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

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Alex

10:33

Hey Tom, hope all is well. Just wanted to give you a take and would love to hear your thoughts. I think we could both agree that ND fans have been coming after shrews especially after this past season. However, I think that these past two years the rosters have stunk and have been so brutal I don’t think a lot of ND fans understand that. I’m basically getting at, it’s too early to point the finger at shrews, because these rosters that he has had I don’t think are even comparable to other rosters in the ACC. We don’t have a starting ACC caliber center, we still don’t have a backup ACC caliber PG, I know we have sir but he wasn’t ready. I could keep going, but the one thing I would say that really hurt us was that this past seasons portal pickups were a disaster and I think that was a gut punch. Hoping for a competitive season next year, and hoping we can start getting some portal pickups, especially at center.

Tom Noie

10:32

Terry: Again, it feels like the walls are caving in on Notre Dame women's basketball because the program has never been through something that the majority of college basketball programs have to go through. Look at UCLA. It won the Big Ten. It was the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament. It went to the Final Four. It lost its entire freshman - to be sophomore class - to the portal. What Notre Dame women's basketball is experiencing isn't unique. That it is to those who follow it makes it seem waaaaaaaay more dramatic than it is.

Terry

10:30

What can N. Ivey be thinking by signing only 1 recruit for this cycle when she knew she was losing Citron, Westbeld, Miles, and the 2 transfers, King and Karlin all to no eligibility left? Now the 1 recruit is injured and likely to miss much if not all of the upcoming season and then lose Watson, Risch and Koval to the Portal!! What an absolute mess this program has become!! Ivey should be on the HOT SEAT for this reason plus the fact she could not get this loaded team past the Sweet Sixteen AGAIN!!!

Tom Noie

10:30

Mark: As long as Notre Dame football exists, Notre Dame basketball will be one of those programs that skirts operating in the red every year. It costs a lot to run a high-major Division I basketball program. It takes work. It takes effort. It's a grind, a grind that Notre Dame doesn't seem all that interested in, well, grinding. As long as football is flourishing, everything else is a wash.

Mark from Wilmette

10:28

in Tuesday’s WSJ there was an article detailing a study done by a finance professor projecting the current enterprise valuation of every D 1 mbb program. Not surprisingly UNC was #1, Duke#2 and IU #3. His calculations included recent cash flow and total revenue. I am no finance bro and I am sure that some could argue with his methodology but the results seemed to be generally reasonable. (Your Flyers at #17.) Yet ND was ranked #70, behind such luminaries as DePaul and Northwestern much less the big timers. The huge differentiator was that ND’s cash flow was a negative $2,000,000+ while UNC and the other top programs were positive $ 10-23,000,000. My question - was the negative cash flow likely a one-time thing tied to the expenses of buying out Brey and his staff or is ND basketball in that a bad shape? Hopefully this cash flow snapshot was taken at a uniquely unfortunate time and doesn’t reflect the true state of ND mbb.

Tom Noie

10:26

Welcome to College Basketball 2025!

Tae Davis to Oklahoma is all about

and playing against the elite of the elite with the belief that he has three letters in his future - N-B-A.

The Jet from Evansville

10:26

Barely recovered from depression after watching NDW and NDM basketball and portal in March.

Tom Noie

10:26

Chris: Continue to develop as a COLLEGE point guard. Instead of looking to drive and finish over size every single time, drive and set a teammate up. Kick it out for an open three. Probe. Take care of the ball. Treat it, like one head coach used to say, like it's gold. Trust your teammates. Don't look at it like you have to do everything all the time. In other words, all the stuff we thought we'd see from Markus Burton this year, when the pieces around him necessitated that he didn't have to score and shoot and shoot and score. Burton finished with 79 assists to 70 turnovers. That ratio doesn't work. Not sure moving Burton off the ball is the answer. A 5-foot-10 spot up shooter? Notre Dame should have enough shooters. Having an improved Mohammed and Haralson can make Burton a better point guard. We've seen him score, let's see him run a team, like really run a team, where scoring can sometimes be secondary. If he does that, the NBA may look at him differently.

Chris, South Bend

10:21

Markus Burton has been electric as a scorer for two years. But he has seemed to struggle to create plays for his teammates. Presumably, the NBA isn’t interested in a 5’10” two guard, and he probably knows he needs to improve his skills as a PG. How can he become a better distributor? What does he need to work on this offseason to take that leap in his development, and what would it mean for Notre Dame if he is able to do it? (Or is having Sir Mohammed handle the point more often next year a better cure for the team’s offensive stagnation?)

Tom Noie

10:17

Tell your friend (also named Guest???) to swing by and ask., We're talking men's and women's basketball today. Hope your "friend" can join the fun!

