SOUTH BEND − When this one went final, it went weird.
Listening to the winning head coach for the five minutes and 50 seconds that he sat/stewed for the media after Tuesday’s game sent you in search of a final stat sheet.
Was it legit or a misprint? On the piece of paper handed out after Tuesday’s home game against North Dakota, it said that the Notre Dame men’s basketball team won 75-58. In doing so, it moved to 4-0 for the first time under head coach Micah Shrewsberry.
It said that the Irish led for 36:09. It said that the Irish scored 46 points in the paint to offset a frigid night (3-of-17) from the 3-point line. It said that the reserves scored 23 points.
It said that sophomore point guard Markus Burton had a game-high 29 points, two shy of matching his career high, on a night when he was scary efficient (13-of-20) from the field. It said that there was a lot of good that happened down there on the main floor of Purcell Pavilion.
“Obviously, 4-0 is great, but there’s more work to be done,” said Burton. “Like today, we didn’t play our best basketball, but we still got the dub. There’s room for improvement, room to grow.”
Especially from where the head coach sat.
Listening to Shrewsberry, you wondered for a moment if all those numbers on the stat sheet were wrong and that Notre Dame had lost. One of those coaches who’s quick to say that you better enjoy victories because winning’s hard wasn’t ready in the immediate aftermath of this one to enjoy anything. He walked in with the disposition of someone whose supply of Dr. Pepper had been swiped.
While the final stats sheet said what it said, the winning head coach said something else. He didn’t rip them the way he ripped them after one lackluster effort last December (cough, cough, The Citadel, cough, cough). But he certainly didn’t carry himself as someone whose team is 4-0.
“A team that played with so much maturity on Saturday (in winning at Georgetown),” Shrewsberry said. “I thought we played with a lot of immaturity today.”
Maybe the head coach’s mood softened during the walk back to his Rolfs Hall office or on the drive home. Because not long after this one went final, Shrewsberry talked like a coach who had watched his team do little right.
He wasn’t happy about how Notre Dame prepared in the quick turnaround from what was arguably one of its biggest wins in his two seasons, which came three days earlier against Georgetown in Washington. Notre Dame dismantled a Big East team on it homecourt, but it seemed like the Irish spent too much time feeling good about themselves for that one and didn’t spend enough time understanding what they needed to do in this one.
“I don’t think we prepared like we prepared for our last game or other games that we’ve played this season,” Shrewsberry said. “That’s the most disappointing thing for me.”
What did the Irish not do? They didn’t box out. They didn’t get a body on somebody. They didn’t rebound. They competed like competing was beneath them. When the ball went up, Shrewsberry wanted to see his guys bang one of the other guys. Bang guard Eli King, who was listed there on the scouting report as someone who was going to get a few offensive rebounds. He grabbed six.
For that, the Irish head coach wasn’t happy. About anything.
First play of the second half, King went to the offensive glass. There was no box out by Braeden Shrewsberry. King got a bucket. Shrewsberry got a seat on the bench in favor of J.R. Konieczny. Second North Dakota possession of the second half, King again grabbed an offensive rebound. King got another bucket; Konieczny also got a seat on the bench.
The last thing Shrewsberry said to the Irish in the huddle before the start of the second half was that the first time the first North Dakota shot went up, he wanted to “see some bodies moving.”
“Didn’t happen,” Shrewsberry said. “There’s immaturity right there. Get a foul. At least you’re setting a tone and saying there’s no way in hell you’re getting an offensive rebound right here to start the second half.”
Enter senior Julian Roper, who flipped the game for the home team with some hard work and hustle. Roper boxed out. Roper battled. Roper competed. What had been a five-point Irish lead ballooned to 13 in barely three minutes. A minute later, it was up to 15.
Notre Dame was rolling thanks in large part to Roper, who finished with a career-high five steals.
“I was just searching for somebody that was going to bring us some kind of energy,” Shrewsberry said. “We didn’t have it. We always talk about, you’ve got to bring your own energy, right? You know, people shouldn’t come watch us play if we’re not going to play hard.”
Shrewsberry knew his team would be up against it in terms of preparation time after Georgetown. The Irish traveling party arrived home relatively early Saturday night but did little on Sunday to rest a lot of heavy legs. Monday was the only real practice/prep day, a time that Shrewsberry said his guys were “OK.” Class schedules Tuesday meant no usual pre-game shoot-around. Everything seemed a little off.
“That can’t be an excuse, right?” Shrewsberry said. “You’ve played college basketball. You know the effort level. You know the focus level that needs to be there whether you’re playing North Dakota or whether you’re playing Nebraska. Whoever it is, you have to prepare the right way.
“I don’t know if we had the right mindset coming into here of what we needed to do to play this game at the level we needed to play it at.”
Shrewsberry already knew Tuesday night what the practice plan would hold for Thursday afternoon. He didn’t say it, but he didn’t have to. You could see it in his eyes. It was probably going to involve box-out drills, maybe sending someone wearing a different color jersey to the floor. Be ready to get dirty.
The Irish won another home game Tuesday. They also learned a lesson that the deeper this season goes and the more wins they may collect, what they did the last game out and the previous one before that matters little. Notre Dame needs to be better the next game and the next game and the next game.
Winning, and the all-out/all-in effort that it takes to get there on a given night, can never be taken for granted. On Tuesday, it was taken for granted.
Shrewsberry promised that the Irish will be better on Friday. They will be ready on Friday.
“These boys are going to play like their hair’s on fire,” he said.
As they learned Tuesday, there’s no other choice.
Follow South Bend Tribune and NDInsider columnist Tom Noie on X (formerly Twitter): @tnoieNDI. Contact Noie at tnoie@sbtinfo.com
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