Micah Shrewsberry demonstrates that he’d “rather lose” the proper way against Miami.
Notre Dame led Miami five times on Wednesday night, including once in the final ten minutes, before running out of gas down the line.
The Fighting Irish (7-12, 2-5 ACC) lost their fourth consecutive home game, 73-61, to the Hurricanes (13-6, 4-4 ACC).
Following the game, coach Micah Shrewsberry expressed disappointment with the effort displayed by a few important members of his team.
“I would rather lose with the dudes that are gonna play the right way and that are gonna build this culture,” Shrewsberry said,” than win with somebody that isn’t doing it right.”
To begin the second half, he put his words into action by benching 6-foot-10 forwards Carey Booth, Kebba Njie, and Matt Zona in favor of a smaller rotation that included guards Braeden Shrewsberry, Julian Roper II, and Logan Imes.
The move prompted an early comeback.
Notre Dame swiftly recovered a 37-29 halftime deficit and went back and forth with Miami for the first 10 minutes of the second half.
An exuberant crowd exploded inside Purcell Pavillion when guard J.R. Konieczny scored a 3-pointer to give Notre Dame a 52-49 lead with 9:24 left in the contest, but a fatigued and undersized six-man rotation allowed Miami to go on a 17-2 run over the following seven minutes.
Despite his team’s late-game troubles, Coach Shrewsberry remained committed to his halftime choice.
“I’ll stick with the dudes that are gonna give me the effort that I want,” Shrewsberry stated in an interview. “Maybe I shouldn’t have called more timeouts and given them a break, but that group demonstrated from the start of the second half how hard you had to play for us to win.” So I was going to stick with them guys the rest of the half.”
For better or worse, guard Markus Burton continues to carry a significant offensive load for the Irish.
The best scorer among ACC freshmen led Notre Dame with 15 points on 5-of-15 shooting, four assists, three rebounds, and eight perplexing turnovers.
“Markcus Burton is not just one of the best players in the ACC,” Miami coach Jim Larrañaga said. “He’s maybe one of the three or four best freshmen in the country.” He’s controlling the ball. He has the most usage of any ACC player, which means he is constantly making decisions with the ball in his hands, which is quite rare for a freshman.
Konieczny and Shrewsberry both scored in double figures, with 13 and 10 points, respectively.
Notre Dame’s biggest problem proved to be Miami forward Norchad Omier, who returned to the Hurricanes’ lineup after missing the team’s most recent game against Syracuse. With 20 points in the first half, the senior easily outperformed his 17.2 point per game average.
Omier ended with 33 points, making 12 of 14 shots, a career high since transferring to Miami before the 2022-23 season.
“We treated Omier like he had some disease that we didn’t want to get close to, or we’d get sick,” Shrewsberry said. “We just let him operate and do whatever he wanted to.”
He said it.
Despite Notre Dame’s late troubles, Larrañaga lauded Coach Shrewsberry’s early accomplishments.
“Micah Shrewsbury is doing an incredible job,” Larrañaga remarked. “I think you can definitely see the foundation he’s already laid. They have one of the league’s top defenses. In ACC play, they limit their opponents to about 62 points. They have a lot of young players, and they’re getting better and better.”
What’s next?
The Fighting Irish will play another ACC game in Purcell Pavillion on Saturday, hosting Boston College (11-8, 2-6 ACC).
The Eagles have lost their last two games after beating Notre Dame 63-59 on January 15. Notre Dame blew a 36-29 halftime lead that night, scoring 23 points in the second quarter.
“We’ve been poor to start the second half,” Shrewsberry admitted after the loss. “Poor. That cost us. We can’t keep returning to the well and the locker room, thinking, ‘Man, that’s a game we should have won.'”
Shrewsberry is convinced that his entire team, including those he benched in the second half, will respond appropriately to another late-game setback.
“They played very hard,
