Notre Dame Fighting Irish basketball head coach talks ‘surreal’ moment

Notre Dame Fighting Irish basketball coach Micah Shrewsberry knows that this season in South Bend was meant to happen, but it’s still surreal.

The Notre Dame basketball season is just a little over 10 days away now. That means Fighting Irish fans are very, very close to seeing what new head coach Micah Shrewsberry has to offer.

The man who is gaining quite the reputation as turning around moribund programs thanks to what he did at Penn State and others now has the keys to a program that used to be among the best of the best.

Speaking at the ACC Tipoff on Thursday, Shrewsberry made it clear that he understands the opportunity he’s been given as the leader of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish basketball team. Among the comments he made, he recognized what a surreal moment it was when he was first hired and came to South Bend.

"“It’s very surreal for me. It’s obviously a full-circle moment. I’ve said this many times, and I talked about it at my press conference, that 2005, I was the head coach of Indiana University South Bend, and driving home – I came straight up Ironwood and made a right turn at the gas station at Martin’s and went to my house, but I would always see campus, and I would always go there and tailgate for football games.”"

Notre Dame Fighting Irish basketball coach feels being back in South Bend is surreal

The head coach didn’t stop there either. He talked about how his entire family knows South Bend well. How there are little landmarks that he remembers seeing from nearly 20 years ago.

"“My wife would take my son, who’s a freshman at Notre Dame now. She’d go and walk him around, push him around in the stroller around the lakes. Like this is surreal for me.”"

it’s clear that people in charge of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish basketball program knew what they were doing. They hired someone who considers South Bend a special place. Oh, and he’s a heck of a coach as well. Ask any Penn State Nittany Lions fan about that.