WU-TANG!
Micah Shrewsberry stepped up to the post-game media table to take questions following Notre Dame’s 75-60 home loss to the Louisville Cardinals, and pretty quickly made a scene in a two and a half minute rant that felt out of place — and even a little unhinged.
Shrewsberry was asked a fairly light softball of a question from BGI’s Jack Soble:
“What have you felt have been the biggest issues in the past five games?”
Instead of any type of answer that would address the question directly. Micah Shrewsberry decided to make this about his feelings.
Micah Shrewsberry went on a 2:40 rant in his postgame press conference, which included hitting a mic.
“You think I should be fired? Good for you. You’re allowed to have opinions. A lot of people have given up this team and given up on me. I don’t really give a damn.” pic.twitter.com/e0xP2xFvCi
— Matt Freeman (@mattfreeman05_) February 17, 2025
It reminded me of an old Dave Chappelle skit, “When keeping it real goes wrong.” Shewsberry acted strong, but it was because of his own insecurities — whether with his public perception or his players’ perception of him — and I’m not sure
This is Notre Dame. No one expected a massive and quick turnaround from the downward spiral of the Mike Brey era. Anyone with half of a brain knew this was going to take two or three years to get back to competing in the upper half of the ACC. Not only that, but there doesn’t appear to have been any hard pressure from the administration, the media, or the fans to do otherwise.
Sure… there are definite criticisms of Shrewsberry and the program, but most of the criticisms I’ve seen have been mostly reasonable and generally a normal reaction to a team that keeps losing basketball games.
So instead of actually addressing the question or even the criticisms, Shrewsberry tried to turn it around like the players were being attacked by the media and fans — all while defending himself and his job and whining about the crowd.
It all highly suggests that Shrewsberry doesn’t know what to do, so he makes a big show of force to hide that from those that might question him. It’s a terrible weakness, and it’s also a red flag for the future. There was a way for him to actually answer Soble’s question with logic and reason mixed with a couple dashes of coachspeak — and he chose outrage.
That’s weakness.
Shrewsberry has the best recruiting class in program history signed for 2025, and given the landscape of college sports, I didn’t have any real desire for Notre Dame to make a change before tonight. But after tonight… I do have those doubts. He just came off as so weak and defeated and, ironically, unsure of himself, that it’s hard to imagine him leading Notre Dame into a better place.
I really do hope this was just one of those things coaches do to try and inspire his team and instill some confidence in them after another tough loss, rather than just an emotional meltdown from a man that is letting the pressure (whatever that may be) get to him. There are better ways for this to be done, and an angry rant just looks weak — like Brian Kelly or Vernon Franklin or Brenda.