JotCast | Notre Dame men's basketball 2024-25 season wrap chat

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Tom Noie

12:44

All Brey's fault. The new Notre Dame men's basketball mantra!!!

Andrew, Plymouth

12:43

I wasn't pushing the Brey left it in shambles narrative. I was saying the combination of what was there in Shrewsberry's first year, how he had to build that first roster with whatever transfers were available, and the new landscape of college basketball and ND's inability to do what other places can will make this potential turnaround take longer than expected.

Tom Noie

12:43

JB: Many great points, unfortunately not a lot of concrete answers. I was asked on a podcast recently what advice I would have for Micah Shrewsbery moving forward. I hesitated to speak my mind, then decided to speak - my advice to Micah Shrewsberry would be to sit his (let's say backside) down on the bench and let his players play. It goes back to how the best/most important coaching is done during the week at Rolfs. Come game time, you have to trust your players, trust your teaching, trust your program. Don't know if that trust is demonstrated by coaching every single second of every game. How can players play a game of instinct when they're watching/listening the bench? That has to change, right?

JBarney from LA

12:40

just wanted to cosign Chris Ks comment on overcoaching, it's infuriating. orchestrating every single move of each player on every single offensive possession is brutal to watch. the players have no chance to learn problem solving, get creative, free flow, gain confidence. it's my biggest concern. Tom, you stated that Shrews isn't wired to coach any differently...is this how you see him coaching even if 5 seniors were on the floor that have been in his "system" for 4 years? does this staff as a whole have what it takes to get this team back in contention for the tournament? very little development happening in the first 2 years

Tom Noie

12:40

Andrew: Just stop. How many times are we going to blame Mike Brey for the roster makeup. He left the roster in shambles. Sure, OK. Louisville had ZERO players when Pat Kelsey took over. How did that work out? Not to mention that Brey signed Markus Burton, a fact that tends to go overlooked when we go down the "Brey ruined the program momentum" nonsense. Nobody expected Notre Dame in Shrewsberry's first season to be anything close to what Louisville was in Kelsey's first year, but it can be argued, and rightfully so, that Notre Dame was better in Shrewsberry's first year than it was in his second, when he had more of "his" guys. We're going to be chatting in 2040 and somebody will still say the program was set back because of how Mike Brey left it. Look around, that's what happens to programs when coaches leave. can we lean into a new narrative? Please?

Andrew, Plymouth

12:36

I know we've been piling on Shrewsberry a bit, but we also need to look at the state of the roster when Brey left and the state of what college basketball has become since then. ND is not a place you can turn around in a year and Micah was forced to plug holes with whatever transfers were available, wasn't it something like 99% of the minutes from Brey's last season were out the door? In addition to the roster restart and the increased NIL payments offered by other programs, he's still had back-to-back monster recruiting classes. We need to wait until year three of four for a true look at his progress, although he didn't help himself with some of the things he said and did this past season.

Tom Noie

12:36

College basketball is still college basketball.

mike. nyona lake.

12:35

After reading all the post on here about N.D. not investing in the portal like other schools do, or not taking the same transfers that other schools do, not investing in men's basketball like other sports, and complaining about attendance at men's games tell me why as a 38 year season ticket holder I should make it year 39. I drive 110 miles round trip to just about every game. Give me a reason to keep doing this.

Tom Noie

12:35

Jim: Not sure J.R., for whatever reason, earned the trust and belief in the coaching staff. It was like that almost from the start last season. Konieczny had a good early part of the season, then lost his starting job to ... Braeden Shrewsberry. That was the beginning of the end. It wasn't going to work.

Jim Tal, Valley Center CA

12:34

Tom, it's kind of a shame that things didn't work out better for Konieczny at ND. Albeit they were sporadic, there were times when he certainly showed enough to where he had the potential to be a contributor on a regular basis. What went wrong? And was this somewhat disappointing career in South Bend, totally on him? Or was it that Micah and the coaching staff did an unsatisfactory job of developing him and placing him in a place where he was much more likely to succeed?

