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

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Kevin, Lemont

9:36

Is there any upside to Davis leaving-- his 3 was weak and rebounding not great- so does this free us up to find a better 4 in the portal or is that not in the cards?

Tom Noie

9:36

Mike: Great question, but probably one that needs to be revisited in the fall. All three face important development offseasons from a strength standpoint, from a confidence standpoint. How do all three fit with the additions of the four freshmen and whoever arrives from the portal? Markus Burton will start next season. Braeden Shrewsberry will start. Jalen Haralson will start. Kebba Njie will start (maybe). Who's next? TBD in April, and maybe in June and into October.

Mike from Rochester, NY

9:34

How many of the soon-to-be sophomores (Sundra, Certa and Mohammed) will contribute meaningfully next year and which ones?

Tom Noie

9:33

Mike: There's always a chance ... stay tuned.

Mike from Rochester, NY

9:33

Any chance we might see a commitment out of the portal this month? This year?

Tom Noie

9:33

Colin: Great question, but this is more of a bigger picture athletic department question. From that standpoint, the ACC fits Notre Dame better than the Big East. The travel logistics aren't that much different in the ACC as they were in the Big East. Both programs charter to away games. The longest trip (at least this season) was Boston and Tallahassee. That will change when both programs will have to make the West Coast swings to Cal and Stanford. I miss the Big East every year, but the amount of money Notre Dame would have to commit to its programs to compete against all those basketball-only programs? Not something Notre Dame would want to do. The Big East is a basketball-serious conference. Not sure Notre Dame is all that serious about basketball. Not THAT serious.

Colin Meyer

9:30

Wouldn't ND hoops, both men and women, be better off in the Big East? It seems the travel logistics in the ACC are taking a toll.

Tom Noie

9:30

Gil: I do not. Tae Davis left for reasons other than coaching (i.e., dollars) while J.R. Konieczny left for a more stable/certain role. The miss on transfers, not only this season but the previous two, may say more about what transfers want out of the portal. They don't want everything that entails going to Notre Dame. That doesn't mean Notre Dame cannot find transfer or two who fit. They're out there. Find them.

Guest

9:28

Hello Tom! Thank you for doing these chats. I am a fan of Micah Shrewsberry and want to see him succeed. However, the lack of game improvement from year one to last year was shocking. My question is do you think our player transfers this year, and the miss on transfer Davidson, are signs that both recruits and potential transfers are questioning Coach Shrewsberry's coaching acumen? Gil Patrick Williamsburg VA

Tom Noie

9:27

Pete: Efforting as we speak. Confidence was high - or relatively so - that Notre Dame could get an experienced big out of the portal. The program was not caught flat-footed at the decision of Davis to leave. The portal options should've been aplenty the minute he decided to go.

Pete from Berrien Springs

9:26

What is the status of ND getting a proven, starting big man plus someone to replace Tae Davis?

Tom Noie

9:26

Steve: Guards? Forwards? Swingman? One word best fits Notre Dame's portal plan and it's none of those above. It's EXPERIENCE. Notre Dame needs to find the most experienced post player and the most experienced combo guard that it can find. That they can play at a high level also helps. Think of how more effective Markus Burton can be if he has two additional capable contributors - a big who can catch and finish at the rim. A guard who can make shots from a variety of spots. Notre Dame leaned a lot on Burton the first two years. It can't lean as much on him next season for it to look like it's all supposed to look.

Steve Bender

9:23

Glad to see Marcus Burton returning. Another "fresh" year is exactly what he needs. What portal transfer would best fit with his style of play?

Tom Noie

9:23

Fritz: Niele Ivey first has to decide how many players is enough players. Seven? Eight? As we sit here on April 10, the Notre Dame women's roster has three returning players (Hannah Hidalgo, Cass Prosper, K.K. Bransford) and an incoming freshman (Leah Macy) who likely will be limited early - and maybe often - with a leg injury. Can Notre Dame find six or seven players in the portal? That's a lot, but again, that's the way of the college basketball world. TCU had 11 transfers on its roster this season. It's a tough ask to get a half dozen, but not impossible.

Fritz Frommeyer

9:20

With seniors and potential transfers leaving the ND women’s team, how many players will be needed from the portal? Was playing time the main reason for Kate Koval and Emma Risch entering the portal?

