Notre Dame's Micah Shrewsberry: A Cathedral kid turned brilliant, fiery college coach

SOUTH BEND -- Micah Shrewsberry is sitting inside a conference room that overlooks the practice court at Rolfs Athletics Hall wearing a gray Notre Dame T-shirt. He has a smile on his face, a can of Coke in front of him and big ideas raging through his head. Shrewsberry says one of those ideas out loud.

"I came here because I think you can win a national championship here," he says, "I really do believe that." Notre Dame men's basketball can, and will, win an NCAA title. Shrewsberry says it with such conviction that he makes that idea not seem impossible at all.

Shrewsberry is a charming guy who cracks jokes. He is mild mannered but he tells it like it is. He can be fiery when he steps onto the court and he is "kind of a sore loser," staying at the office for hours to decompress after losing a game, his wife, Molly, says.

Shrewsberry calls himself "boring." He doesn't drink fancy coffees and he doesn't put on airs. Most of his life off the court is spent hanging with his family, scrutinizing game tape, watching basketball or binge watching MTV's "The Challenge." He says the most interesting fact about him is that he has an addiction -- to 44-ounce Dr. Pepper fountain drinks.

Which makes that can of Coke in front of Shrewsberry on this April morning more significant than it should be. It explains a lot about his life. How crazy things are right now, how intense and how busy. Some mornings, there isn't time to grab a fountain Dr. Pepper at the gas station or inside a campus cafeteria.

It's been a beautiful kind of chaos these past weeks for Shrewsberry, after Notre Dame made the official announcement March 23 that he would replace the legendary Mike Brey as basketball coach. Shrewsberry stayed up into the wee hours of the morning answering more than 400 texts that buzzed on his phone with congratulations from friends, family and people like Brad Stevens, Matt Painter, Danny Ainge, Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum.

Days later, Shrewsberry packed up his office at Penn State, where he coached the past two seasons. He packed a few things from his Pennsylvania home, kissed his wife and four children goodbye and he bolted to South Bend to live in a hotel. To get to work.

Shrewsberry hasn't had time to set up his office at Notre Dame. The walls are blank, the bookshelf is empty and a few papers are scattered across his desk. Decorating his office will come in time. Right now, he has more important things to worry about. If Notre Dame had to play a game right now, Shrewsberry concedes, he wouldn't have enough players to field a team.

Right now, he's trying to build a coaching staff and he is trying to build that team, bringing in recruits for visits to the campus he calls "magical." Sometimes, as Shrewsberry walks with those recruits, he stops for a moment, takes it all in and can't believe he is really here.

These past weeks have been a whirlwind for Shrewsberry but, in some ways, it almost feels like that wind has always been brewing and swirling, pushing him back to his home state.

"I'm truly Indiana," said Shrewsberry, 46, who played basketball at Cathedral High School. "I'm all Indiana."

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He just fits at Notre Dame

Shrewsberry was raised in Jeffersonville with two older sisters, Michelle who went on to be a track star, and Monica, who went on to cheer at Butler. His dad, Bill, was an IU basketball-loving city councilman who worked for Indiana Bell and his mom, Brenda, was a Louisville basketball-loving nurse.

He got the best of both basketball worlds. When he was 3 years old, Louisville won the national championship in 1980 then Indiana won in 1981. Louisville won in 1986 and Indiana won in 1987.

"That was my childhood growing up," Shrewsberry said, "idolizing all those players and all those teams."

Shrewsberry first played basketball at the Jeffersonville YMCA in a pint-sized league where players scored a point if their shot hit the rim. The ball didn't have to fall into the basket but Shrewsberry fell in love with the sport. In the basement of his childhood home, his dad installed a full-size basketball rim positioned on a pole down in the drainpipe.

Bill Shrewsberry remembers his son counting down, "5-4-3-2-1", dribbling to the basket and shooting, pretending he had made the game-winning shot. When he was in elementary school, Shrewsberry was good enough to make the 4th grade league as a third grader. "Man, he could dribble," his dad says.

Friday and Saturday nights were spent inside Jeffersonville High's gym. The family had season tickets and Shrewsberry remembers watching a rival from Bedford North Lawrence come into their gym. His name was Damon Bailey and it seemed like there was nothing he couldn't do on the court.

When the family moved to Indianapolis at the request of newly-elected Indiana Gov. Evan Bayh, who wanted Bill Shrewsberry, a four-term city councilman in Jeffersonville, to serve on his senior staff, Shrewsberry saw something even better than Bailey.

