Nice to see someone putting maximum effort in recruiting and roster building. A lot to clean up, but very positive signs so far. FWIW, I don't expect Micah to stay long in SB. IMO, an NBA team will come calling sooner or later. Ideally until then, he will inject some much needed enthusiasm and fun into the program. Go Irish!

you counted Kebba Njie who played HS basketball at La Lumiere.

I like the fact that Shrewsbury is from Indiana. Wants to be in Indiana (his home state). Recruits kids from Indiana. The state is big enough talent wise for us to get our share. Add in nearby IL, Ohio and then the MA-NJ-Philly-MD-DC corridor that Brey did so well with (and Shrewsbury appreciated from his time at PSU) and you have a real focus in recruiting. Shrewsbury's staff also fist well with that focus.

We'll see what happens but I don't think I could have expected anything better than what he has done building the roster. As noted below, it will be very interesting to see what the team looks like on Feb 1st.

Not great, and it might take a little time for the parts to fit together. Most of the guys coming into the program are three star recruits which is mostly what we've been getting all along. Nevertheless, there is enough talent to be middle of the ACC pack at least.

Given where the program was 5 or 6 weeks ago, the recruiting effort has been impressive. There was a real danger that the 2023-24 Irish would really suck. That possibility is off the board now.

athleticism based upon the highlight videos...they never miss a shot and fly down the court! That said, most of the transfers fit the profile of solid contributors ready to take a big step up this year. The only gap seems to be in the small forward/big guard slot. If J.R. Konieczny proves to be a legit ACC level starter at point forward/big guard, this team could be interesting.

And, without question, the defense will be better than last year and likely a focus of the team building Shrewsberry will be doing. Defense will lead to offense and will take some time to gel as noted.

bodies in the lineup. The program was gutted of players. So despite ND being historically a very attractive place compared to the other programs each of these kids was deciding between, I, too, recognize that it took hard work to get the kids to believe that despite barely any roster, Shrewsberry will return ND to regularly playing competitive basketball. So I'm happy to have 3 stars from 5 of the 7 acquisitions thus far (counting Njie as a 4 star from high school).

But I also don't want to misrepresent that this is an upgrade over recent recruiting. From the 2018 class to the 2022 class, Brey brought in one 5 star, six 4 stars, and 9 three stars. Including transfers, it'd be one more 4 star and two 3 stars. By memory, that's a pretty typical ratio over Brey's tenure. Of course, if you exclude the 2018 class that just left, it's one 5 star, 2 4 stars, and 8 three stars, which certainly looks a lot worse and is better reflects the short-term state of the program before the new hire.

All that is to say, I'm glad that our turnaround time to be a competitive team looks a lot better than it did in February. And there's a good argument that the ability to generate the present recruiting results can turn into regularly bringing in four-star and occasional five-star talent once we start fielding tournament teams regularly again. But it still is a question mark whether Shrewberry's recruiting results will exceed Brey's general recruiting results. What I am more confident in is that we won't be whiffing on entire classes and that we will be recruiting behind classes to fill in the gaps when inevitable transfers happen.

Not so much that he didn't get any because we had some really good ones over the years. We even had a team that started four good players who listed at 6'8" or taller with Hansbrough at guard (Abromaitis, Martin, Scott, and Nash). We had Harangody, Kurz, Cooley, Auguste, Geben, and Mooney. There were plenty of of good bigs.

My problem was that Brey and his staff had several gaps when recruiting big men. Big man depth was a persistent issue, probably the #1 issue when it came to defense. Even the 2014 team that went 32-6 and damn near made the final four had to win games despite frequent double digit deficits on the boards.

I was willing to accept not getting top rated big men who had their eyes on the NBA and considered school a nuisance to that pursuit; but I believed that NF had to have at least three bigs every two classes to ensure that there were six in the program at all times. The underclassmen could develop while the upperclassmen logged the most playing time, and there would have been guys in the pipeline even if one or two of the three-star recruits didn't become major conference caliber players.

What I like best about Shrewsberry's roster is that it includes plenty of size. He added two 6'10" players and one 6'9" guy. Zona makes four guys who list at 6'9" or better. I'm willing to bet he will add at least two more in the next class.

It's about time that ND becomes the match-up problem for other teams instead of being the team with a size deficit.

Shrewsberry discusses his approach to individual development, which may not manifest itself until the latter part of the season. I'm excited to see how these inexperienced players (i.e., the entire team) progress over the course of the season.

non-conference part of the schedule, but this year I'm willing to make an exception. We're essentially an expansion team, made up of disparate parts of non-starters, transfers and incoming freshman that have never played together before. It may take a month or two for them to gel as a unit.

