Quick hitters: Micah Shrewsberry previews 2024-25 Notre Dame men’s basketball season

College basketball season is here. The first games of the season tipped off Monday afternoon, and Notre Dame head coach Micah Shrewsberry — a college basketball guy — is here for it.

“I’m sitting in my office, trying to prepare for practice, for Wednesday,” Shrewsberry said. “But at the same time, I got Charleston vs. Southern Illinois on my TV.”

As Notre Dame gets set to begin its 2024-25 campaign against Stonehill at 7 p.m. ET on Wednesday at Purcell Pavilion, Shrewsberry spoke to local reporters on Monday to preview his second year in South Bend. Here’s what he had to say.

On what he liked and didn’t like on film from Notre Dame’s exhibition win over Purdue Fort Wayne

“There’s a lot of things I liked. I liked how we were ready to go at the start of both halves. I thought that was a little bit of an issue for us before, of not being ready to go, especially at the start of the second half. Different times, different lulls. Those guys came out of the gates competing on both ends. I was really happy with that and pleased with that. There’s some things that we have to clean up.

“We haven’t been great offensively the entire fall, the whole preseason, when we get no paint possessions. And I’m okay with some of those. We’re gonna shoot some quick shots. We’re gonna shoot some kick-ahead, early threes in transition. But when we get in the half court and we don’t get in the paint, it’s been an awful possession for us. So we had to eliminate some of those, and talking about why those are happening and showing them why they’re happening, and now keep improving on that so we keep growing offensively with what we’re doing. So we’re still doing stuff to get some of the younger guys up to speed. But I think practices and early games and everything else, getting game reps is gonna be huge for them.”

On what junior Notre Dame forwards Kebba Njie and Tae Davis bring together on defense

“I think those two guys, together, cover a lot of mistakes for people. They do it in different ways. Kebba’s communication is about — bigs aren’t great communicators, usually. But he is a talker. He’s at the back line of your defense, he’s a guy that has to talk the most and that’s what he does. He is a talker and a communicator. You can quiz our guys on this, but I always say that communication builds trust and avoids confusion. And that’s what Kebba does. You trust that he’s back there, because he’s talking to you. You know what your job is, because he’s telling you what’s happening next. That’s how he’s great for our team, defensively.

“Tae does it with his athletic ability. He can slide his feet and move and guard anybody. I always give the example, he started the [Duke] game guarding Jeremy Roach, and then he switched to guard Kyle Filipowski. There ain’t very many people in the country that are doing that. He can guard a bunch of different people in a lot of different ways. His ability to guard Markus [Burton] in practice at times is like, he can slide his feet and stay in front of fast people at his size, which is pretty special.

On Njie’s improvement since last season

“I think Kebba’s worked, like, the biggest thing for him is having a full, specific offseason. He came to Penn State, played as a freshman, and then felt like he had to get bigger and stronger, right? Because we were playing in the Big Ten. Then his head coach left and came to the ACC. The strength that he was putting on, the bulk that he was putting on was probably not as needed. And then also left, and as soon as you go in the transfer portal, you get shut out of whatever building you’re supposed to be working out in, right? So he came in a lot heavier last year than he was. He’s a lot lighter, he’s bouncier, his athleticism has picked up. I think that’s really helped him with his finishing, his quick finishing and his movements defensively as well.”

On growth from Year 1 to Year 2 under Shrewsberry for Notre Dame

”I think people being more comfortable in our system – knowing what we’re looking for, knowing what we’re trying to do, knowing the shots we’re trying to get, knowing how we’re trying to attack. I think in this short amount of time, if you look, the guys at Penn State, that second year is when they really took off. Jalen Pickett was a good player for us and he became an All-American in year two. I think part of that was being comfortable and the same with some of the other guys. 

“Markus [Burton], Braeden [Shrewsberry], JR [Konieczny], [Julian] Roper, Tae [Davis], Kebba [Njie], they’re more comfortable in what we’re trying to do. Now, we’ve also tweaked a bunch of stuff too. You have to move stuff to personnel. We have a defensive system, and it’s probably not going to change. Offensively, it’s going to shift and move all the time. How we played in Year 1 at Penn State and how we played in two was vastly different. How we played Year 2 at Penn State and year one at Notre Dame is really different with our personnel and how we played.

“How we’re going to play this year is way different than last year. I think that constantly needs to move. You find what’s best for your group and what’s best for your team. Once they get comfortable with what we’re looking for and how we do it and how we attack, I think that’s how we really make a move and make a shift in Year 2.”

On his confidence heading into the season

“Yeah, I really believe in our guys. I really believe in our staff. We have a defensive system, and we really talk about game plans and how do we take people out of what they want to do. Our guys have shown through two games that they can follow game plans, right? And if we do that, if we stick to that, I think we can continue to be a pretty good defensive team.

“At the same time, I think we’re much better offensively, and we’ve got to keep getting good shots. We’ve got to keep playing with the right pace. So, I like where we’re at. There’s still a long way to go. I think there’s a lot of stuff we haven’t covered yet, right? Which is crazy that we play on Wednesday, and there’s stuff that we haven’t talked about as a team, but I think those happen early in the year as they go on. Now, you’ve got to learn through film.

“You have to learn through those experiences, but I feel really prepared to play in two days.”