Recruiting Is The Lifeblood Of Micah Shrewsberry's Notre Dame Basketball Team

First year Irish men's basketball coach Micah Shrewsberry's top priority for his program is recruiting

From the minute Micah Shrewsberry took over at Notre Dame, recruiting has been his top priority. In the days and weeks after he took the job in late March there were plenty of times he wasn’t sure what day it was, let alone what time it was, because he was so busy assembling a roster that was capable of competing in the ACC.

After leaving Penn State for South Bend, Shrewsberry inherited just three remaining scholarship players on his first Irish roster. Seniors Matt Zona and Tony Sanders Jr and junior JR Konieczny have each played only sparingly in their careers, meaning Shrewsberry had a lot of work to do, but he set about getting it done and getting to know the lay of the new land he is in.

"Recruiting's the lifeblood of your program,” Shrewsberry recently told Irish Breakdown. “So, spending a lot of time doing that. Getting to know people is really important and figuring out who is going to be a fit, right? I say it all the time like who's going to be a fit for Notre Dame so I had to learn Notre Dame as well. That's a big part is, you know, I'm from Indiana. Yeah, I work down the street at IU-South Bend but I've never been here. I don't know the ins and outs of this place. So, figuring out like, what it is, what it takes, who it's going to take. Then once we got to that then we could figure out like okay, this kid'll fit, this kid'll fit, this kid'll fit. Then we hit the ground running, and you know, I'm lucky I got a great group of guys surrounding me. Those guys are great at building relationships and helping us get some of these guys that we've gotten so far."

When the smoke cleared Shrewsberry signed three new freshmen in forward Carey Booth and guards Logan Imes and Braeden Shrewsberry. Those three combined with the only Mike Brey commit to stay committed to Notre Dame during the coaching change, Indiana Mr. Basketball Markus Burton, to give Shrewsberry a four-player freshman class.

"I've had a chance to watch him,” Shrewsberry said of Burton. "Having a son the same age. Being here in Indiana and seeing his growth as a player. Every single year he's gotten better and I can't wait. His best basketball is still ahead of him. But I think the biggest thing is when you see those four freshmen right now they're all together. They're all going through the same things, but they're all together and the bonds that they have already here in the short amount of time now, Logan, Marcus (and) Braeden have had a relationship long, long before they got here the campus and I think that's helped all of their transition, but then they've welcomed Carey in the same exact way and they're almost like the Four Musketeers rolling around campus.”

The Four Musketeers were joined by three incoming transfers, Julian Roper II (Northwestern), Tae Davis (Seton Hall) and Kebba Njie (Penn State). The group of seven players gives Shrewsberry an actual roster and an incoming class that ranks in the top 25. The new head coach has staff who contributed to their arrival, but Shrewsberry plans to always play a big role in recruiting.

"I'm really involved,” Shrewsberry commented. "Sometimes to the point where when we have visits our guys on staff are like, man you don't have to do everything. But I think part of that goes back to you know, I was an assistant coach for a long time. I've been a head coach for two years. So, I still work like I'm an assistant coach. So, our assistants take the lead on a lot of recruits. But, you know, I spend just as much time texting those guys, calling those guys, building relationships with them, because at the end of the day, I need to feel comfortable with them as well and they need to feel comfortable with me. So, yeah, I'm in the trenches. When we're doing visits I'm with them. I'm on the golf cart, driving the tours. I'm walking into the buildings, I'm calling people texting people. It's our job, man, I love it. If I didn't love it, I wouldn't be doing it and you shouldn't be doing it if you don't love it.”

In addition to assembling the roster, Shrewsberry had a staff to put together as well. He also created a new position at Notre Dame when he brought Director of Recruiting Brian Snow with him from Penn State. Snow previously worked as a recruiting analyst for 247 and CBSsports.com and helped Penn State put together consecutive top-30 recruiting classes for the first time in program history in Shrewsberry’s two seasons there.

"He knows what he's best at and what he's doing,” Shrewsberry said of Snow. “What he does is really, really directs our recruiting and he is great at it and his relationships from 247 Sports from Rivals when he was there, with players, with parents, with coaches, high school and AAU, really helps us get our foot in the door with a lot of people. And then he organizes everything and keeps it streamlined and gets us where we need to go. So, this position is really new. When I hired him a couple years ago at Penn State, it was one of the first to have it but now you're starting to see that position a little bit more in different ways. Like Duke hired a general manager a couple of years (ago), Villanova last year. So like, people are starting to jump on the trend. You know, I just like to say you know, Brian Snow was first.”

Another hire Shrewsberry thinks will be key to his recruiting efforts is assistant coach Ryan Owens. Shrewsberry and Owens were assistants together at tiny DePauw University outside Indianapolis in the early 2000s. Owens hasn’t coached in college since his last year at DePauw in 2005, but his work on the AAU circuit even drew the praise of Purdue head coach Matt Painter when Owens addition to the Fighting Irish staff was recently announced.

"He's a relationships guy,” Shrewsberry said of Owens. "He builds great relationships, and you know, that's why Coach Painter will say something good about him because he has such a great relationship with people. But through a lot of coaches throughout the state and you know, he's a guy that he coached for the Indy Heat, but he's friends with the guys in Indiana Elite, and the George Hill, All-Indy teams and the Under Armor groups like he's close with all of those programs, and that's going to help us open up doors. 

"I think already if you look at some of the guys that we've gotten, his relationships have helped. right. Some of the recruits we've gotten Kebba Njie, Tae Davis, Julian Roper, are all Indy Heat guys that have played for him as a head coach or an assistant coach and that immediately helped us open the door to some of those guys.”

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Irish Breakdown Content

2023 Scholarship Chart
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Notre Dame 2024 Scholarship Offers

2024 Commit Rankings - Offense
2024 Commit Rankings - Defense

2023 Recruiting Class Grades - Offense
2023 Recruiting Class Grades - Defense

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