Notre Dame basketball coach Micah Shrewsberry spoke following the 80-65 win over Idaho on Wednesday night.
Opening statement:
“I'm just really happy with our guys for how we guarded and really how we attacked in the second half. I thought we played well. We were up and down in the first half, right? We went on runs, we did good things, and then we let them back in it. That's something that we got to keep working on to, you can get somebody down, you got to keep them down, and you got to extend the lead in different ways. That's something as a group, we got to be better at.
“I thought we responded in the second half. I thought we made some gritty, tough plays defensively. Timely offense of finally finishing some of those shots in the paint.”
On shooting 70 percent from the field 10 minutes into the second half:
“We were getting the ball in the paint in the first half. We just weren't finishing. I pointed out Jalen (Haralson) and Sir (Mohammeed) at halftime and told both those guys they were three for ten from two in the first half, and all of those were in the paint at the rim. We got to finish those.
“I thought Carson (Towt) had a couple he's got to finish. I thought Logan (Imes) had one around the rim he's got to finish. You finish more of those, we probably have more than 33 in the first half and maybe we keep that lead a little bit longer.
“I thought our concentration was a little bit better. I thought our finishing was better. You just kind of take what the defense gives you. They didn't commit to double-teaming. TCU double-teamed on those post-ups and we had 27 assists and we had a bunch of threes. They stayed home. We're going to have less assists because we're going to shoot layups and we're going to score the ball at the basket.”
On Brady Koehler:
“I thought he was great, especially defensively. The kid Rasmussen was really scoring against us in the post and because they're such a great three-point shooting team, we couldn't – we didn't want to get in a lot of rotations. We switched a lot of ball screens. We ended up with guards on him a lot. He got going. He got some buckets, but I thought Brady, when he was on him, kind of took that away, kind of walled him up, kind of made him make shots over him.
“Brady's got long arms, maybe four blocks for him. He's somebody that you can just see him getting better and better and better as the season goes. I thought that's how it would go with him. The numbers you look at, 1-for-3, two points, but like his impact was way, way greater than that today.”
On Cole Certa and if driving was an emphasis for him:
“No, I just think he's just kind of playing the game. That's the one thing for him is we don't try and predetermine anything. H's seeing it, he's reading it. He's talking to those guys. They were really physical in their ball screen coverage.
“They tried to go way under Sir and Jalen, but on Brady and Cole, they really get into the ball and kind of get physical to fight over screens. I didn't think those two guys handled it well in the second half, so we didn't do as many ball screens with them. We did more handoffs, and now those guys are off their bodies, and now Cole started turning the corner more and getting to the rim because he wasn't just kind of boxed in.
“We have a group that can process the game, see the game, and then make adjustments as it happens. I think we've been a really good second half offensive team, and some of that is those guys just being able to see it and process it and then go and execute it.”
On halftime message:
“It was more of just I thought it was more of us not finishing layups. I wasn't happy with that, with us getting the ball at the rim. I didn't think we played offense the way we practiced the last couple days. Then defensively, at some point in time, you've got to draw a line in the sand, OK. He's right here, and now he starts to back me down. This is the point of no return. I'm old school, right? These guys know it, and they hear it every day. I'm a foul before you score on me. You're definitely not going to score on me twice. I'm trying to get that mentality from our guys. For the most part, they got it, and they play that way. But sometimes we don't, so they need a reminder every once in a while.”
On shutting down Jackson Rasmussen and Biko Johnson in the second half:
“Just a little bit more discipline and toughness. I thought Johnson, No.3, he beat us baseline a couple times. He got to the foul line because we weren't disciplined. I thought our discipline was better against him and I thought our toughness was better against Rasmussen, right? It was different things for different people. But once we got to that, once we started doing those things, right, it really slowed those two guys down.
‘Then it was about contesting threes, right? They made 10 threes, but that's what they do anyway. I thought we did a good job of contesting some, and then you got some from people that were good contests and rainbow threes over guys' hands. It's like, who cares? Can't do anything about that. Keep contesting it the next time. Our discipline on No. 3 and our toughness on No. 12, I thought really changed in the second half.”
On watching this group find a groove and overcome not having Markus Burton:
“It's fun. I love being around this group every day. We got a bunch of young guys, so we have that youthful enthusiasm. But then we have older guys that are the same way. Carson's the same way, and so is Kebba (Njie). Those guys who are older buy into that, and they're great mentors in that way. I thought our freshmen would keep getting better and better, and the same way with our sophomores.
“I think our guys are getting better and better, but it's a play late in the game. I don't remember if they hit the three or not, but the ball was on the floor late, and Jalen Haralson took off and dove after it, and it was a collision with some dude. Neither one of them gets it, and it's on the floor, and there goes Brady Koehler diving after it, right? That's two freshmen right there. Ain't doing that in high school. Ain’t nobody diving on the floor in high school, right? Those dudes are doing it because it's like that's what our team does and you're starting to see the buy-in from those guys as freshmen because of what they've been taught since they've been there.”
On his converstaion with Jalen Haralson following the game:
“I told him, no games down there. We're scoring this ball. Nobody's doubling it. I need a bucket every time, every single time. You’ll miss one every once in a while. We don't need to work on stuff. We don't need to try new things. It's like don't get tired of what is working. Don't get tired of success.
“There's little things that lead to success, and sometimes people get tired of doing it because they get bored with the monotony. Well, that monotony helps you win. J getting him to understand that, but I thought he did a great job of scoring the ball, getting in the foul line, finding guys when they helped. Kudos to him and I want to help him keep trying to grow with each game.”
On stretching Carson Towt’s minutes:
“He can go and he can run. That's the beauty of having different people and multiple people you can throw in. He wasn't 100% even going into this game. I knew he was going to play. I was like, hey, there's a little bit going on with everybody, right? I knew he was going to play and then you just needle him a little bit during the shoot-around. Like, hey, man, you know, Jack Payne was the best player in the Big Sky last year, right? Just to get his motor rolling. He had 19 rebounds against these guys, I think, in their first game last year that they played. So, I knew he was amped up to go and do something tonight.”
On Jalen Haralson’s recruitment:
“I knew who he was because I still follow high school recruiting in Indiana. I was at Penn State. He had reached out through one of his high school coaches that I knew and said he wanted us to recruit him. I was like, I'm not recruiting that kid. He's not coming to Penn State. He had watched us in the Big Ten Tournament. We were playing boogie ball with Jalen Pickett. We were just posting people with a guard. He watched, and he was like, man, they can do that same exact thing with me because of my size, I can post. I can play in picking roles. I can pass and if you surround me with shooters, he can do really good things.
“When I got the job here, he was the first dude that I offered and went after and wanted to. For a really good player, he allows me to coach him.And it's not always – I don't sugarcoat anything with him. I tell him the truth because it's only going to make him better. That's what he wanted. He wanted somebody to help him be better, so I love him. I enjoy being around him. He's one of the most fascinating kids you've ever met. He's never met a stranger.
“We went to Indy on Saturday. His brother played at Brownsburg at 1 o'clock. My son Nick played at 2.30. We got up Saturday morning and jumped in the car. He rode down with my wife, Molly, who was in the passenger seat and Jalen was in the back with my daughter, Grace, in the backseat. It was like he's one of our kids. My wife's turned around just talking to him the whole time. I'm just driving by myself. Just a chatterbox. It's like he's been around us forever. He's one of our kids. He's one of our own.”
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