Tom Noie

9:20

Steve: I would always, always, always, dig in defensively, get a stop, get a defensive rebound and then get down the floor and get into early offense. Don't call timeout. Don't give the defense a chance to figure it out. Trust your guys to run the right play at the right time and execute. If you have a chance to score, score, but also understand that you have to have that fifth player back to defend. Notre Dame lost a game at the buzzer at Georgia Tech because of improper floor balance. Last-second shots? Leave that to the pros.

Guest

9:17

Have read that onside kicks have a 3% success rate. Would like your thoughts on the BB strategy of holding the ball at 1/4 or 1/2 for last shot. Forty ft from basket and running the clock to 8 secs. Seems like it rarely works. I think starting at 12/14 seconds with 2 wings for outlet passes and player underneath for tip/putback with 5th player to defend if other team gets ball. Steve Dewey Mishawaka

Tom Noie

9:17

Everyone who remained after Tae Davis (no surprise) and J.R. Konieczny (even less of a surprise) entered the transfer portal has already announced that they would return. That includes Markus Burton. That includes last year's three-man freshman class. Who will Notre Dame pursue? Getting an experienced, capable big and maybe a backup combo guard would be a good place to start.

Guest

9:15

Do you see anybody else getting into transfer portal other than Tae and JR? Who will Notre Dame pursue in the transfer portal?

Tom Noie

9:14

I would push back a bit on the "carnage." Really? Not really. Who left? Two fifth-year players (Olivia Miles, Kylee Watson) who were ready for something different in college. It happens. A lot. You still want to be a college basketball player; you just don't want to be one at your current home. Emma Risch left, but she barely played, and likely wouldn't next year. Kate Koval left because she wasn't happy with her role/career arc/development. It happens. In men's basketball. In women's basketball. That it happened for Notre Dame leaves the fan base feeling like the sky is falling. Not true. It's the way of the world in college athletics. Players leave because they can leave. Immediately.

9:12

Terry: Sonia Citron may have said it best after the loss to TCU in the Sweet 16 when she said that Notre Dame had talent - maybe too much talent. It's OK to have talent; it's OK to have too much talent. What the Notre Dame women didn't have this season was the RIGHT talent. You need players to score and rebound and distribute, but you also need players to remain in their roles. Stay in their lanes. Don't know how often we heard late in the year about trust. If you're talking of trust in late February and March, you have bigger issues. We saw that against Florida State at home. We saw that against Duke in Greensboro and we saw that against TCU in Birmingham. Don't know if these team trusted one another to the level you need to trust...

Terry

9:09

What in the name of Heaven happened to ND’s women’s basketball program? They went from a possible national championship to another exit in the Sweet 16!!! And yet the carnage continues with the transfer portal!! Why????

Tom Noie

9:09

As for freshmen, I was encouraged by what we saw late in the year from Cole Certa. He may have been the one guy on that entire roster who actually improved from October to March. He wasn't ready, not physically, not mentally, not anything, to be a high-major Division I college basketball player in October. He wasn't ready in November or December or January. That was OK. He could grow up, and grow his game, so that when he was needed after Braeden Shrewsberry was lost late in the year with an abdomen injury, Certa was ready. He didn't just take big shots, he made big shots. He LOOKED like a college basketball player. Garrett Sundra was a try-hard guy but he was often overmatched because he just wasn't ready. We covered Sir Mohammed earlier. With Certa, you could see something in March and think, there's something there.

9:05

It was like they were taking guys just to take guys. To fill out the roster. That's not going to work, no matter what you school you're at or what conference you coach in. You have to know the portal - and know your program. It's been a two-year learning process of what Micah Shrewsberry can and cannot do.

9:04

Linas: So much to discuss, but PLENTY of time. We'll take all day to drill down today if need be on what ails Notre Dame basketball. Five hours? Six hours? Seven? As long as it take to talk you off the hoops ledge. And now, your two-parter...I don't know what the recruiting identity of this program should be - and I don't know if Notre Dame knows. There was a sense that Shrewsberry would parachute into the job two years ago and see that only three scholarship players remained and just build through the transfer portal. Restock and reload and keep rolling. Until he realized that that's not the way they do it at Notre Dame. He had to go a different route, and recruited/signed a Top 15 class that has a chance to get this headed back in the right direction. That will work if - and it's a massive IF - a head coach understands how to strike a proper balance between recruiting high school kids and accessing the portal. You can't portal just to portal, which seemed the case with last year's three graduate transfers.

