Reports: Micah Shrewsberry to be next Notre Dame men's basketball coach
Mar. 22—Micah Shrewsberry appears to be heading back to his home state.
The Penn State men's basketball coach of the last two years is reportedly set to be hired by Notre Dame for the same position. The news was first reported by ESPN's Pete Thamel Wednesday evening, with several other media organizations confirming the news soon thereafter. The contract is for a reported seven years.
Shrewsberry will replace Mike Brey, who stepped down as the Fighting Irish head coach after 23 seasons. Brey left as the winningest coach in program history, amassing 484 victories in that timeframe.
The news of Shrewsberry's hiring was not made official by Notre Dame as of 5:30 p.m. Thursday.
Penn State Vice President of Intercollegiate Athletics, Dr. Patrick Kraft, said in a statement Wednesday night that Shrewsberry was leaving the university.
"This afternoon, Penn State head men's basketball coach Micah Shrewsberry called to inform me that he was leaving the University to accept a position at another institution," Kraft said. "We thank Micah for his contributions to the Penn State community and wish him the very best. We are already moving forward in a search for a new head coach and will identify and appoint a tremendous coach, teacher and person, who will take us to unprecedented heights."
According to The Athletic's Matt Fortuna, Shrewsberry has a $4 million buyout.
It's a return home for Shrewsberry, who is an Indianapolis native. He then graduated from Hanover College in 1999 and earned his masters in sports management from Indiana State in 2003.
Shrewsberry has had many stops at Indiana-based colleges across his 23-year coaching journey. He started as a graduate assistant for the University of Indianapolis for the 1999-2000 season. He was then an assistant coach at Wabash University for a brief time in 2001 before spending two seasons at DePauw University.
After a few seasons as the Director of Basketball Operations at Marshall University in West Virginia, Shrewsberry returned to Indiana to become the head coach of the IU-South Bend men's basketball team. He was in that role for two seasons.
He then moved closer to home after that, landing a job with Butler University. After one season as a Coordinator of Basketball Operations, he spent three more years on the Bulldogs' bench as an assistant coach.
Shrewsberry then made the first of his two stops at Purdue, taking an assistant job there. When former Butler coach Brad Stevens was then hired by the NBA's Boston Celtics in 2013, though, he brought Shrewsberry along, with the latter spending six seasons alongside Stevens in Boston.
After the 2019 season, Purdue coach Matt Painter was able to convince Shrewsberry to come back to the college ranks, offering him an Associate Head Coach role. He was in that position for two seasons with the Boilermakers before being hired as the head coach at Penn State.
Shrewsberry's two seasons in Happy Valley were successful. After a 14-17 campaign in 2021-22, the Nittany Lions bounced back to go 23-14 this year. As a 10-seed, they ended up reaching the finals of the Big Ten Tournament, narrowly losing to top-seeded Purdue in the championship game. Penn State then earned a 10-seed in the NCAA Tournament, blowing out seven-seeded Texas A&M before losing to a formidable No. 2-seed in Texas.
The NCAA Tournament appearance was the first in 12 years for the Penn State program. The victory over the Aggies was its first in "The Big Dance" since 2001.
Austin Hough can be reached at austin.hough@goshennews.com or at 574-538-2360. Follow him on Twitter at @AustinHoughTGN.