Guest

10:17

Why is there no chat for the women’s team. Over the last ten years it has drawn more fans and won many more games. Asking for a friend.

Tom Noie

Light years may be too soon, Joe...

10:16

joe from the south side

10:14

Tom, Having just watched the Final Four, two quick observations. The level of athleticism and dexterity is well past ND. It's obvious that 3 of those 4 schools will take an athlete and try to make him a BBL player by putting him in a situation where he can succeed, as opposed to the high IQ BBL types ND seems to be in love with. Two, the ND program is light years away from ever playing on that stage, especially in today's free agent climate. Only a handful of teams will "get old and stay old" and I doubt ND is on that list.

Tom Noie

10:13

Dennis: The Mr. Obvious answer is that Jalen Haralson is a starter from Day One. He can handle. He can distribute. He can see the floor. He can score. Is he the elite of the elite that everyone believes he is? Not so sure. Again, it's best to reserve judgment on next year's freshmen until they get to campus and actually play against other college players. Then you see that this guy fits or that guy doesn't or these guys have a chance. Ryder Frost has a chance. Brady Koehler and Tommy Ahneman may need more time. One may surprise. Two might. Let's see.

Dennis Huyvaert Osceola,In

10:11

Hi Tom , of the incoming freshman arriving next year , will all of them contribute right away ? Thank you for your great work !

Tom Noie

10:11

Do you know something that we don't? Know that the basketball staff took an extended vacation in San Antonio during the Final Four (they didn't)? How do you now there's been no progress. The transfer portal is a year-round effort. Notre Dame didn't get beat by North Carolina in the second round of the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament and wonder, hey, what's this portal thing all about? Let the transfer portal play out. I'd rather see some big or some combo guard announce his decision to Notre Dame than float a bunch of names to everyone, then have everyone get all flustered when player A, B or C chooses another school. The staff knows what they need in the portal. The staff has worked the portal. Let's see how it shakes out.

Guest

10:09

Why has their been no progress in the transfer portal

Tom Noie

10:08

Any big with experience and a combo guard with said experience, come on down. There's a scholarship and playing time and a chance waiting for you.

Paul R

10:08

What transfers could ND realistically get in the portal?

Tom Noie

10:08

Greg: Honestly, the best news is that it's April 10 and Notre Dame has six more months to get its basketball house in order. Right now, that's the best we can do.

Greg

10:07

Tom- Tell us some good news…please. We are going to allow 1-2 undergrad transfers a year. We are going to land a legitimate big man. Shrews becomes the coach everyone thought he was going to be. We make the tournament next year.

Tom Noie

10:07

Pat: The Notre Dame men's program has two roster spots available for 2025-26 as we sit here on April 10. The NCAA vs. House ruling may eventually bump the roster limit for basketball to 15, but Micah Shrewsberry has said that 15 is too many - all you're doing is adding two additional players for the back end of your roster who likely will wind up leaving. The women's program needs at least six, likely seven and maybe eight. That seems like a lot, but it's been done (see TCU).

Pat from Mississauga

10:05

Hi Tom: Thanks for the chats was wondering how many portal additions you think the men will bring in. The concerning the women they will need anywhere from 6 / 7 additions through the portal.

Tom Noie

10:05

Only if there are underlying, behind the scenes issues that cannot be fixed. And there's been little indication that that's the case. When Shrewsberry was hired in 2022, I projected four years until the NCAA Tournament became a realistic goal. You can succeed at Notre Dame, but coaching at Notre Dame is not easy. It was going to take time. Is the clock ticking louder on that staff after this season? Yes, because again, we didn't see what we needed to see to say, ah, I get it.

Guest

10:02

After a disappointing season this past year, don’t you think that the coach has one more season to turn this around!?

Tom Noie

10:02

Sean: Any coach who may miss the NCAA Tournament (a baseline expectation in the Atlantic Coast Conference) for a third straight season will feel his seat get a little toasty. It might be even warmer for Micah Shrewsberry this season because we didn't see what we really needed to see last season - progress. Last year in too many ways was like the first year. Notre Dame hasn't advanced it forward the way many expected. Not saying that Shrewsberry will feel the heat if Notre Dame doesn't make the NCAA Tournament this season - as long as there's progress. There's a clear sign of, yeah, I see where this is all going. I see what this program can be. I see what Micah Shrewsberry can be. That may not translate into an NCAA Tournament bid as long as it translates into something you can point to and say, the Notre Dame men's basketball arc is moving in the right direction.

Sean

9:59

Do you think Shrewsberry is on the verge of the hot seat this season?

