Wednesday night's Notre Dame basketball loss to North Carolina was far too familiar, and it left head coach Micah Shrewsberry talking for what felt like the billionth time about his team needing better effort and playing with "grit."
"They've never been through the grit and grind. I gotta get us gritty and grimy to be able to come in here and sustain and do what we need to do," Shrewsberry said after the 91-69 loss to the Tar Heels. "I apologized to those guys because I've been too nice to them. I've been too soft on them to be ready to fight and compete in an environment like this."
Year three of the Micah Shrewsberry experience at Notre Dame feels a lot like Year One and Year Two. The Irish are now 38-47 and 16-30 in the ACC since the coach arrived in South Bend.
Micah Shrewsberry questions effort after Notre Dame’s fifth straight loss
The most noteworthy part of the ND's 5th straight loss and 6th in the last 7 games is that it was also the 25th loss in three seasons by 10+ points. If Shrewsberry hasn't managed to teach "grit" in his first 85 games with the Fighting Irish, when will he?
"We gotta practice it. We gotta do it in practice. I can't worry about legs, can't worry about we got 12 dudes that practice. Can't worry about that. We gotta build calluses in practice and that's the only way that you're gonna be ready to do it."
19 games into the 2025-26 campaign, Shrewsberry has finally figured out he needs to practice harder. With Notre Dame sitting at 1-5 in the conference, the coach is planning on changing how his squad prepares.
"Grit" feels an awful lot like an excuse the Notre Dame basketball head coach is using because he doesn't know how to get a team with plenty of talent to play better. That's a problem for everyone involved, especially the fans.