Notre Dame's Micah Shrewsberry Issued Reprimand After Confronting Ref in Viral Video

The ACC publicly reprimanded Notre Dame head men's basketball coach Micah Shrewsberry on Saturday for his actions toward an official following Friday's 72-71 loss to California.

ESPN's Jeff Borzello posted a statement from the ACC on X in which the conference declared that Shrewsberry displayed "unsportsmanlike behavior" that "tarnishes the on-court play between these institutions."

In the closing seconds of Friday's game, Notre Dame led 71-68 and Fighting Irish guard Logan Imes attempted to foul Cal guard Dai Dai Ames on the floor. However, it was ruled that the foul occurred as part of Ames' shooting motion, so his three-point shot counted, plus he made a free throw to give the Golden Bears a 72-71 lead with 5.5 seconds remaining:

After Notre Dame missed a game-winning shot at the buzzer, Shrewsberry ran toward an official before getting intercepted and held back by Notre Dame personnel and players.

On Saturday, Shrewsberry released an apologetic statement through the official X account of Notre Dame men's basketball, saying, "I want to apologize for what took place immediately after the Cal game last night. My actions were inappropriate and not symbolic of the leader I strive to be and what Notre Dame expects of its coaches and educators. I will learn from this lack of judgment and be better in the future. I want to apologize to our team, our University and its leaders, to Coach Madsen and his team, and to the ACC, as my actions were unacceptable."

The Irish were 10-4 with a 1-0 record in ACC play entering Friday, while Cal was 12-2 overall and 0-1 in conference action.

While Notre Dame was coming off a win over Stanford in its previous game, it was shocked by Purdue Fort Wayne in the game before that. A win over California could have gone a long way toward easing the sting of that loss, and it looked like the Irish were poised to get it.

Notre Dame held a four-point lead at halftime and mostly maintained it throughout the second half until the game-deciding, four-point play by Ames.

The Fighting Irish played a great defensive game, holding Cal to 41 percent shooting from the field and 28 percent shooting from beyond the arc. Notre Dame also out-rebounded California 44-34 and only sent the Golden Bears to the free-throw line 12 times.

However, Notre Dame was nowhere near good enough on offense, shooting 40 percent from the floor, 35 percent from deep and 62 percent from the charity stripe on 26 attempts.

Shrewsberry is in the midst of his third season as the head coach at Notre Dame after previously serving as the head man for two seasons at Penn State.

The first two seasons at ND were tough sledding for Shrewsberry, as he went 13-20 in 2023-24 and 15-18 in 2024-25.

This season, the Fighting Irish got off to a far better spot, creating hope for the program's first NCAA tournament appearance since 2022.

Notre Dame was once a March Madness mainstay, reaching the tourney in nine of 11 seasons from 2006 to 2017 under Mike Brey, but they have made the tournament only once in eight seasons since then.

Every win is massively important for a program attempting to return to prominence, and the heartbreaking fashion in which Notre Dame lost on Friday clearly elicited an emotional response from Shrewsberry.