UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa (WTAJ) — After a long four days of wait, Micah Shrewsberry decided to leave Penn State to become the next head coach of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.
Shrewsberry, who joined Penn State in 2021 as the 14th coach in program history, announced Wednesday that he signed a seven-year deal with the Fighting Irish, according to CBS Sports.
Shrewsberry leaving Penn State for Notre Dame isn’t a complete surprise as Shrewsberry grew up in Indiana, so taking the job is allowing him to go back home.
Now with Shrewsberry gone, Penn State will look to hire the program’s 15th men’s basketball coach. This also marks the third head coaching change since 2020 and is the third shortest tenure of a Penn State head coach in program history.
In his two seasons with the Nittany Lions, he posed a 37-31 record. However, his most important accomplishment thus far lead the team back to the NCAA Men’s Tournament for the first time since 2011. This included a round of 64 win over Texas A&M 76-59.
This was after leading Penn State to their first Big Ten Championship game in 12 years, which the Nittany Lions only lost by two over Purdue, who held the number five seed at the time.
Additionally, in Shrewsberry’s inaugural season in Happy Valley, Penn State held the Big Ten’s best-scoring defense, allowing 65.0 points per game. This was the Nittany Lion’s best defensive season in 11 years.
While Shrewsberry has been coaching since his playing career ended in 1999, this was just his second head coaching job at the collegiate level. Most notably, Shrewsberry was an assistant coach for the NBA’s Boston Celtics and had two stints (2011-2013, 2019-2021) with Purdue as an assistant coach.
