Over the 32 days leading up to college basketball season, we’re profiling 32 different teams who could be in the NIT mix, aided in this effort by those who know them best (or the closest we could get). Today, our own Stuart McGrath responds by email to our questions about Notre Dame.
Stuart McGrath can be found here at www.thebarkingcrow.com, where he most often discusses Notre Dame in Good Things Shrewing, one of the rare basketball-first Notre Dame media efforts. He can also be found on Twitter at @StuartNMcGrath, and theoretically at the same handle on Instagram. As with Joe Stunardi’s, we had to set up the Instagram account to access Threads, and we had to access Threads in case Twitter blows itself to pieces soon.
Here’s the full list of 32 for 32’s published so far, with links:
- Auburn, with the Sickos CBB Committee
- BYU, with Mitch Harper
- Cincinnati, with Zach Fries
- Dayton, with Tyler Cronin
- Duquesne, with Tristan Freeman
- Indiana, with Matt Cox
- Iona, with Sam Federman
- Iowa State, with Joe Stunardi
- James Madison, with Bennett Conlin
- Loyola, with Ky McKeon
- Michigan, with the Sickos CBB Committee
- Missouri, with Jim Root
- North Texas, with Harry Miers
- Northwestern, with John Templon
- Notre Dame, with Stuart McGrath
- Ohio State, with Mark Titus
- Oregon State, with Andy Dieckhoff
- Penn State, with DJ Bauer
- South Carolina, with Brian Rauf
- St. Bonaventure, with SBUnfurled
- St. John’s, with the Sickos CBB Committee
- Syracuse, with the Marshall Street Podcast
- Texas, with NIT Stu
- Utah, with Andrew Crowley
- Virginia Tech, with Ken Pomeroy
- Washington State, with Dave Andersen
- Wisconsin, with Cole Amundson
The Barking Crow: Let’s start with last year. Notre Dame stunk. What needs to happen to erase that taste and get into NIT territory?
Last year has bearing on this year’s Notre Dame season, but only because it led to the current situation. Only three scholarship players are returning from last year’s roster, and none of those three were core contributors. Where the program’s at now is that it has those few Mike Brey holdovers but the bulk is young players recruited by Micah Shrewsberry. Of those players, everyone looks like the kind of guy who could eventually be a contributing member of a good college basketball team, but it could take a couple years to get there. If Notre Dame’s going to make this NIT, it’s going to require massive overachievement.
TBC: Notre Dame’s made the NIT twelve times, and it’s made the championship in four of those tournaments. It’s never won one. How big an impact does that drought have on the school? Is it larger or smaller than the football drought?
I’ve never gotten the impression many people at Notre Dame know about Notre Dame’s NIT history. What’s really strange about the men’s basketball program is that it’s one of the winningest in college basketball history among those without a national title. I guess that goes for both your definition of national title and the conventional one.
TBC: Notre Dame’s women’s basketball program hasn’t made the WNIT since they played in the Horizon League. Care to discuss that drought? Could it end this season, either with the WNIT itself or the new WBIT?
I didn’t realize we’d been in the Horizon League for women’s basketball. Our conference memberships have been wild.
Unfortunately for your WBIT Final Four attendance hopes, Notre Dame’s supposed to be pretty good again on the women’s side. I don’t think we’re in the other national championship picture, but we should be around the top of the ACC.
TBC: Something we’ve discussed offline concerning Micah Shrewsberry is that he, like Belmont head coach Casey Alexander, has a head that looks like it might be a basketball in disguise. Have you come across any rumors on this front in your work?
To my knowledge, all speculation regarding the PSI of Micah Shrewsberry’s head has been limited to that put out by The Barking Crow’s resident NIT blogger.
TBC: Notre Dame is in Indiana. Hinkle Fieldhouse? Also in Indiana. If Notre Dame makes the NIT Final Four, should we expect a large turnout in Indy?
I don’t personally think the first part of that is on the table, so I’m afraid we won’t find out, but I do think Notre Dame fans would show up in Indianapolis for the NIT Final Four. I don’t know that they’d be all that fired up about it, but Notre Dame’s pretty good at filling seats. Notre Dame people go where the Notre Dame logo takes them.
TBC: Notre Dame basketball was traditionally more likable than Notre Dame football during the Mike Brey era. Do you expect this to still be the case under Shrewsberry?
I don’t know. Shrewsberry is likable, but he doesn’t seem to be as much of a character as Brey, for better or worse. At the same time, my perception is that Marcus Freeman is very likable, and while that doesn’t erase the Yankees ethos or whatever you want to call it, it does seem like we’re in a situation in college sports where programs are defined even more than usual by their head coach. I don’t think Notre Dame football can become more likable than Notre Dame men’s basketball, but I do wonder if Freeman can do enough to make people stop noticing. Brian Kelly and Charlie Weis were each very easy to dislike.
TBC: Dare we dream of a Notre Dame NIT title?
Again, I’m not personally dreaming on it, but I don’t think this website should ever discourage NIT dreams.
