When Micah Shrewsberry and the Irish tipped off against Missouri, the start went sideways fast, and they headed into halftime down seven. Even so, Notre Dame kept grinding their way back. It was only their second meeting this century, but Missouri’s 7–2 series lead, plus winning both earlier ACC/SEC Challenge matchups, gave the matchup some rivalry vibes. On the court, though, it didn’t really feel like one.

What stood out was the moment when Shrewsberry walked to the sideline toward Dennis Gates. The two head coaches then hugged and shared a laugh.

 “We’ve kind of come up through the same path,” Shrewsberry said in the post-game press conference. “We were assistants for a long time at the same time. You see him on the road recruiting all the time… And he’s just like, you’ve got to have people in your business that you can talk to.”

Well, Dennis Gates joined Missouri after a three-year run as head coach at Cleveland State. His coaching résumé includes 11 postseason appearances and a stint as a skills development coach with the Los Angeles Clippers. But one of his biggest strengths has always been recruiting. He helped bring seven top-100 players to Florida State during his time in Tallahassee as a graduate assistant.

As for Shrewsberry, after his playing days, he worked as an assistant at Wabash and DePauw, then spent two seasons at Marshall under Ron Jirsa. In 2005, he became head coach at Indiana University South Bend, staying until 2007 before joining Brad Stevens at Butler, where he was part of both national runner-up runs.

He moved to Purdue in 2011 and was credited with helping the team post a nation-leading 8.74 turnovers per game. After that, he reunited with Stevens on the Boston Celtics staff for five playoff runs, including two straight Eastern Conference finals, before returning to Purdue in 2019 as associate head coach.

So, yes, their stories have that similar gritty vibe written all over them.

“Even though we’re competitors today, he’s one of the guys who encouraged me to take this job and believed in me as a coach,” Shrewsberry added. “Sometimes you just get that from people. He’s a good coach. He’s got a good team. And he’s a tremendous person.”

Every job comes with its challenges, but having peers who share the same journey can elevate the entire experience. For Shrewsberry, that person has been Dennis. They became head coaches around the same time, Gates in 2019 at Cleveland State, and Shrewsberry at Penn State in 2021. Before that, both spent years paying their dues as assistants.

So, it makes sense why both respect each other. Also, as Shrewsberry said, Dennis had also played a vital role in convincing him to take up the coaching position at Notre Dame.

Notably, Shrewsberry became the 14th head coach in Penn State’s history and, in his second season, led the Nittany Lions to a 23–14 record. The team set a Big Ten record for most three-pointers in a season. He also recorded 17 Big Ten wins in his first two seasons, more than any Penn State head coach back then.

So he wasn’t desperate for a move, but with Gates’ encouragement, he took the Notre Dame offer and began shaping a new era of Fighting Irish basketball in 2023.  

Where do the Fighting Irish stand in the first week of December?

Notre Dame showed clear progress this year at the Players Era Festival. After going winless at 0–3 in 2024, the Irish picked up a victory this time, a 68–63 payback win over Rutgers, before dropping games to No. 21 Kansas and No. 8 Houston by 10 points each.

Micah Shrewsberry, though, left the event feeling mixed. Their problems were easy to spot: against Kansas, they hit just 4 of 24 threes (16.7%) and were beaten on the glass by 10 boards. The loss to Houston was even harder to explain, with the Irish stumbling badly on both ends and falling behind 26–4 midway through the first half.

“I dunno if we were too hyped up to play, too jittery,” Shrewsberry had said then. “I don’t know what it was, but I told those guys, and there was, at halftime, there was no adjustments that needed to be made. You can’t adjust until you get to a certain competition level, and once we started competing at that level, then an adjustment might be able to help you.

“That was the biggest thing right there is just being ready. Just being ready to fight.”

Per the HC, his team showed the right amount of effort, but the maturity went missing somewhere.

“Everybody gives up offensive rebounds. It’s not like we’re the only team in the country not doing it. It’s not like you can’t win a championship if you give up an offensive rebound. But, in the guts of the game, those might be the most important place. Those little details are where we need to increase the most right now,” he added.

So, before the Tigers came around, the Irish knew what their coach was expecting, and they delivered. It’s clear that Notre Dame is ready to do better than its 8-12 ACC record to return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2022.