Micah Shrewsberry Notebook | Practice No. 1
Notre Dame basketball coach Micah Shrewsberry spoke before the first practice of the season.
On how Notre Dame has progressed:
“You talk about Braeden, you talk about Markus, guys who got thrown into the fire a little bit last year. You see a little bit more willingness to talk, willingness to bring a bunch of guys together - if their team is struggling, they are the voices you hear a lot. You’re going to hear Matt Allocco’s voice. He’s a talker. Non-stop. Constant. Kebba (Njie) has always been that way. Now, you’re starting to add more and more voices like that. That’s where you see jumps, which is important for us.
“It’s also different guys stepping up being leaders in their own way. If we’re changing drills and there are new guys in it, sometimes Julian Roper will be like, “Hey, let me go’ so he can do it first and they can see it. Everyone can follow that way. You have more people stepping to the front even if they aren’t vocal in what they’re saying, they’re vocal in what they’re doing and they’re willing to step up and be leaders in that way.”
On setting expectations for this team:
”Get better every day. That’s it. That’s the only thing I focus on. If I set an expectation for them, what if we crush it? What if I said, let’s win 20 games and we go 20-0? Are we just going to relax? Our goal is to get better, so no matter where you are in your season, no matter what you’re doing or what your record is, you can get better the next day. That’s all I’m focused on with this group. Keep improving.
“If we’re doing the little things, getting better on a daily basis, big things will happen for you. We have to trust in those little things and we have to trust in our development plan.”
On catching the team up on defense and if there will be an emphasis on defense to start practice:
”Still haven’t. We’ve mixed it in. There’s things we need to do and where we need to get better. The freshmen are behind. They need reps doing it. We spent two days where it was defensive accountability and we had to get better at it. Now, we’ll sprinkle it in as we go. We’re working on how can we be good right out of the gate offensively. What are we going to do to put points on the board?
“I think this is a better offensive team. You play more skill, you play more shooting and you lean on offense a little more. Sometimes, you’re defense might suffer. Maybe we’re not the same defensively as we were last year, but I think we’ll be better offensively. We still need to have the same principles. How hard we play, how hard we compete and how solid and disciplined we are. I don’t think those things will ever change. We just haven’t had the same amount of reps that we normally do.”
On the offensive identity of this team:
”Score. I think our pace is a lot faster. We still are playing with a 24-second shot clock in everything we do. That’s not always for a full-court pace. Sometimes it’s half-court pace. I want us to push the ball after misses and makes and force people to sprint back and stop that and then have to guard us at a high rate of cutting and speed in the half-court.
“The one thing it does is it helps. We have a lot of guys who can play. We have a lot more talent. If we play at a faster pace, more guys will play. I’m going to demand you’re going to have to play hard defensively and then I’m telling you to sprint on the other end and cut at a high rate. You can’t do that and not get tired. We’re asking a lot of some guys to play at that rate, but it’ll allow more guys to play.
“That’s been a main focus. Short shot clock. I think our creativity has picked up within our team with how we’re getting to different shots or what we’re looking for. Each possession will look different. The hardest thing for us to guard when we’re really good is the randomness of each possession. That’s where we’ve taken a huge step this year. We can start in some funky ways and be really random and still get to something good.”
On freshman Cole Certa, Sir Mohammed and Garrett Sundra:
”Still to be determined. They’re all back. Sir was the one who missed the most time, so he has to work his way back into shape like everybody else is. He’s doing it. He’s playing a lot. He’s staying after and doing extra conditioning. He’s coming in on his own. He’s working his way back in shape. The other guys have just had more reps and more time.
“I think all three of them can help us. There’s days where Sir has been really good. There’s days where Cole has been really good. Garrett has been consistently pretty good. It’s all three of those guys. You use them in different ways. I think they all bring something different and unique, but they all add to what we currently have, which makes them better, but it also makes our other guys better.”
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