Micah Shrewsberry: Notre Dame showed ‘immaturity’ vs. North Dakota

Was he in the right to say these things?

Although Notre Dame barely trailed while beating North Dakota by 17, the game’s direction wasn’t made clear until early in the second half. Before that, the Irish let the Hawks hang around, and [autotag]Micah Shrewsberry[/autotag] didn’t hide his disappointment for that in his postgame news conference.

Shrewsberry said in his opening statement that the maturity the Irish displayed in their blowout win over Georgetown was replaced with “a lot of immaturity” against the Hawks.

Shrewsberry called out his team’s preparation and expressed dissatisfaction for their rebounding. Indeed, the Hawks won the offensive rebounding battle, 14-7, and ultimately outrebounded the Irish, 38-36. Six of the Hawks’ offensive rebounds came from Eli King.

In the Irish’s defense, they had little preparation time ahead of this game between traveling, a day off and classes earlier in the day. But Shrewsberry said such circumstances “can’t be an excuse” in college basketball. He promised a better showing for Friday’s game against Elon.

You can view Shrewsberry’s news conference in full here starting at 8:01 after words from [autotag]Markus Burton[/autotag] and [autotag]Julian Roper II[/autotag], two of the stars in this game:

Here’s hoping Shrewsberry won’t have to say these things after a win again.

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Notre Dame earns opening-night victory over sister school Stonehill

Great way to start the year.

(This story was updated to add new information).

The Notre Dame men’s basketball team opened its season against sister school Stonehill. Both Notre Dame and Stonehill were founded by the Congregation of the Holy Cross over a century apart, so it was natural they would face each other at some point.

While the Irish are a mainstay in college athletics though, the Skyhawks only are in their third season at the Division I level. Talent likely would have decided this game anyway though as the Irish won, 89-60.

The Irish (1-0) trailed the Skyhawks (1-1) for only the first 100 seconds of the game, then dominated in all aspects soon afterwards, at least once their lead reached double figures in the first half. Though they fell three points short of matching their first-half scoring output (46) in the second half, there were times when the latter frame felt more dominant.

Either way, this looked like a team that knew how to play together throughout. [autotag]Micah Shrewsberry[/autotag] was able to empty his bench at the end, which was a sure sign of a good night.

[autotag]Markus Burton[/autotag] and [autotag]Braeden Shrewsberry[/autotag] tied for the game high with 18 points each with Burton also tallying five assists. Princeton transfer [autotag]Matt Allocco[/autotag] scored 10 in his first Irish game. [autotag]Kebba Njie[/autotag] scored all nine of his points in the second half and grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds.

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Micah Shrewsberry thinks Notre Dame has an elite defender this year

This would be great to see for the Irish

It’s going to be a big junior year for Notre Dame forward [autotag]Tae Davis[/autotag] if his head coach [autotag]Micah Shrewsberry[/autotag] is correct.

The 6-foot, 9-inch and 208-pound front court player had a very good first year with the Irish after transferring from Seton Hall last year. Davis averaged 9.2 points and 5.1 rebounds last year, but that doesn’t tell the whole story about his impact for the Notre Dame basketball team.

Shrewsberry believes that Davis is one of the best defenders in the county, as he told CBS Sports Jon Rothstein. Not only that, the reporter believes that the Irish could make the NCAA Tournament this spring.

This will be a very important season for Notre Dame basketball, as Shrewsberry enters his second season at the helm after going 13-20 last year. If we see a jump like he had at Penn State from the first to the second season, the Irish should be dancing in March with an elite defender in Davis.

Feb 24, 2024; Syracuse, New York, USA; Syracuse Orange guard Quadir Copeland (24) tries to move the ball past Notre Dame Fighting Irish forward Tae Davis (13) in the second half at the JMA Wireless Dome. Mandatory Credit: Mark Konezny-USA TODAY Sports

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Jon Rothstein: Notre Dame ‘potential bubble team’ for NCAA Tournament

This would be huge.

Notre Dame is working its way back toward relevancy. While it’s not yet at the point where it can compete with the best in college basketball, all signs point to the program being on an upward trajectory. The Irish widely are expected to make some sort of progress during the 2024-25 season.

