Notre Dame to hire Penn State’s Shrewsberry: What to like for Irish

Reports began to emerge on Tuesday that Notre Dame was zeroing in on Penn State‘s Micah Shrewsberry as their target to be Mike Brey’s replacement as head basketball coach.  Wednesday afternoon reports arrived that Shrewsberry turned down Penn State’s offer to extend him (and likely give a significant raise) to instead take the Notre Dame job.

Shrewsberry only has two years as a head basketball coach at the Division I level but that doesn’t mean he’s not worth getting excited about if you’re a Notre Dame fan.  Here are a little more than a handful of reasons to like the hire for Notre Dame, even if he’s got his work cut out for him early on in South Bend.

Indiana Connections

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You may have heard a time or two that basketball was born in Massachusetts but was raised in Indiana.  Notre Dame now has a long-time Hoosier heading their basketball program as Shrewsberry has spent the majority of his 46 years in Indiana.  He played at Cathedral High School in Indianapolis and has also spent time on the benches of Wabash, DePauw, IU South Bend, Butler, and Purdue.  That will only help in recruiting in the always basketball-rich state of Indiana.

Brad Stevens Connection

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Quick – who is the most successful college basketball coach in the state of Indiana since Bob Knight was fired from IU?  Matt Painter has done a great job at Purdue (besides in the NCAA Tournament) and it’s no knock on him but the answer is unequivocally Brad Stevens.  Stevens led Butler, yes, tiny little Butler, to back-to-back NCAA Tournament national championship game appearances before leaving Indianapolis for the Boston Celtics.

Who was an assistant of Stevens on that staff that had to be taken along to Boston?

Shrewsberry.

Nothing like learning from the best.

Matt Painter Connection

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Alright, any Purdue fans that got mad about the facts stated above, it wasn’t a knock on Painter.  Painter has been exceptional at Purdue, reestablishing the Boilermakers as one of the Big Ten’s top dogs on an annual basis.  Shrewsberry had two stops in West Lafayette as he was an assistant on Painter’s staff from 2011-2013 and again from 2019-2021.  Again, nothing like learning from (one of) the best.

Quick Turnaround at Penn State

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Shrewsberry took over as Penn State’s head coach for the 2021-22 season, a year after the Nittany Lions went just 11-14 overall.  Penn State struggled to a 14-17 mark in Shrewsberry’s first season but improved to 23-14 this year while going 10-10 in Big Ten play.  The 10-10 mark might not seem impressive but them going .500 in Big Ten play was something that has been now just three times since 2009-10.

Penn State’s appearance in the NCAA Tournament’s second round was also their first time getting to the dance in a dozen seasons.

Instant Offense

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Notre Dame was a disaster on offense this year, averaging the 205th most points in D-1 college basketball.  Help is on the way as Shrewsberry helped Penn State rank 13th nationally in offense in adjusted efficiency.

Success at Traditional Football School

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Becoming a successful head coach at basketball-first colleges and universities like Duke, Gonzaga, Illinois, Indiana, and plenty of others is respectable but doesn’t present the same challenges as football-first schools.  Notre Dame is certainly that, as is Penn State.  Although his time there was only two years, having had success where the majority of passion goes towards Saturdays in the fall, it takes a unique coach to create success and Shrewsberry has shown that.

Great rebound following offensive coordinator disaster

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After the brutal PR look Notre Dame had in their handling of the offensive coordinator search this winter, plenty of valid questions were asked regarding how seriously the university actually took their athletic programs.  Would they be willing to pay top dollar to win?

This doesn’t make the Andy Ludwig drama just get washed away but identifying their top target and outdoing Penn State and all of their Big Ten Network money to get him certainly helps bring a some positive PR.

Story originally appeared on Fighting Irish Wire