but our own as a program. So all we’re focused on is getting better every single day and improving every single day. I want guys that fit Notre Dame and I want guys that fit me as a coach. When you find that, that’s when we’re going to have success, and we have it.

“An opportunity for a player like Matt Zona or JR Konieczny or a Tony Sanders to stick around and stick this out told me a lot about them as people, as players. But then to bring in a Kebba Njie, a Tae Davis, Julian Roper, our freshman class — those guys fit Notre Dame, but they fit me as a coach, and it’s not going to handcuff us from having success early and sustaining success in the future.

“That’s all I’m looking for, is guys that fit me, and these guys are proving it every single day. Like we’re going to be tough, we’re going to be aggressive, we’re going to be nasty, but we’re going to be fun to watch because of the style of play that we want to play offensively.

“I love doubt. I love people that have a chip on their shoulder just like these guys do. I love being an underdog. I’ve been counted out my whole life. This ain’t nothing new right now. You might get us, but you’re not leaving without any bruises or any flaws. Like it’s not going to be easy.

“I said it earlier, if anybody thinks they’re coming up into Notre Dame and it’s going to be a cake walk, they’ve got something different coming.”