What did Micah Shrewsberry learn from Notre Dame men's basketball tour of Spain?

SOUTH BEND — For 10 days in August, Notre Dame men’s basketball did more than just basketball.

The Irish visited a bullring. They saw a soccer match. They swam off a catamaran in the Mediterranean Sea. They ate strange foods and navigated strange streets and saw sights that they otherwise would only read about in books.

They built bonds beyond basketball. They traveled a long way but know there’s a long way still to go. This summer was another step. A big step.

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Notre Dame took its first foreign tour since 2018-19 (NCAA rules allow teams a foreign tour every four years) with a trip to Spain. It visited three cities – Madrid, Valencia and Barcelona – with exhibition games at each stop against teams that featured second- and third-level professionals. Teams of veterans. Teams of pros.

If the Irish were going to do this — and they had to do it coming clear of a 13-20 season in Shrewsberry’s first in South Bend — they had to make it worthwhile. Every plane flight. Every bus ride. Every tourist attraction. Every meal. The Irish had to get something more out of it.

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They got something more out of it. Actually, a lot.

“If I had to put a togetherness grade with our group, we’re probably an A,” head coach Micah Shrewsberry said Friday. “That’s how close that I feel this group is in a short of amount of time.”

Everywhere the Irish went in Spain, everywhere Shrewsberry and his family went, he saw his players in clusters. Three here. Four there. Sometimes, everyone was one. Those clusters changed almost daily. The camaraderie didn’t.

“That, to me, is the best part,” Shrewsberry said. “To see all these groups intermixing with each other and going and experiencing a lot of different things together.”

Those experiences and that closeness carried over to the court, where Notre Dame had prepped for weeks for Spain. The Irish played with a 24-second shot clock to work at a more up-tempo pace than last season’s slog-through-the-mud style. They played with some new faces in some new places. They mixed and matched combinations. They focused a lot on offense (which needed it) and not a lot on defense (which didn’t need it).

Notre Dame won its three exhibitions by an average of 14.6 points. They averaged 81 points after averaging 64.0 last season. There were times when the Irish made it look easy. There were times when it was anything but.

In one game, the opposition threw in a zone defense to start the second half. Notre Dame did a lot of work on offense before it left, but it didn’t work at all on its zone offense. It had to be good in zone offense in Spain or it would get run off the court.

“We got challenged on some things that we weren’t ready for,” Shrewsberry said. “Stuff we hadn’t worked on, haven’t talked about. We just kind of did it.

“We probably would’ve folded last year.”

Harsh, but true. The Irish didn’t fold. They flourished. They figured it out and competed because they’re older. They’re more mature from a basketball standpoint. They understand what they’re seeing as they see it. They don’t have to be coached (coaxed?) through situations by the head coach or the staff. That — paralysis by analysis — was often the case last season.

Then, it was hand holding. Now, it’s basketball. See something. React to something. Go play. It helps to have sophomore Markus Burton with the ball in his hands, but everyone around the Atlantic Coast Conference freshman of the year is better. Better playing the game. Better thinking the game. Better.

It goes back to a message delivered by Shrewsberry early in the offseason. Basically, it was this — do you want to be better? Then be better.

“I said our creativity as a group needs to go up,” he said. “We can’t be as robotic. If somebody does something (like throws out a zone defense), you have to have an answer for it immediately. You can’t wait until a timeout. You can’t wait until I tell you.”

Notre Dame didn’t wait. It saw the zone. It adjusted to the zone. It played against the zone. Shrewsberry made good on his vow to let his assistant coaches each serve as the head coach for a game. He also took a page from his NBA days and substituted the way coaches do in all-star games.

Every five minutes, a new group of five checked in.

Burton was his usual game-controlling self while averaging 19.3 points, 5.6 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 3.9 steals in barely 22 minutes a game. J.R. Konieczny shot it and rebounded it well in one game, then Braeden Shrewsberry (10.6 ppg.) the next. Or Kebba Njie (8.0 ppg., 7.0 rpg.). Or Tae Davis (6.6 ppg., 6.6 rpg.). Freshmen Cole Certa and Garrett Sundra found their respective flows. Sophomore Logan Imes didn’t look like the uncertain freshman he was last winter.

Graduate students Matt Allocco and Burke Chebuhar both contributed. Allocco did it with his intensity and his voice. Chebuhar did it with his hustle and basketball IQ. Julian Roper was steady like a senior should be.

Everybody who was available — freshman guard Sir Mohammed (sore right knee) and graduate student power forward Nikita Konstantynovskyi (Visa issues) didn’t play — did something different on different nights.

On the last one, in Barcelona, Notre Dame had to figure it out without Burton, who fouled out. The Irish won 76-74, after surviving a scenario that Shrewsberry probably hasn’t put on any of his practice plans.

“A bunch of different people stepped up,” Shrewsberry said. “When you have that, that gives you options, gives you different things to throw at people which is how you can really grow as a group.”

This group grew — and grew up — in Spain. It raised the bar, however slight. They get a chance to do it again this fall. This winter. Next spring. By then, Madrid and Valencia and Barcelona will be memories. Good ones. Needed ones.

Follow South Bend Tribune and NDInsider columnist Tom Noie on Twitter: @tnoieNDI. Contact: (574) 235-6153.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: What did Micah Shrewsberry learn from Notre Dame men's basketball tour of Spain?