His sister Monica went to Lawrence North. A seventh grade Shrewsberry sat inside Market Square Arena where the vibe was electric and he watched Eric Montross and Todd Leary trounce Kokomo 74-57 for the state title in 1989. It was the first title for Lawrence North, the first for legendary coach Jack Keefer and the first for a Marion County township school.

"That was my welcome to Indianapolis moment right there," Shrewsberry said, laughing. "It was unbelievable."

While Monica went to Lawrence North and was a cheerleader, his parents put Shrewsberry on the Catholic school path, first at St. Matthew for middle school where nuns did their best to "refine" him. Shrewsberry was never a bad kid, but sometimes he could be ornery.

"I got in trouble a little too much because I loved to talk, I was a jokester and prankster who loved to make people laugh all the time," he said. Everywhere he went, people loved Shrewsberry.

At Cathedral, Shrewsberry was voted the football homecoming king, he was chosen as a senior to mentor incoming freshman students and he was a four-year basketball player.

"While he wasn't the biggest player on the team, he was a pretty good athlete. I mean, a really good athlete," said Rick Streiff, Cathedral's athletic director, who was the school's football coach when Shrewsberry was there. "He was a hard worker, pretty unassuming, but also one of those people who was deceivingly good at what he did."

After graduating from Cathedral in 1995, Shrewsberry went on to play basketball at Hanover. As a point guard, he averaged 7.5 points and 4.2 assists his final two seasons and was team captain and honorable mention All-Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference as a senior.

Shrewsberry never had any crazy dreams that he would play beyond the college level. "I was just OK," he said. But he did dream of coaching college basketball. And that dream worked out just fine.

For the past 24 years, Shrewsberry has risen through the ranks of college coaching, landing on benches next to legendary coaches like Brad Stevens at Butler and Matt Painter at Purdue. In 2021, the big dream of being a Division I coach became reality when he was hired at Penn State.

But when Brey left Notre Dame in January, after 23 seasons as the winningest coach in program history, Shrewsberry's name started swirling in college basketball coaching circles and among fans.

As Penn State played a game against Rutgers shortly after Brey retired, Shrewsberry heard the heckling from fans behind the bench. "Are you going to be the next Notre Dame coach?" they yelled. "Good luck at Notre Dame."

Notre Dame was definitely on Shrewsberry's radar, but there were other jobs open, including Georgetown. And he'd had a pretty good run where he was, leading Penn State to a 37-31 record in two years and reaching the second round of the NCAA tournament in his second season with an upset of No. 7 Texas A&M before losing to No. 2 Texas.

What was next for him? Shrewsberry turned to his mentors, including Painter, for advice.

"'Notre Dame would be your job. You're from Indiana, went to Cathedral, worked at Purdue, worked at Butler,'" Painter said he told Shrewsberry. "I thought about what would be best for him. And there was no question it was Notre Dame. He just fits there."

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Not an ounce of arrogance in him

There are few Division I coaches as unintimidating as Shrewsberry. His wife, Molly, who met Shrewsberry at Cathedral where they both played basketball, calls him "charming, unassuming and funny, but like a quiet funny."

"The ego doesn’t get to him," she said. "He’ll never change." He is the same coach whether he is sitting as an assistant on Wabash's bench or in between NBA stars on the Celtics bench.

There isn't an ounce of arrogance in Shrewsberry, Molly said. He is confident but he is humble and the way he coaches his players is a lot like the way he fathers their children. The Shrewsberrys have two sons, Braeden, who will play for Notre Dame this fall, and Nick, a freshman basketball player. They have two daughters who are gymnasts, Caitlin, an 8th grader, and Grace who is in fourth grade.

"He is the best dad, actually, we are missing him right now," said Molly who is staying behind with the kids in Pennsylvania so they can finish out the school year. Shrewsberry changed Braeden's diapers before she did. He was a hands-on dad from the start.

"He's so loving with them, but they know he has high expectations, too," said Molly. "His leadership with the team and being a dad are similar. He’s loving and they want to be their best, not because they're scared, but because they respect him and don't want to disappoint him."

As kind as Shrewsberry is, he can also be stern and intense, Molly said. "When he’s on the guys or the kids, you know he loves you. He’s doing it because he wants you to reach your potential."

Painter said he has seen the fire ignite in Shrewsberry, who is usually mild mannered. "He's got an edge to him and it's a really good balance," Painter said. "The edge doesn't always come out but, when it does, people listen."

