SOUTH BEND — Meatloaf, the late singer and not the late supper, was OK with it.
Notre Dame basketball head coach Micah Shrewsberry was not.
Coming clear of the January 21 loss at North Carolina, Shrewsberry leaned against a wall in the bowels of the Smith Center and leaned into a different kind of future practice plan. For the Irish to be better on the road in league play, to be better against the elite teams in league play, he vowed that they would have to get tougher.
Shrewsberry said that night that he had been too soft on his players in practices to date. The intensity needed to be ratcheted up. If that meant diving on the floor for more 50-50 loose balls, so be it. If that meant harder screens or better boxouts, so be it. If that meant some hurt feelings, so be it.
To be better, they had to compete harder, and for longer stretches so that games like the one against North Carolina, a 91-69 loss, would not be repeated.
Next time out, Notre Dame showed a different level of toughness and resolve in erasing a 13-point deficit in the second half for a 68-64 win over Boston College, which snapped a five-game Atlantic Coast Conference losing streak. The next game, Notre Dame took No. 17 Virginia to double overtime before a 100-97 loss.
Despite letting go of a 19-point lead, Shrewsberry was good with his team’s grit and grind and resiliency in a game that featured nine ties and 14 lead changes. Even in a loss, that toughness was clear.
“We didn’t win the Virginia game, but we didn’t look like we lost that game,” Shrewsberry said on Monday during his 10-minute availability window on the weekly ACC Coaches Zoom call
Then there was the January 31 game at Syracuse, an 86-72 loss where Notre Dame tumbled into a double-digit deficit in the first 10-plus minutes and spent the rest of the night trying to dig out. It trailed for 36:25 and by as many as 18. It allowed 46 points in the second half.
It also had a look for one of the few times this year that no team should have. It looked defeated. Played that way in the second half, too.
In 1977, Meatloaf has a hit song entitled “Two out of Three Ain’t Bad.” For him, it wasn’t, but for Shrewsberry, two out of three — the toughness that was shown in two of three games – was bad.
“I didn’t think we had the same kind of grit and toughness (against Syracuse),” Shrewsberry said. “That was the thing I was most disappointed in. I thought we let our foot off the gas way too much coming off a loss.”
February will test that Irish toughness. On Wednesday, February 4, Notre Dame is scheduled to visit No. 23 Louisville. The Irish entered that one having allowed at least 81 points in five of their previous six games. Games against teams that rank in the top four of overall scoring offense (SMU, Louisville, North Carolina State, Duke) will challenge a Notre Dame team that started the week ranked 12th in the league in overall scoring defense (72.1 ppg.) and 13th in field goal percentage defense (.452). Notre Dame is allowing 77.0 ppg., in league play.
February’s immediate goal? Be tougher on the defensive end. Fast.
“It’s been hard for us, especially on the road, maintaining what we’ve been doing,” Shrewsberry said. “Our focus and our details have kind of waned in and out. It’s really hurt us in particular moments when people have gone on different runs.
“(We’re) playing with a young group, trying to get those guys to understand how important every possession is.”
And understand that two out of three is bad.
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: Notre Dame basketball continues uphill scramble though ACC standings