Notre Dame lost Sunday for the fourth time in their past five games, this time at home against Louisville, to drop their record to 11-14.
Yet after the defeat, men’s basketball coach Micah Shrewsberry, in his second season at South Bend, ripped not into his team, but into Notre Dame fans.
Upset by the support shown to Louisville in Notre Dame’s building, Shrewsberry, 48, criticized the Fighting Irish fan base and stormed out of the press conference while slamming the microphone down.
“I sat there and watched more Louisville fans in here than Notre Dame people. And that’s embarrassing,” Shrewsberry said after the loss. “That’s embarrassing for me because I’m the head coach here. Yes, I got us in this predicament, but don’t come back when we’re winning, because we’re turning this around, man. You better believe that.”
It hasn’t happened so far for Shrewsberry, who successfully got Penn State back into the NCAA tournament two years ago in his second and final season with the Nittany Lions.
Following that run, he left the Big Ten school for Notre Dame and the ACC, replacing long-time coach Mike Brey.
After going 13-20 last year, the Irish are 11-14 this season and 5-9 in the ACC.
“Everybody that gave up on me, believe it,’’ Shrewsberry said. “Write this date down and believe it. Because we’re going to get this thing rolling. [I] don’t care if you gave up on it or not.”
Shrewsberry isn’t new to delivering criticism after games — although when he did it in December 2023, he aimed at his players — when he actually apologized to Notre Dame fans.
That came after a 20-point loss at home to The Citadel.
“I apologize to anybody that paid money to come watch that effort from that team,’’ Shrewsberry said after that lopsided defeat in his first season at Notre Dame.
“The one thing is, they at least got to watch one team play hard. The Citadel played connected. I thought they played hard, I thought they played with a purpose and I thought our team was poor in that area. This game was over before we even got here. We have no energy at shootaround. We didn’t have any energy at practice. That’s who this team has been.”
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