Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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16 MAY 2023 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED BY PATRICK ENGEL B ack in the 1980s, the Shrews- berry family could tell someone where they were from just by revealing their favorite weekly gathering spot. Most winter Fridays, the family of five convened in the Jefferson- ville High School gym for a basketball game. Same seats every time — a right of season ticket holders. Yes, small town high school basketball season ticket holders. Only in Indiana. A Friday night in the stands was their version of a Sunday drive or a family board game night. A way to unwind af- ter the workweek for longtime Jeffer- sonville city councilman Bill Shrews- berry and his wife, Brenda, a nurse. A fun activity for their three children, especially elementary school-age son Micah. A move to Indianapolis when Micah was 13 changed the location, but not the tradition. "Our coming together was always Fri- day night for a high school ball game," Bill Shrewsberry said. "It was just something that connected our family and tied us together." And built Micah's passion for the game. Made it his hobby that he turned into a career. That career, now 24 years long, led him to Notre Dame, where he was formally introduced as the men's basket- ball head coach March 30 after signing a seven-year deal one week earlier. Micah Shrewsberry left Penn State, where he was the head coach for two seasons and led the 2022-23 Nittany Li- ons to the program's first NCAA Tour- nament appearance since 2011. Their first-round win over No. 7 seed Texas A&M was their first tournament victory since 2001. That win came on the heels of three straight wins in Chicago that advanced PSU to the Big Ten champi- onship game, in which it narrowly lost to eventual NCAA No. 1 seed Purdue, 67-65. Shrewsberry built a winning team at a place that rarely sees them and was about to be handsomely rewarded for it. But then Notre Dame called. More importantly, his roots called. Indiana is not just home. It's the home for his hobby and where his love for it was built. It's where he learned to dribble on the basement tile floor in his parents' house and shoot into a full-sized basket hung on the wall. It's the state and the basketball culture that birthed his de- sire to be a coach and where he started chasing that dream. "It's just different," Shrewsberry said. The dream wasn't just to coach. It was to be a college basketball coach, and even better if it came in this state. His childhood favorite teams or players weren't in the NBA. They were in col- lege — Indiana, Purdue, Notre Dame. Now he's in charge of one. "College basketball was my thing," Shrewsberry said. "High school basket- ball was big. Just the passion everybody has for it, that draws yo u ba c k . I t's n o t that way everywhere. That's OK. You find what you love and what you're attracted to. I don't have many hobbies. I don't have any hobbies. My fam- ily and basketball. "Everybody talks about how basketball is what I do, not who I am. It's what I do and it's who I am. I'm a family man, and I love hoops. That's what brought me back. This place is special, and you get a chance to do special things at a place that loves basketball." Notre Dame is not viewed as a destina- tion job in the basketball coaching world, even though Mike Brey made it his home for 23 years. It is, after all, still a football- mad school. But it is a destination for Shrewsberry. He doesn't need to make it home. It already is home. Michiana was home once before, too, when Shrews- berry was the head coach at Indiana Uni- versity South Bend from 2005-07. He drove past Notre Dame on the way to and from work, often letting his mind wander about coaching there one day. Shrewsberry's coaching origin story, like many, started with humbling jobs. He latched on with Division III Wabash College as an assistant in 1999. He went to DePauw two years later, living in a dorm while pursuing a graduate degree. "Starving artist," his father, Bill, joked. A two-year stint as director of bas- ketball operations at Marshall (2003- 05) was his first Division I job. IU-South Bend, an NAIA program, hired him in 2005 as its first full-time head coach. "It was part of the progression," the elder Shrewsberry said. "You look back, things he has endured and gone through, but it was always part of a dream to be a coach. Even with the NBA and with the Celtics, college was more of an appeal." Longtime friend Brad Stevens gave Shrewsberry his big break in 2007, hir- ing him as an assistant at Butler. Dur- ing his time there, the Bulldogs reached back-to-back NCAA championship games in 2010 and 2011. Matt Painter pried him away in 2011, giving him an assistant spot at Purdue. Stevens wooed him to the NBA in 2013. He was there for six years and several postseason runs. He was beloved by Celtics stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown for his one- on-one work with them. The college game still pulled at him, though. Indiana pulled at him. HOME AGAIN Indiana roots pulled Micah Shrewsberry back to Notre Dame, which will have a stronger in-state flavor ✦ SHREWSBERRY'S COACHING CAREER 2023-Present Notre Dame — head coach 2021-23 Penn State — head coach 2019-21 Purdue — associate head coach 2013-19 Boston Celtics — assistant coach 2011-13 Purdue — assistant coach 2008-11 Butler — assistant coach 2007-08 Butler — coordinator of basketball operations 2005-07 IU-South Bend — head coach 2003-05 Marshall — director of basketball operations 2001-03 DePauw — assistant coach 2001-01 Wabash — assistant coach 1999-2000 University of Indianapolis— graduate assistant coach