Micah Shrewsberry is in his first year as Notre Dame’s head basketball coach, and he is clearly trying to set the tone early on as he tries to rebuild the program.
Shrewsberry unleashed an epic rant about his team following Tuesday’s 65-45 loss to The Citadel. The coach outright said that anyone not putting in the effort would “rot on the bench,” and he even apologized to fans who had to watch the performance.
“I apologize to anybody that paid money to come watch that effort from that team. The one thing is, they at least got to watch one team play hard. The Citadel played connected, I thought they played hard, I thought they played with a purpose, and I thought our team was poor in that area,” Shrewsberry said. “This game was over before we even got here. We have no energy at shootaround. We didn’t have any energy at practice. That’s who this team has been.
“We’re building a culture, and that ain’t it. That is not the culture we’re trying to build. So a message needs to be sent to some of these guys, if you don’t play hard, then you can sit and rot over there on the bench. I’ll go and talk to people in compliance. I will help you transfer. Because this culture is getting built the right way, and if you ain’t a part of it, you’re out, and I don’t care.”
If Shrewsberry is willing to publicly call out his players like that, he is clearly unimpressed with what they have offered so far. With the Fighting Irish off to a 4-7 start even before entering ACC play, it is easy to see why.
Shrewsberry replaced Mike Brey after being lured from Penn State, where he executed a quick turnaround in two seasons. He may need an even bigger effort to produce the same results at Notre Dame.
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