Basketball
What’s the recruiting road map going forward for Notre Dame men’s basketball?
SOUTH BEND — What Notre Dame men’s basketball coach Micah Shrewsberry said in November before his first season stays true in June, after a first season of struggles.
Discussing last fall how he planned to build this program, Shrewsberry said the plan was relatively easy and, in this transfer portal age, relatively abnormal for college basketball. For college athletics.
“We’re going against the grain of what everybody else is trying to do,” Shrewsberry said then. “They’re recruiting in the (post-game) handshake line. I’m recruiting high school kids. We’re not going to beat down the door of the transfer portal.
“You’re going to know with us.”
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With Shrewsberry on the job for more than a year now, we know. We know he’s not going to run to the portal just to fill needs, no matter how severe a need might be. We saw it this spring, when Notre Dame needed a veteran post player with high-level game experience and a wing scorer, also with high-level experience.
The Irish instead tapped the transfer portal for three graduate transfers from the Colonial Athletic Association (power forward Nikita Konstantynovskyi), the Ivy League (guard Matt Allocco) and the Patriot League (swingman Burke Chebuhar) to complement a three-man recruiting class of high school seniors.
Quick fixes? Not for this program. Not yet.
“You’ve got to stick with your plan,” Shrewsberry said last week during Notre Dame Team Camp 2024. “I’ve tried to have a plan since I’ve gotten here. No matter how things shake out, you’ve got to stay with it. I don’t think you can reinvent things totally.”
Not now, but maybe in the future. Shrewsberry believes he can build through his first two recruiting classes – this year’s sophomore class led by Atlantic Coast Conference rookie of the year point guard Markus Burton and shooting guard Braeden Shrewsberry and freshmen guards Cole Certa and Sir Mohammed and power forward Garrett Sundra. That class was ranked as high as No. 22 nationally.
Those two classes, and a third currently being recruited by Notre Dame, a group of seniors-to-be that includes the likes of power forward Chirstian Gurdak (Fairfax, Virginia), small forward Jalen Haralson (Indianapolis) swingman Braylon Mullins (Greenfield, Indiana), guard AZavier “Stink” Robinson (Indianapolis) and forward Trent Sisley (Santa Claus, Indiana), can be the backbone/foundation of this program.
Each of those four rising seniors are expected to officially visit Notre Dame in the coming months.
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Notre Dame has four scholarships to offer current high school seniors and/or eventual college transfers. It might have as many as five available depending on what senior swingman J.R. Konieczny wants to do with his added year for 2025-26 after he sat out in 2022-23.
What was college basketball’s cruelest month — July — is closing quickly. No longer is it a marathon march of AAU tournaments and red-eye flights and endless hours on wooden bleachers while watching games. Next month basically will feature 10 days – July 11-14, 19-21, 23-25 – of evaluation of 2025 prospects. And beyond.
Rounding out future rosters will be a bit trickier than seasons past now that the added year of eligibility offered everyone because of COVID-19 is over. It ended with last year’s senior class, which has fifth-year options this coming season. That makes Notre Dame’s job a little tougher.
Twice in the last four years it plucked an All-Ivy League graduate transfer (that league doesn’t offer athletes a fifth year) in power forward Paul Atkinson (Yale) and Allocco. That route is closed.
Could Shrewsberry’s blueprint eventually change to focus heavier on transfers and lighter on high school seniors? Like everything in college basketball has — or will — yes. But…
“I don’t think you reinvent things until you have a chance to see, is it working or is it not working?” Shrewsberry said. “We’re still in that kind of phase of like, we’re sticking to our plan (and) this is how we’re doing it.
“I like where we’re at at this point.”
Follow South Bend Tribune and NDInsider columnist Tom Noie on Twitter: @tnoieNDI. Contact: (574) 235-6153.
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