SOUTH BEND, Ind. — When you think of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, many probably first think of the football team.
That could be because basketball program has been in March Madness 36 times and has never won a national title.
There's a new man in charge, trying to turn the program around.
Micah Shrewsberry is ready to deal with the pressure. He was named basketball coach just a couple of weeks ago.
"To be leading one of the, you know, major programs in this state and an Indiana kid, like basketball is, it's like a religion almost and everybody loves it, everybody is a part of it and it's something they can get behind. It's like the coolest thing to see," Shrewsberry said.
Shrewsberry graduated from Cathedral High School and played on the Irish basketball team.
"Cathedral was a great, like, learning ground for me and I feel like, you know, obviously the easy ties, right, of the mascot, the uniforms, the colors, everything there," Shrewsberry said. "But, you know, the faith in the education and how things are taught, but also the leadership. I think that's the biggest thing I got from Cathedral was it really helped me become a leader."
Those leadership skills landed him the job. He's a trailblazer, the first African American basketball coach in Notre Dame history.
"My career ended a long time ago, but I still get a chance to stay around it, and if there's a young kid that thinks, 'That's what I want to do,' as well, then maybe I can be somebody that they can look towards," he said.
The Irish haven't been to the Final Four since the 1970s. Shrewsberry wants to build this program back.
"We want to be successful," he said. "I don't have a lot of patience, so I want to win right away. We want to do it the right way to win right away. We're not going to skip steps, but we also need to build it for sustainability. We don't want to be a one-trick pony or a flash in the pan. We want to win and we want to do it consistently, so finding the right kids."
The new coach hopes to bring a high flying, up-tempo style of hoops back to campus, and that building process starts right now.