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Quick hitters: Micah Shrewsberry explains how Notre Dame can build off back-to-back wins

IMG_7504by:Jack Soble•01/30/25•

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Micah shrewsberry-3
Notre Dame head men's basketball coach Micah Shrewsberry. (Matt Cashore-Imagn Images)

Two days after a come-from-behind win over Georgia Tech, Notre Dame head men’s basketball coach Micah Shrewsberry spoke to reporters as the Irish enter the heart of Atlantic Coast Conference play.

Here’s what Shrewsberry said Thursday afternoon, two days before Notre Dame takes on Miami in Coral Gables, Fla.

On building off three wins in the past four games

“We talked so much, especially with the bye week, you get a chance to reset before we played Virginia. We wanted to really go back and focus defensively on how we could keep growing, how we could keep getting better. Really going back and taking a look of like, ‘Okay, this worked for us. This didn’t work. Let’s go back to this, and now let’s do it better.’ We really tried to hone in on what we need to do to be successful and kind of recalibrating offensively and saying, ‘This is working. This isn’t working. More of this, less of this, and now keep growing.’

“I just looked at the end-of-the-year report from last year. At this time of the year last year, we were like 315th in the country [in KenPom offensive rating]. We ended up getting to like 245 at the end of the year. You can still make a huge jump, and right now I think we’re [No. 156] defensively. How high can we get there, while kind of maintaining our offensive right now, which is in the top 40 [No. 37]. So like, get our defense to keep rising — or keep lowering — and now keep our offense steady or lower it some more as we try to make a push here at the end.”

On Notre Dame’s travel plans with road games at Miami and Florida State coming up

“We’re gonna stay out, especially with the longer trip from Miami back here, and then turn around, get back on the plane going there. We’ll stay out. Extra traveling, extra people to help our guys, especially academically, during this time. It’s tough, from the standpoint where we play these two games, where we have to stay out, play Boston College coming up at 9 p.m. on a Wednesday [Feb. 5]. Our guys are getting pressed academically for how much they’re missing and the importance of this. So, [we’re] taking some extra people with them to be able to help them academically get some study halls for everything that they’ll miss while they would normally be here.”

On Julian Roper II, Nikita Konstantynovskyi and J.R. Konieczny contributing off the bench

“I mean, one, they’re just older. They’ve played a lot of college basketball games. I think each situation is different and I think each game is different, right? There could be a game where maybe somebody’s going on the other team and really scoring where you need more Roper than J.R. Might be a game where we’re okay defensively and it’s like, we need more scoring punch, so you need more of J.R. And then once we’ve gotten into league play, it’s been all big guys that Nikita can guard. That’s the difference between the conference and the non-conference season. There’s big guys out there, starters and backups, where now he can be down there, be physical and help us do more stuff.

“So, those guys have given us contributions. I think Sir [Mohammed] is still trying to find his way, still getting comfortable. He’ll throw some passes that I’m not ready for, so I know his teammates aren’t ready for quite yet, but he’s starting to understand it a little bit better and starting to get more comfortable with what he’s doing as well.”

On if Mohammed’s knee injury set him back and how he’s responded since his return

“Yeah, I think he’s kept such a positive spirit throughout this whole time, but the opportunities where he would’ve got to play and kind of play through mistakes, he missed all of that. He was out after two games, and now when he comes back, we’re into conference play. The stakes are a little bit higher. The opportunities to play and really play through mistakes, you get a chance to do that and you get a chance to grow as a freshman in November and early December. Now, he’s trying to have to do it on the fly versus really good people, so I think he’ll keep getting better and better. We still got a lot of season left, where he can keep growing and keep getting better as the year goes on.”

On the angry text he received from an unknown number during Notre Dame’s win over Georgia Tech (video below)

“I’ve gotten a lot of [texts] from coaching brethren. [Duke head coach] Jon Scheyer admitted it was him. [Wake Forest head coach] Steve Forbes texted me and thought it was really funny. Those guys got some great laughs out of it, so that’s what it is, right? It doesn’t bother you, but it also, like, for us as coaches, we’re all kind of going through it together. You just get a good laugh out of it and keep moving.”

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