Tom Noie

12:34

MAC, Horizon League, Missouri Valley would suit both the best.

Andrew, Plymouth

12:34

Do we know where JR might transfer or if he's looking to play with his brother for a year? I'm not sure where Chase might end up but it would be cool to see them play together.

Tom Noie

12:33

Joe: Agree. The wonder is the biggest worry. Some have it and you know. Some don't have it and you know. That we don't know is ... the great unknown. It really is.

joe from the south side

12:32

Tom, I'll give Shrews the benefit of the doubt on the chops for a couple of reasons. First, Brad Stevens. I think he's pretty good at evaluating folks. Next, he was part of the runs at Butler. A pretty fair run with Boston in the NBA. Head coaching experience at PSU. I'm not saying he's Pitino, but he's no John MacLeod either. That's what's troubling. My point is he has seen a ton of BBL from NAIA to the NBA, and yet, you can't point to any direction in which he seems to be taking this program. He should have nailed that from Day 1 because the experience is there. And yet, here we are, wondering if he is The Guy. Troubling.

Tom Noie

12:31

Dave: No way should Blake Wesley have stayed. He was done with school as it was, and he was a first-round NBA draft pick. Ludicrous to pass up that chance. He already had maxed out college. What is the draw for Notre Dame? Not sure. It's not what it used to be. What can it be? That's a question for someone above my paygrade.

Dave from Alpha

12:30

Tom great job as usual covering both the men’s and women’s teams. Talk about a roller coaster… Anyway, regarding the men, with over 1700 players in the transfer portal, I’m willing to bet 40% of them would academically qualify for Notre Dame anyway… That’s just a guess however. But besides competing in the ACC, and getting a quality education, which seems to be an afterthought these days, what other draw does Notre Dame have? There’s been little to know players taken in the NBA recently… I’m not counting Wesley because between you and I he should’ve stayed especially with NIL the way it is now…
Thanks again and keep up the good work

Tom Noie

12:29

Burke Chebuhar was the final portal player to commit to Notre Dame last season - on May 16. Don't hold your breath. Get out and enjoy spring. The roster will be the roster.

Tim from Chicago

12:28

Tom - as I'm sure you expected, a lot of portal questions today. Give us your drop dead date for which the roster should be complete. "If the roster isn't complete by X date, then ND fans should really start to worry".

Tom Noie

12:28

Pete: Not sure there is such a thing anymore. Just mentioned Kebba could questions earlier. More on him there.

Pete from Berrien Springs

12:27

Apologies to Kebba Njie, but he has been a dropped pass/missed shot liability on almost every possession the last 2 years. Any chance ND sends him to a Big Man Camp this off-season to help him improve?

Tom Noie

12:27

Brian: Not at all. That was a relationship that had to end - for both sides' sakes. Mike Brey has often said since that, yeah, people got tired of him being at Notre Dame, but he got tired of them as well. When Brey showed up for the Atlantic Coast Conference spring meetings in 2022 after going a school record 15-5 in the ACC but learning that Notre Dame was the No. 68 (last) team in the NCAA Tournament, he was done. Should've walked out and resigned right then. He came back but the fire was already out. If the best he could do after his best ACC season was a No. 11 seed, what was the point?

Brian

12:24

For many years Mike Brey knew how to win at ND. His teams were fun to watch and had character and an identity even though it fell apart the last year or so. Did ND and Brey make a mistake parting ways?

Tom Noie

12:23

Chris: Kebba Njie is a serviceable big who's at his best in short spurts. He's not a starter/major minutes guy. Nothing wrong with that. What is is that he's playing a role that he's not suited to play. Not his fault.

Chris

12:22

Will Njie finally get things figured out next season. A player of his size should be dominating the inside.

