Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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18 MAY 2023 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED Shrewsberry returned to Purdue in 2019. Penn State gave him the big whis- tle in 2021. It wanted him to wield it for a while though, reportedly offering him an "enticing contract upgrade" fol- lowing this breakthrough season. In the end, though, Penn State was in Penn- sylvania. Notre Dame was in Indiana. He's two and a half hours away from his parents and other family members. He's at the place with the football team he watched every Saturday that has the same mascot as his high school alma mater, Indianapolis Cathedral. It just made sense. The job fit him. He fits the job. T h a t b r i n gs n o g u a ra n te e t h a t Shrewsberry will reach the heights of Mike Brey, who amassed 483 wins, 13 tournament bids and two Elite Eights. Or Digger Phelps, who has the pro- gram's only Final Four appearance on his ledger. But what's clear now is his vision goes even farther than those past Irish accomplishments. "I truly believe this, you can win the national championship here," Shrews- berry said. Whatever he does, it will have a more local flavor. Shrewsberry is Indiana through and through. Any program built in his image will tap into it. "We want to recruit this state," Shrewsberry said. "I grew up and have coached all over this state. We're going to find some guys who can play here. There are guys who can play at Notre Dame from this state, and we're going to recruit them." Notre Dame didn't need to draw local talent to have success under Brey, who found fruitful recruiting grounds on the I-95 corridor. Shrewsberry will extend his reach beyond Indiana, because re- cruiting at Notre Dame is conducive to a national approach. But home base will be a priority. "He's connected and knows the tal- ent in the state," Notre Dame director of athletics Jack Swarbrick said. "I look forward to that. We need to tap into that as a program. We so pride ourselves ap- propriately on being a national school, but we're regional in terms of our fan base, especially in this sport." The man he hired is proof of it. THE TWO MENTORS WHO HELPED SHAPE SHREWSBERRY The origins of Brad Stevens' respect for Shrewsberry's basketball mind trace back to AAU open gyms in Indianapolis and the old Division III Indiana Colle- giate Athletic Conference. The two met as high school players and AAU team- mates in 1995. They were college com- petitors in the late 1990s, Shrewsberry at Hanover and Stevens at DePauw. "It was obvious then he was a guy you wanted to play with, because he knew how to play, get everybody the ball and made his team better," Stevens said in 2021. "Then I played against him in col- lege, and it was the same thing." He and Shrewsberry plunged into coaching on paths that immediately di- verged. Stevens' breakthrough arrived first, when Butler elevated him from as- sistant to head coach in 2007. Shortly after, he hired that former heady guard who had remained his friend. Shrewsberry and Stevens spent 10 seasons together, four with Butler and then six with the Boston Celtics from 2013-19. The list of Shrewsberry influ- ences starts with Stevens, now the Celt- ics' president of basketball operations and formerly their head coach from 2013-21. Shrewsberry took tactics and philosophies from his decade with Ste- vens on his own head coaching journey, which began at Penn State in 2021 and led him to Notre Dame this offseason after guiding the Nittany Lions to their first NCAA Tournament in 12 years. "Basketball-wise, a lot of what we do is similar to what we were doing at Butler and what we were doing in Bos- ton," Shrewsberry said. "I borrow a lot of those philosophies." More impactful, though, was Stevens' character and affability. "What I learned in that time," Shrews- berry said, "is the genuineness of who he is, how he treats people, how he treats people on staff, how you communicate with players, how you get the best out of your players, how you mold a team." It hasn't stopped since Shrewsberry left the Celtics. Shrewsberry says he calls Stevens every other day. Some- Shrewsberry is fresh off a historic turnaround as the head coach at Penn State. He led his squad to a 23-14 mark in 2022-23 (just the 12th 20-win season in school history), an appearance in the Big Ten title game and a first-round NCAA Tournament win against Texas A&M. PHOTO COURTESY BLUE WHITE ILLUSTRATED