What if Notre Dame Retains Micah Shrewsberry?
- Brenden Duffy
- 28 minutes ago
- 4 min read
Notre Dame Basketball has fallen two games below .500 following Saturday’s home loss to the 11-12 Florida State Seminoles. With the Irish virtually eliminated from March Madness and currently sitting outside of the ACC Tournament field, how does the program proceed?
Photo via Notre Dame Athletics
Head Coach Micah Shrewsberry is set to enter year four of his original seven-year contract signed back in March 2023. For the sake of not overcomplicating things, let’s just assume Shrewsberry is indeed retained next season. In my opinion, here is how Notre Dame would be best suited moving forward in this scenario.
With no transfers, Notre Dame would be sitting at 13 of a maximum 15 scholarship players on the roster: returners Logan Imes, Markus Burton, Cole Certa, Brady Koehler, Ryder Frost, Jalen Haralson, Braeden Shrewsberry, Garrett Sundra, Sir Mohammed, Tommy Ahneman, and incoming freshmen Jonathan Sanderson, Gan-Erdene Salongo, and Nick Shrewsberry.Â
The notable players leaving the program include Kebba Njie, Carson Towt, and Matthew MacLellan (non-scholarship). Brady Stevens and Luke Devine are two other non-scholarship players who could return next year.Â
In a perfect world, and everyone does indeed return to South Bend, this leaves the two remaining scholarship spots. How should these be used?
Well, the biggest priority has to be locking down an experienced transfer big man (ideally, 7+ feet) who can pose as an offensive threat. Towt plays his role to the best of his ability at the moment, but having to be the team’s big man at just 6-8 in the ACC is rarely going to end well, especially as a 37% free throw shooter. Ahneman and Salongo are intriguing, but both need development, especially the latter. Ahneman, who missed this season due to injury, just needs to polish his offensive game, and that should come with playing time in non-conference play at the beginning of next season.
Now with the remaining scholarship slot, I would try to find a versatile wing option who can drive, finish in the paint, create for others, and defend. The combination of Burton, Haralson, Certa, Shrewsberry, and Imes should be capable enough to handle guard duties. However, Burton and Haralson are the only two returning players capable of consistently getting to the lane to either finish or find an open shooter. Finding another player similar to Haralson could provide some relief to the lineup. In addition to experience, I prefer my transfers to come from winning programs, but Notre Dame should probably just focus on finding talent for now.
Notre Dame Basketball may not allocate the same amount of resources to its program as Duke or North Carolina, but it is more than capable of at least fielding a competitive team. Every week, it seems like the Irish find new ways to embarrass themselves via blown leads, coaching errors, crashouts, etc. The Irish rank in the bottom four in the ACC in both adjusted offensive and defensive efficiency ratings. And next season’s incoming freshman class features three players, two of whom need serious development, and all have some sort of family tie to the current program. Notre Dame, with GM Pat Garritty, needs to do serious work in this portal.
I would also consider upgrading at certain spots, specifically with Imes and Mohammed.
Imes is a complete liability on offense, averaging 3.7 PPG, 2.9 RPG, 1.5 APG, and 1.1 TOPG in 19.3 MPG. He offers little threat as a scorer while shooting 34.4% from the field, 29.4% from three, and 47.1% from the free-throw line. In the three games before Saturday’s Florida State matchup, Imes had a combined four personal fouls, three turnovers, and no points. His defensive presence would certainly be missed, but it can be replaced.Â
Mohammed offers slightly more offensively than Imes, but is a worse defender while playing a similar role. In 15.7 MPG, the son of Nazr is averaging 5.6 PPG while shooting a solid 40.6% from the field, but a measly 27.3% from three and 54.5% from the free-throw stripe. Mohammed also averages 2.8 RPG and 1.2 APG with 1.5 TOPG. Besides freshman Ryder Frost, who is known as an offensive threat and receives less than 6 MPG, Mohammed is arguably the worst defender on the team. He averages 0.5 SPG and has just four blocks (two against FSU) in 24 games played as a 6’6 guard. For what it is worth, he has actually played pretty well this week against a tough Louisville squad and FSU, where he played a season-high 28 minutes. However, in recent contests against Syracuse, Virginia, and Boston College, Mohammed was exposed defensively, averaging a -4.1 defensive plus/minus in 14 MPG.
With four straight losses and a 2-10 record in the last 12 games, Coach Shrewsberry should be coaching for his life. Will he do enough to save his job? Time will tell.
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