Linas from the O.C

9:00

Hey Tom, So much to discuss but so little time. Really thought we had a shot at Nick Davidson, him being a devout Catholic and all. So two questions: 1) Seems like many of the most successful teams are not even recruting high school but just using the portal. What is the identity Shrew's is looking for? And is he using outdated method for building a team by relying on young guys? 2) Which freshman showed you the most potential? For me is was Certa. Most disappointed from what I saw from Sir Mohammed. Throwing up lots of bricks, not a great handle. Sundra needs to bulk up and toughen up, espcially on defense. Thoughts?

Tom Noie

8:59

Alfred: Obviously, this was a question asked before news broke earlier this week that Notre Dame forward Tae Davis is now former Notre Dame forward Tae Davis after his "commitment" to Oklahoma. We use quotes because Davis also will work through the NBA Draft process with the hopes of landing a guarantee from an NBA team. He might not want to hold his breath. Tae Davis has the potential to be an NBA-level talent, but his game still needs some work. It will be interesting if he can develop at Oklahoma. He was really good last year for Notre Dame, but he often was who he was. He was good, but he didn't get better as the season unfolded.

Alfred T.

8:57

Is there any chance of Tae Davis coming back into the fold for ND?

Tom Noie

8:57

Tom: That may be entirely up to Sir Mohammed. Is there another Irish player staring at a more important offseason than rising sophomore guard Sir Mohammed? Everything about his freshman year was forgettable. He was hurt basically the minute he arrived for summer school, had knee surgery early, missed 10 games then tried to play the final 23 and get it all back at once. It never happened for him, in part because he seemed stuck in an identity crisis. Who is Sir Mohammed as a player? Point guard? Shooting guard? Combo guard? A basketball player? Imagine what this season might have been for him had he been healthy after Markus Burton was hurt. He wasn't, and this season never was.

Tom ATL

8:54

Tom- do you think that Sir will become a distributor next year with Burton more in the role of a shooting guard?

Tom Noie

8:54

Steve: Great question, one that I don't know if the head coach or the assistant coaches have an answer/idea for just yet, especially in this world of the transfer portal and roster turnover year after year. This isn't an easy job - nobody ever said it would be - but it's also not a job where you look at it and throw your collective hands up and say, ah, Notre Dame will never win. There always have been and will be challenges to coaching at Notre Dame. Embrace them, find a way to work around them and you can still build a competitive roster that can be in the upper half of the Atlantic Coast Conference. The talent that wants to be a part of what Notre Dame stands for is out there - you just have to find those guys. Is it a challenge? Unbelievably so, but it's also doable.

Guest

8:50

Tom, I believe I’d like to know how Coach will manage the recruiting process of gathering the talent who wants to be part of the “Notre Dame culture “ and balance the business of recruiting the portal player more interested in playing time, awards/compensation and likely hood of one or two and done. Thanks, Steve Watts

Tom Noie

8:50

John: Honestly, it can't. And shouldn't. Pricing for men's basketball should reflect the product on the floor, and the current place of the program. Notre Dame basketball has an image issue. The ticket prices are too high and the product on the floor is too low. The most important aspect of games at Purcell Pavilion is to get fans in the seats. Get them to again care about basketball. Once they start winning, then adjust the ticket prices to reflect the product. It wasn't that long ago that you could get Notre Dame women's basketball tickets for free at local service stations. It worked. it built up a fan base so that when they did get good, elite good, people didn't mind paying a little more. Notre Dame needs to work with its fan base to build it back up for men's basketball. If/when they get good, then fans can better accept the cost of attendance, which, honestly, is ridiculous.

John

8:47

Notre Dame’s men’s basketball has trouble attracting fans to the games and the women’s games are often sold out. Yes the women have been more successful, but the difference in the ticket prices is also a factor. I pay $1200 for two season tickets in section 18 and have a friend who pays $170 for 2 season seats in the same section. How can that be?
Men ticket prices need to be

Tom Noie

8:35

What is your greatest concern moving forward about Notre Dame basketball?

The roster (13.3% | 11 votes)

The transfer portal (15.7% | 13 votes)

The player development (7.2% | 6 votes)

The fan support (3.6% | 3 votes)

The coaching (13.3% | 11 votes)

The everything (47% | 39 votes)

Total Votes: 83

8:34

And....the curtain has closed on another college basketball season. Earlier than usual for Notre Dame again? Yes, but the year wasn't without its moments, on and off the floor. Where's all this going after two seasons under head coach Micah Shrewsberry? Somewhere? Anywhere? Nowhere? You have to have questions. You have to have comments. Share them today along with your name and hometown. We'll do this dance for as long as needed. Maybe we can figure out the future of Irish basketball. With that, you know the drill - let's light this chat candle.

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