Micah Shrewsberry made her best Dennis Green impression late on Sunday evening. But his uncertainty revealed that he may not understand reality in his job.
Shrewsberry is now 24-34 in two seasons as head coach for Notre Dame, including 11-14 this season. Fighting Irish has lost four of its last five matches and hangs near the bottom of the ACC position, in danger of missing this year’s conference tournament if they continue to lose.
A good Louisville team went to Notre Dame and beat the Irish 75-60, and Shrewsberry was apparently not upset about his team’s performance but about the audience’s composition.
He was asked a benign question about what he thought would have been the team’s biggest questions in this losing distance, and for the next 2:40 he took a hard time looking at.
After explaining that his players will not stop, Shrewsberry said: “I understand that many people have stopped us and well deserved. If you hate me, absolutely. Absolutely, man. Great. If you think I suck, if you think I can’t work out, I’m with you, man. Good. Good for you because you have to have opinions. If you think I should be fired, good for you. You may have opinions, right? Many have given up this team. They have given me up. I’m not really fucking. I believe in myself, and I believe in these guys, ok? So don’t give up on these guys. Don’t give up on these guys. Don’t give up on these children. If you do not want to show up because of me, you should not show up because of me. Because you think I suck. Cool. I’m okay with that. “
Do not keep in mind that he is not considered to be on the hot seat and no reporters had demanded his shooting. Shrewsberry was just running.
“Don’t give up on these children, man. I don’t care about anyone’s opinion, said Shrewsberry. “I know who I am. I know I can train basketball. I know I’m turning this program. So you gave up on me already? I don’t want to see you back here. I don’t make a damn. Do not give up these children because we will make this thing roll. I sat there watching more Louisville fans here than Notre Dame people. It’s embarrassing. It’s embarrassing to me because I’m head coach here.
“Yes, I got us in this situation. But don’t come back when we … win, because we turn this, man. You should better believe that. “
Shortly after, he took a sweep on the microphone stand and – there is no better way to put it – designed as a child.
Couple of things:
1. Shrewsberry is not the first coach to draw this trait, but you must not claim “I do not care about anyone’s opinion” in the middle of a rant that is obviously encouraged by some hate -tweets you read before the game.
2. About this his team galvanizes behind closed doors and helps Notre Dame to save their season, good for them. It is an alternative in each trainer’s back pocket to become ballistic on the media and some use it. We have actually seen it done better.
3. Who does he think he is by saying Notre Dame fans not to come back when they win?
It is a confusing, mad and genuinely embarrassing thing to say at a university that he worked in less than 24 months. It reminds me of the New York Mets players in 2021 who gave their own fans’ thumb-downs after getting on the base because it hurt their little hearts to be booed earlier in the year. They had to apologize, by the way.
Notre Dame will always be known as a football school struggling to fill his basketball arena, and Shrewsberry should have understood it when he took the job. He came from another school where football was king, Penn State.
But I’ll take it a step further. Notre Dame does not fight to get fans in the seats for basketball games – not when the women play.
It is beautiful irony that the day after Shrewsberry chose to focus on the school’s fans, the woman’s basketball team rose to No. 1 in the AP ranking. According to the NCAA record book, Notre Dame women were an average of 6,644 presence per home game last season, 13th country. The men were on average 6,118.
Talk to Niele ivey about how to get shots in seats, Micah. She will probably tell you the obvious: it has to do with the product on the floor.