To that end, CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein has been in contact with [autotag]Micah Shrewsberry[/autotag]. Rothstein wrote on social media that Shrewsberry told him he has high defensive expectations for [autotag]Tae Davis[/autotag], the former Seton Hall forward who is entering his second season with the Irish just like Shrewsberry is.

More importantly, Rothstein feels the Irish could make a run at a 2025 NCAA Tournament spot. To already be a bubble team in Shrewsberry’s second season would be a tremendous sign of progress.

Even if the Irish fell short of March Madness, that almost certainly would mean getting into the NIT, which would be a valuable experience for a team ahead of the top 2025 recruiting class in the country arriving.

While the women’s basketball team easily will have the better season, the future for the men is looking very bright.

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Notre Dame guard Markus Burton makes ESPN preseason top 100

The Irish have a nice player.

[autotag]Markus Burton[/autotag] had quite a freshman season for Notre Dame a season ago. He was the straw that stirred a young Irish team, leading everybody in scoring, assists and steals. For his efforts, he was named the ACC Rookie of the Year and Third Team All-ACC.

Burton’s opening act for the Irish has meant greater expectations for him as a sophomore, and those haven’t gone unnoticed. He’s been named to the watch list for the Bob Cousy Award, which is given to the best male point guard in the country. That alone would make anyone notice.

Now, ESPN has decided he’s worthy of being called one of the best players in college basketball this season. Jeff Borzello and Myron Medcalf have assembled their list of the top 100 players in the sport entering this season. Not only has Burton cracked the list, but he’s all the way up at No. 40.

Here’s their entry for Burton:

“Burton gave ND fans a reason to smile in a 13-20 season [autotag]Micah Shrewsberry[/autotag]’s first year in South Bend. The 5-foot-11 guard, averaged 17.5 points a game as a freshman, finishing with 20 points or more in 11 games. If he can become a consistent threat from the 3-point line (30%), the all-ACC third team pick could mature into one of the expanded conference’s best players.”

We soon will see how accurate these predictions are.

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Notre Dame men’s basketball to wear green jerseys for four home games

Dress appropriately for these games.

A big deal always is made whenever the Notre Dame football team wears green jerseys. Typically, it’s reserved for a special occasion once a year. But the men’s basketball team has decided one game of green jerseys isn’t enough.

In a video released Monday, the Irish announced that they will wear green jerseys four times at Purcell Pavilion during the 2024-25 season. The video showcases [autotag]Micah Shrewsberry[/autotag] being asked which one of the four games his team should sport the jerseys in.

After a moment, Shrewsberry decides that Syracuse, North Carolina, Virginia Tech and Pittsburgh all need to see the jerseys when they visit South Bend.

The Irish wore green jerseys once last season, and that was a 73-61 loss to Miami. This year, they’ll stick with them of sporting them against ACC competition.

Also of note is that all of the games will be broadcast on network TV. Three of them will be on The CW, and CBS has the game against the Tar Heels. Clearly, the Irish want to look their best while playing for national audiences.

We’ll find out soon enough whether the green jerseys are lucky for the Irish.

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On3 names Notre Dame’s Matt Allocco among top 20 ACC impact transfers

How do you expect him to contribute this season?

Unlike most other ACC teams, Notre Dame didn’t dip its toes very deep into the transfer portal this past offseason. In fact, the Irish joined North Carolina, Florida State and Pittsburgh as the only schools in the conference to add three or fewer players via the transfer portal. That fell below the conference average of 4.6 transfers a team.

But one of them figures to contribute mightily to the Irish this this upcoming season. On3’s Jamie Shaw has named [autotag]Matt Allocco[/autotag] one of 20 impact transfers in the ACC for the 2024-25 season.

Allocco came over to the Irish from Princeton and is coming off career-high averages in both scoring (12.7) and assists (3.3). That netted him his second straight Second Team All-Ivy League honor, and he now will see how well his game translates in a power conference.