Tom Noie

9:59

Alex: That would be Brian Snow, who served as director of recruiting for two seasons in South Bend after following Micah Shrewsberry from Penn State. Notre Dame had Snow in his role and also had Grady Eifert as recruiting coordinator and likely decided, two guys basically doing one job. One's got to go. Snow went. Director of Basketball Operations Pat Rogers also parachuted into another NIL-related role on campus. Not sure if they're filling Snow's role, or that of Rogers. They do need to hire someone as more of a general manager. That's on the off-season ask (when/if) list of Shrewsberry.

Alex

9:55

Are you able to share with us anymore information on Snow leaving the program and who Notre Dame is looking at to replace him?

Tom Noie

9:50

Alex: Welcome to college athletics 2025. It's not just basketball. It's football as well, though Notre Dame football is better positioned to keep its roster together better than Notre Dame basketball. It's finding prospects who want to be a part of everything that entails being a student athlete. That's a difficult dilemma in 2025, but it's doable. The staff has to figure it out and find those kind of kids. It's not about signing a Top 30 transfer. It's about signing the right transfer. Again, that's a tough ask, but welcome to Notre Dame.

Alex

9:47

Loaded comment/question incoming. I, like many others, have found myself at a crossroads with the current state of college athletics. Even more so with college hoops. The days of having a favorite player and being attached to that player as a fan are gone. How am I supposed to get excited about next years incoming freshman class when it's already highly possible next year at this time 2 out of the 4 will be in the portal? Maybe it's a pessimistic way of viewing things but you almost have to cheer with caution these days because if a player is really good it's likely they will bolt for more money the following year. How in the hell is Shrewsberry and Notre Dame basketball supposed to navigate these waters by only being allowed to take transfers from Lehigh, Monmouth, and Princeton? I truly don't believe you can build a program anymore with just recruiting. It's reassuring that ND ponied up for Burton, but Shrews is going to need more. They should be able to sign at least one top 30 transfer every year right?

Tom Noie

9:47

...Overcoaching is a concern. Maybe the biggest. I agree that basketball is an instinct game. Your work as a head coach is done during the week over at Rolfs Hall. Coach them up and coach them hard and sometimes micromanage if micromanage is needed. But when it comes time to play, let them play. Trust in your guys. Trust in your teaching. Trust in your program. Micah Shrewsberry isn't wired that way, which is a red flag. He's coaching every single second of every single possession.

9:44

Chris: Whoa, long question, but fair. Selection Sunday? Next season? Might be too big of a leap for a program that needed to take smaller steps this season - but didn't. That this season was too much like the first season, and in many ways, worse, pushes back the timeline on when the NCAA Tournament becomes a realistic/reachable goal. There's too much that Notre Dame hasn't done - win a big game at home, win a big game on the road, win a road game that it has no business winning, beating one ranked team let alone a run of them - that makes the NCAA Tournament a tough ask...

Chris K

9:42

For as excited I was to begin last season is as uninterested I was by the end.
What are things to look for early next season to see if the team is pointed in the right direction? The team had no identity last year. As a purely basketball point of view. It appeared like these guys don’t know how to play together. Is it Shrewsberry over coaching?? It appears he coaches every bounce of the ball. I was an assistant bball coach many years and our best teams could just play and we left them alone a good majority of the time cause we’d ironed things out in practice. Basketball is such a feel or flowing sport. You do t want little kids constant looking into the stands … surly we shouldn’t want college high major kids constantly looking over at the bench waiting for orders every trip down. Super long winded I know…. But I want to be good and relevant. What am I going to see next fall that makes me think we got a shot for a little heart break on selection Sunday?

Tom Noie

9:41

Matt: Recruiting in the 2026 started even before the ink was dry on the 2025 class. Leading for any players? Too early to tell in April.

Matt,

9:41

Would you know how Notre Dame is doing with the 2026 recruits? Are they leading for any players?

Tom Noie

9:41

Tony: Myriad reasons. Does the staff understand who they can and can't get out of the portal? Are they identifying the right kind of kids? If you're a game-changer at the Atlantic Coast Conference level, what reason do you have to look hard at Notre Dame? Game-changers get interest from North Carolina and Duke and Louisville and places where you can be among the elite of the elite. Why would they choose Notre Dame?

Tony

9:38

Tom, why does Notre Dame struggle on getting game changers from the portal? Seems like we get players just to put a jersey on and take up roster spots.

Tom Noie

9:38

Kevin: That's up to the staff to decide, say, like, let's go get this guy and here are the reasons why. Tae Davis was arguably the team's best player for that stretch that Markus Burton was out, and was really good for stretches here and there for the entire season. He was the only Irish to play in all 33 games; He was the only Irish to start all 33 games. But his game had limitations. He wasn't a 3-point threat (even though he kept taking them to prove he was) and he was more of a straight-line drive guy. It would've been nice to have him back next year, but it also gives the staff a chance to upgrade at that spot.

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