Probably needs some development before going head to head against experienced ACC guards. Of course he may be ready (I’ve never seen him play).

Burton has to adjust to college level. Then he must make a second adjustment to conference level competition.

He will be in a situation that's a bit like Tory Jackson's freshman season. Jackson was playing about 18 minutes a game, sometimes subbing for Kyle McAlarney and sometimes playing with him. Then McAlarney got busted, and Jackson was the full time point guard on a talented team.

Jackson saved the season. He wasn't a star (8 PPG, 42% shooting, 1.8 A/TO), but he became steadier as the season progressed. The Irish ended with a 24-8/11-5 record.

That's what the Irish need from Markus Burton. Adapt and improve throughout the season.

Situation.

2 or 3?

I could see ND looking to add 1 more if it’s a good fit, but they probably don’t have to reach

Hopefully 24 class ends up with several of the guys Shrews is going after right now. Could be a really good group 2/3 years from now while also being competitive until the 24 class gets some experience (assuming the class is strong).

This assumes Alex Wade remains a preferred walk-on.

We could use an experienced PG to help ease Burton into the role, but skills and fit is important. No reason to take a PG that isn't very good or one that just doesn't fit the school/team culture.

Was listed at 6”4’ as a recruit, then 6”7’ as a freshman in his Seton Hall bio, now seems to be unanimously listed at 6”9’. I imagine that’s playing a role in the why this staff apparently sees upside in a guy who averaged under 3 points per game last year.

Shrewsberry has put together a young, hungry, connected staff that will recruit tirelessly and get results. Long way to go obviously, but it's been a real breath of fresh air.

This year's staff has both a Development and Recruiting Coordinator and a Director of Recruiting. Until now, there was only one of those. As noted below, Shrewsberry just added Ghost Owens who has been the coach of the Indy Heat AAU program. Owens doesn't appear on the roster yet.

I'm glad ND has finally started to support its basketball coach.

Shrewsberry presumably negotiated those positions and had the connections to hire guys like Owens and Snow who are plugged into recruiting. I doubt these new staff positions were Swarbrick's brain child.

There's also the networking required to build relationships with rising stars in the industry, as opposing to relying almost entirely on former players and coaches from decades ago. And, of course, there's the energy and commitment on the recruiting trail, which, despite assertions to the contrary in some local corners of the internet, has been widely acknowledged by Tom Noie and others to be sorely lacking for far too long under the prior regime.

They're both to blame and deserved what they got.

Did ND suddenly give concessions that they refused to give to Brey? Did Shrew give them an ultimatum that finally made them crack? Did Brey not push hard enough?

I don't know the answers, but I sure wish we could've seen Brey operate with these (seemingly) new rules.

I believe that the two groups of transfers that are the easiest to get into ND are the freshman and grad transfers for academic reasons. Why? Because ND freshman year of studies has a more diverse group of courses that can (for lack of a better word) “match” with courses taken at a prior school. Once more college specific courses are required it becomes much more difficult to get a trasnsfer credit for classes taken previously if their syllabi don’t match up to ND classes. Grad transfers are obviously graduates, which makes the whole process more simple and straightforward.

I think Brey did operate with the same rules(mostly), but not sure he had the same mindset. It’s impressive that MS had all 3 recruits follow him to ND. Just look at the information out there on ND hoops recruiting now vs before. I think MS understands the social media aspects of recruiting in a way Brey never did. I’m also impressed by how he’s focused a good portion on Indiana and I’ll bet he had some relationships with some of the kids were started when he was at PU.

There’s certainly nothing that would indicate that he would not be on track to graduate having done one year at a good Catholic school. I suspect his classes checked out just fine. At the end of the day, that’s what Notre Dame cares about.

It’s not like Brey didn’t have undergrad transfers. Cormac from Stanford should have been easy. Wertz, Martin and Durham were probably straight forward. Plenty of others. Of course Ben Hansbrough from MSU strikes me as one of the schools that may not have been so simple.

Northwestern is another easy call with Roper. The Penn State boys fairly straightforward as well. I just don’t think admissions was or would have been a too terribly difficult obstacle for Brey if there was desire on his part to bring in the kind of players that Shrews has landed.

Consistent recruiting was always Brey’s problem. And when he looked for transfers it was always for fairly proven talent and/or high upside to fill his gaps.

Just for this year, to help Shrew get a roster that is respectable compared to where it was when the season ended.

Also I don't think once he's up and running, he will need a ton of concessions.