What might final full month of regular season mean for Notre Dame basketball?

SOUTH BEND – When a college basketball season officially opens every fall and optimism is everywhere, one particular mile marker feels forever away.

There’s so much to do, so many games to play to look far down the college basketball road and wonder what the final full month of the regular season might look like. Feel like. Be like.

Then, suddenly, February is here. Finally.

That means the clock is ticking loudly on many of the 365 Division I college basketball programs. For most, February is the last full month for most to practice and play. Soon, it will be March. It will be spring break. It will be bye-bye college basketball.

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It’s hard to imagine February in October and November and December. Even January feels like it lasts eight weeks. When you get there, it’s hard to imagine that’s it’s back in what feels like the bounce of a ball.

From October to February … like that.

“The season has blown by,” Notre Dame basketball head coach Micah Shrewsberry said Monday during his 10-minute window on the Atlantic Coast Conference Coaches Zoom call. “January blew by despite it being one degree (not really) and (what felt like) a billion inches of snow out here.”

January blew by despite Notre Dame going 1-7.

Shrewsberry wishes February drags to a point where it feels like it’s 68 days and not 28. After all the practices and the games and travel and the ups and downs and twists and turns a college basketball season brings, the finish line is in sight.

Notre Dame’s nowhere near ready to cross it, not even as the Irish limp into February at 11-11 overall, 2-7 in ACC play heading into Wednesday’s game at No. 23 Louisville. It would be different if this was a program stocked with upperclassmen who are ready for the next chapter in their basketball lives.

Notre Dame isn’t old. The Irish are still finding their way. They want to keep learning, keep playing, keep growing. February offers a chance to do that, regardless of the record.

Wing guard Jalen Haralson is among the handful of elite freshmen in the country, but few have noticed. Sophomore Cole Certa is coming of age as a college guard. Same for freshman Brady Koehler as a forward. Sophomore Garrett Sundra looks to have figured some stuff out.

There’s a good team in there somewhere.

Each day, somebody does something in practice, and then sometimes in games, that offer Shrewsberry something too few see. Or have.

Hope.

Something about a lost season to date can still be found in February.

“You’ve got to find ways to have that positivity during this time,” Shrewsberry said. “Even in the tough moments, you’ve got to find positive things that you can grow from and build from.

“This is the moment when teams either go full steam ahead because they’re confident in how their season’s going or they start quitting because they’re not confident in how their season is going. That’s the biggest thing in going full steam ahead.”

Notre Dame lost seven of eight after opening league play on December 30 at Stanford. It has lost its last three league road games by double figures. It will be a tough ask to match the eight league games it won last year, maybe even the seven it won in Shrewsberry’s first season.

Still, he believes there are more positives than negatives to focus on through February. Such as?

“Our growth as a group, our connectivity as a group,” Shrewsberry said. “There are little things that I still think we can get better at that will make a difference in the rest of our season.”

An old team that might be where Notre Dame is, Shrewsberry said, is “cooked” in February. There’s no ceiling for that group. Zero hope. This team and what it can be is still simmering. Hope remains, no matter what the record says.

“We still have guys that have growth left, and you’re seeing it in these steps,” Shrewsberry said. “That gives you something that you can lean on and build from.”

One day at a time. One game at a time. And one final month at a time.

Follow South Bend Tribune and NDInsider columnist Tom Noie on X (formerly Twitter): @tnoieNDI. Contact Noie at tnoie@sbtinfo.com

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Micah Shrewsberry stresses steps in an Irish season of steps back

What might final full month of regular season mean for Notre Dame basketball?

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