Shaw described Allocco this way:

“Matt Allocco is another connector for [autotag]Micah Shrewsberry[/autotag]’s team. The 6-foot-4 senior is comfortable moving the ball or knocking down shots. He brings a winning pedigree (70-21 in college) and will provide a veteran presence beside [autotag]Markus Burton[/autotag], someone who compliments his game and is able to take some pressure off his duties.”

Irish fans will be watch Allocco every step of the way. He’ll be crucial to any success this still-young team has.

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Micah Shrewsberry talks Notre Dame recruiting strategy with CBS Sports

Great job, Coach.

Notre Dame men’s basketball just had a recruiting week most programs only can dream of. Four commits since the beginning of last week, including new all-time highest-rated recruit [autotag]Jalen Haralson[/autotag], have propelled the Irish to the top of 247Sports’ recruiting rankings for the 2025 class.

Isaac Trotter of CBS Sports took notice of this and decided to reach out to [autotag]Micah Shrewsberry[/autotag] for some insights as part of a feature story about the Irish. Faced with a rebuild upon arriving to the program, Shrewsberry opted to hone in on high school recruiting as opposed to other programs that increasingly looked towards the transfer portal.

Shrewsberry focused on high school recruits almost out of necessity with the transfer portal about to lose the players who were granted an extra year of eligibility by COVID-19. But even taking that out of the equation, he now has the luxury of RALLY, Notre Dame’s new NIL collective, to keep players around.

When asked how this year’s Irish were able to keep almost all of their top scorers from a season ago, Shrewsberry said this:

“I think our guys believed in what we were doing, but they also believed in their teammates and the guys who were going to be their teammates. They could see the positives throughout last season and what we could look like going forward.”

The future in South Bend looks very bright, and it all has to do with the culture Shrewsberry is building. You can’t put a price on that.

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Micah Shrewsberry has a meme celebration to Notre Dame basketball’s hot recruiting

Coach was pretty happy after their latest commitment

The last week for Notre Dame men’s basketball has seen one of the most impressive recruiting runs in school history.

It started with in-state small forward Brady Koehler committing on the 23rd of September, followed by the highest ranked verbal ever by in-state combo-guard Jalen Haralson on the 25th.

The party was just getting started, as New Hampshire small forward Ryder Frost was the next to join on the 27th, and then Minnesota center Tommy Ahneman completing the run by committing on Monday. The four commits have jumped the Irish into the top spot in the 247Sports Composite Team Rankings for the 2025 class, a ranking that seemed like a pipe dream earlier last month.

A ton of credit has to go to head coach [autotag]Micah Shrewsberry[/autotag], and following Ahneman’s verbal, he went to social media to celebrate. He shared one of the most viral meme’s from the Chicago Bulls documentary “The Last Dance,” which may or may not be a coincidence since the Irish’s doc “Beyond the Arc” is set to premier on YouTube this Thursday.

Congrats coach on the run, it’s been a fun one to be part of.

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Notre Dame lands four-star center, top 2025 Minnesota recruit

Micah Shrewsberry is doing something right.

For the fourth time in the span of a week, [autotag]Micah Shrewsberry[/autotag] has proven that Notre Dame now is an attractive program for big-time recruits. That’s the story after [autotag]Tommy Ahneman[/autotag], a four-star center and the top 2025 recruit in Minnesota, has committed to the Irish. only two days after making his official visit.

Ahneman joins a 2025 Irish class that has netted [autotag]Brady Koehler[/autotag], [autotag]Ryder Frost[/autotag] and [autotag]Jalen Haralson[/autotag], the program’s highest-rated commit since the internet started tracking rankings, over the past week. This should strengthen the Irish’s hold as the top-ranked 2025 recruiting class according to 247Sports.

Ahneman especially attracted interest from Big Ten programs and was scheduled to make official visits to Minnesota and Iowa in October. Clearly, those won’t happen anymore unless he only wants to pay lip service to those programs.

When asked by On3 why he picked the Irish, Ahneman said this:

“I chose Notre Dame because of what they have – a great atmosphere, great people, and a great recruiting class that I now get to be a part of.”

And if that doesn’t excite you, try this quote on for size:

 

Get on the Irish bandwagon now, folks. The latter half of the 2020s is shaping up to be quite promising.

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