We were going to write about Micah Shrewsberry today, and we’re still going to write about Micah Shrewsberry. But Jack Swarbrick and Father Jenkins published an op-ed in the New York Times today, and it was big enough to bear mentioning.
The op-ed isn’t very good. Sometimes, these guys trot out good thoughts, but this one’s weak. It’s scattered, it poorly describes the broad nature of Division I athletics, and its thesis seems to be, “Please, Big Daddy Government, come in and force all of college sports to be shaped the way we like it.” We knew Father Jenkins’s administration was fond of bureaucracy and something like enlightened despotism, but you’d think a liberal arts guy would believe more in the power of persuasion, if his vision for what sports should be is so pure and right. Generally, if someone is asking the government to force a thing into existence, they don’t believe in their own capacity to persuade others to see things their way. As for Swarbrick? Like a lot of things with that man, the piece comes off as strategic. Congress forcing college sports to shape themselves in a way that’s conducive to Notre Dame’s success should, in theory, lead to success for Notre Dame.
I say all that to say: I’m a little worried about what Shrewsberry’s going to be able to do with NIL at Notre Dame. We’ve written before on here about Notre Dame’s NIL situation. We wrote about it two months ago. Since then, we’ve learned Notre Dame also does work some with Altius Sports Partners, which is reportedly highly thought of in the industry, but we don’t know much beyond that. There remain few direct ways for fans to support athletes financially, and based on Jenkins-Swarbrick’s description of their views on the matter, that might be by design. Their specific criticism of the current system is effectively that boosters can pay players under NIL deals with few legitimate marketing strings attached. This is a fair concern. It’s a little odd to call something, in effect, an endorsement deal when nothing is being endorsed. But Jenkins-Swarbrick writes that these deals go through “regardless of whether a player’s name, image and likeness have any market value whatsoever.” My understanding, based on my economics degree from Notre Dame, is that if someone is paying someone else for a something, that something has market value. That’s how money came to exist in the first place. I think most of us have at least some discomfort with the current NIL situation. But market value? Clearly, there’s market value here, Johns.
That is all beside the point, though, when it comes to whether or not Shrewsberry is the right hire, and as usual under Swarbrick, that bizarre Andy Ludwig saga aside, the answer is yes. This is the right hire.
The quick bio on Shrewsberry, the guy, is that he’s a Hoosier. He’s from Indianapolis, he went to Cathedral High School (the one with the gold helmets and the on-and-off affiliation with the Congregation of Holy Cross), he was the coach at IUSB for a little while, so he knows South Bend. He’s been an assistant under Brad Stevens for ten years, both at Butler and in Boston, and he was an assistant under Matt Painter for four years at Purdue. I’m not sure if he’s Catholic or not—I know that’s a big question for some at Notre Dame, and I respect it—and I don’t know much about his family, though his oldest son is a three-star shooter named Braeden who signed with Penn State but many assume is going to play at Notre Dame for the next four years (I am among this many).
The quick rundown on Shrewsberry, the coach, is that he is an offensive mind. His biggest calling card is X’s and O’s, and he’s one of those coaches whose teams at least feel like they score all the time on out of bounds plays. His teams shoot a ton of threes and play a slower pace, which is the sort of recipe that leaves you vulnerable to upsets but capable of beating any college basketball team in the country if you do it well. Penn State’s defense wasn’t good this year, but it wasn’t terrible, and it was mostly a clean product: It didn’t force many turnovers, but it didn’t foul much, and it was strong enough on the defensive boards. His best accomplishment might be taking Jalen Pickett, the third option on a mediocre Siena in 2021, and helping him develop into an All-American. Shrewsberry doesn’t have much of a reputation for sideline theatrics, but I don’t think he was ever characterized as anything like a pushover in State College. Basically: His teams might have some bad games at bad times, but they should have more good games at good times, and they’ll be fun to support. I have also been asked to include the following observation from NIT Stu:
Overall, I’m personally thrilled. The only coach whose name ever came up that could have been a better hire is probably Greg McDermott, and it seemed unlikely for that to happen. Once timing became what it was (Creighton is still playing, Penn State is not and offered Shrewsberry a ton of money to stay), Shrewsberry was the obvious move. Will he be in South Bend for life? Hopefully not. Hopefully, he does so well that the NBA wants him, as happened with his old boss Stevens. But he’s the best guy for the job, and Swarbrick got him, and whatever the NIL situation is—and it’s fluid, so it isn’t what it’ll be in a year—Notre Dame athletics remain in the best place they’ve been in decades.
Go Irish.