Tom Noie

12:22

Chris: What did I say about him? That he's not as media savvy as his predecessor? That has nothing to do with his job as athletic director. He's not media director.

Chris

12:22

If what you say about Bevacqua is true, then why did ND even hire him?

Tom Noie

12:21

Bruce: No sport will ever come close to having the same level of commitment at Notre Dame as football. That's one of one. It's always been football and everything else. An aside, Link Jarrett got Notre Dame baseball to the College World Series in 2022. He had that program humming. Look at it now. Don't recognize it.

Bruce

12:20

Tom: Is it really all about the money? Notre Dame clearly has the resource to lift the "salary cap" on MBB. What will it take for the ND administration to support MBB with the same level of commitment as football?

Tom Noie

12:19

Joey: Only in the right situation at the right time can Markus Burton be an NBA player, though maybe his definition of an NBA player differs from mine. Frontline player? No. Too small. That's a game of length and size and size and length will catch up to him. A change-of-pace backup who's best in short bursts? Nothing wrong with that role. We've seen him score. Let's see him make others around him better. That's the next step in his development.

Joey

12:17

Do you think Burton can be an NBA player? My opinion is he is not strong enough and doesn’t make players around him better. Thanks for your thoughts.

Tom Noie

12:17

Jim: Only if she cannot maximize what she gets from a particular recruit. Bring in one freshman this season, Kate Koval, and have Kate Koval leave, yes, that's a problem. How does she solve it?

Jim

12:17

One commitment each in back-to-back women's basketball classes seems a little light to me given that Notre Dame Women's Basketball is a "blue blood" program with a long tradition and national following. Even in the era of the portal, other top programs such as UConn, South Carolina, USC, etc., are bringing in more players via recruiting. Do you see Ivey's recruiting as potential problem?

Tom Noie

12:15

Asked and answered. Time to scroll...

ItsABasketballSchool

12:15

What is the way to early starting lineup look like!!!

Tom Noie

12:15

IF: Thoughts? None. Let's see what Elijah King looks like as a senior.

Illinois Fool

12:14

Are the Irish looking at the SB St. Joe sophomore, King? He looks like a gamer. Get him and Reynolds from Washington and maybe ND can create some hometown buzz for the men the way the women did with Diggins. Thoughts?

Tom Noie

12:14

Bruce: Because Notre Dame is Notre Dame. It will do it the Notre Dame way, a different way than almost every other high-major Division I athletic program. Does it want to be great? Doesn't matter. It wants to be Notre Dame.

Bruce

12:13

Tom: Other football powers (e.g., Alabama, Florida) have great MBB teams. Why can’t Notre Dame have nice things, too? Is it money, resources, coaching, administration’s commitment, all of the above?

Tom Noie

12:13

Joe: I'll go with this - do we know that Micah Shrewsberry "has the chops?" Do we really? What would tell us that? What can we point to and say for certainty that he's going to win at Notre Dame because of .... what? There is no blueprint, no path, no runway where we've been able to say in the first two years that we can see where this is all going. It's not a case of Micah Shrewsberry not being this or Micah Shrewsberry being that. It's a case of we haven't seen anything where we can say, I see it. I get it. That's the concern. This program is no further along than when he walked in the door.

joe from the south side

12:11

Tom, I think one of the things that disturbs me the most about Shrews is that in Year 1, it was grind it out BBL. Low scoring hard nosed defense. Year 2 was almost 180 degrees the opposite, whereby he even stated the emphasis was on offense. What's troubling is that the core personnel remained the same. He knew what he had. Yet, he decided to invert the process. My point is, Shrews has the chops, both college and pro success. And yet, almost 3 years in, he still looks like he is grasping. Grasping at culture, grasping at his team's identity, grasping at acquiring the right personnel and then using them properly. If you establish the baseline, the foundation, the wins will come eventually. My concern is that as we look to 2025, there's still no blueprint as to what he wants this program to look like. Thoughts?

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