More than anything, Shrewsberry cares deeply about the players he coaches. He likes to build relationships. He never loses touch with the people who have crossed paths with him. And he never forgets where he came from.

There was a Saturday afternoon a few years ago when Cathedral was playing a football game in Cleveland. Before the game, Cathedral athletic trainer Mike Hunker was standing on the sideline when he looked over his shoulder and saw Shrewsberry. He was in town with the Celtics, who were playing the Cavaliers, and he had heard that Cathedral was playing a football game down the road.

"He told me, 'I wanted to watch my high school play,'" said Hunker. "I thought that was just absolutely incredible, because there were a million other things he could be doing on a Saturday afternoon besides watching us play a football game. It was a testament to his character."

And a testament to why Shrewsberry has been so successful as a coach, said Streiff. "He's just a good guy. Just a flat out good guy."

Learning from the best

Throughout Shrewsberry's 24 years of coaching there have been tough seasons, wonderful seasons and there have been times that were incredible, including those years as assistant coach at Butler when the team made back-to-back NCAA championship runs in 2010 and 2011.

"It was just magical," Shrewsberry said. He remembers landing in Indianapolis in 2010 for the Final Four.

"It being in Indy was unreal, that whole experience of landing after we won in Salt Lake City, landing the plane and then coming back along I-70 from the airport, coming back through downtown and seeing Lucas Oil," he said. "That was so cool for us knowing next week we're going to be playing in there."

As he sat next to Stevens on the bench, Shrewsberry watched his intense preparation, how he didn't leave anything to chance and was in awe of his unbelievable memory. "That's the one thing he and coach Painter both have," he said. "They remember just crazy details and stuff."

There were nights Stevens would ask Shrewsberry to grab a clip to show before practice. He would start scouring through tapes, with no idea where he should look. "And Brad would be like, 'It's at the 7:13 mark of the first half of this game,'" Shrewsberry said. "I learned a lot from him and how we play and a lot of things we do is directly from Brad."

Shrewsberry learned a lot from Painter, too, in his two stints coaching at Purdue, including the way Painter treated him when he was offered a job with the Celtics.

"Coach Painter told me, 'I'll fire you for stupidity if you don't go,'" Shrewsberry said. "That showed not only what a great coach he was but how he truly cared for his players and coaches and how he wanted the best for them."

In his six years with the Celtics, Shrewsberry said he learned as much from the players as he did the coaches, soaking in everything those NBA stars did on the court and said off the court. They had, after all, reached greatness.

And after he learned from that NBA experience, Shrewsberry was ready to reach for his own goal, his next big step -- a head coaching job in Division I.

None of the D-1 teams he talked to would take Shrewsberry. They told him he needed to get back to the college ranks before he would get a head coaching job. Then in perfect timing, a position opened on Painter's bench and Shrewsberry headed back to Purdue as an associate head coach to run the team's offense.

That was the missing piece he needed to make his Division I coaching dream a reality, Shrewsberry said. Another stint with Painter, to learn more and then, "Coach Painter helped me become a head D-1 coach."

'Quite a daunting challenge'

With two years of head coaching under his belt at Penn State, Shrewsberry sits inside Rolfs Athletics Hall at Notre Dame with those big ideas floating in his head.

"Notre Dame can win an NCAA title," Shrewsberry said. "That's our goal and that's what it should be as a competitor. If you're not trying to win a championship, then why are you even here?"

Shrewsberry said he wants to build a team that will be competitive this season, but one that also has the pieces it needs to be successful in the future.

"We have a good young core that will be the group that we build with and we grow with and they're going to take us to really explode into the future," he said. "But in the mean time, we are going to have guys that are going to stabilize us to a good program where we we can win right away."

The coach he is following at Notre Dame is not lost on Shrewsberry. Brey is a legend.

"It's quite a daunting challenge because he's been here for so long," Shrewsberry said. "He's been here as long as I've been coaching, so this is all I know, Mike Brey and Notre Dame. It's like an institution and a legacy, which is pretty cool that you get a chance to follow him.

"But there is also a little bit of, 'Alright, here we go, I've got some big shoes to fill.'"

Follow IndyStar sports reporter Dana Benbow on Twitter: @DanaBenbow. Reach her via email: dbenbow@indystar.com.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Notre Dame's Micah Shrewsberry: Brilliant, fiery DI basketball coach