SOUTH BEND ― It’s been a quiet couple of months around the Notre Dame basketball program, and that’s not necessarily all that alarming.
The Irish lost a couple of players to the transfer portal, added one graduate transfer and have generally stayed out of the spring basketball spotlight. That will turn back on in the coming months, and before anyone knows it, the 2025-26 season will be here with whatever level of expectation accompanied it.
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Noie: Can minimal portal movement help Notre Dame basketball maximize the 2025-26 season?
Noie: What was that between those two former Notre Dame women’s basketball All-American guards?
Quiet is good for now for Notre Dame. Quiet works. Leave the noise making to when it really matters.
The following are five questions about Notre Dame basketball that may be answered between now (spring) and then (fall practice).
∎ At its core, what is this program?
We still don’t know. We’re two-plus years into the Micah Shrewsberry Experience and this program is still void of any identity.
What does Notre Dame do well enough game-in and game-out to succeed? (Blank stare).
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We thought that identity would include defense after the Irish guarded as if their lives depended on it that first year. In many ways, they did. Notre Dame finished 2023-24 ranked 86th (.472) in field goal percentage defense and 49th in scoring offense (67.2 ppg.).
Shrewsberry then admitted last fall that the Irish spent next to no practice time on defense; those national numbers collapsed to 242nd in field goal percentage (.449) and 193rd in scoring (72.5 ppg). It was all offense. Then that offense was offensive (three assists in the January loss at Syracuse should never happen). It’s difficult to be good on offense when your offense consists solely of setting a high ball screen for the undersized but uber-talented point guard to go make something happen.
Coming clear of last season’s 15-18 finish, this program finds itself in the worst possible place ― stuck in neutral. It’s not a good defensive group. It’s not a good offensive group. Once they decide what they are, maybe we can start to see who they are. Lock the doors to Rolfs Hall and find out.
∎ Is this the season we see more diversity in the offense?
That was supposed to happen last season with guard Markus Burton coming off Atlantic Coast Conference freshman of the year and third team all-league honors. He wouldn’t have to score as much or do as much because the guys around him were a year older and a year wiser and, ideally, a year better.
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Burton then did more in 2024-25 despite missing seven games with a right knee injury/scare. He finished fourth among all Division I players in usage rate (35.0 percent). How you compute that is like trying to explain trigonometry, but what it means is this ― Burton did too much. Again. Dribbled it too much. Shot it too much. Scored it too much.
We’ve done the put-the-ball-in-Burton’s-hands-and-let-him-figure-it-out dance for two years. It hasn’t worked. Forget going for a league-best 21.2 ppg., as he did last year. Elevate the career assist average (3.5). Continue to cut down turnovers. Control games with decisions and not shots.
We’ve seen Burton be the guy; let’s see him be one of the guys.
∎ How do you fill that production crate that opened in spring?
That would be the one created when Tae Davis jumped in the transfer portal in March and landed at Oklahoma. He had his shortcomings as a shooter (stop taking 3s!) and a creator, but he did a ton last season. Especially on defense.
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Davis guarded guards. He guarded small forwards. He guarded bigs. He could be a secondary handler and facilitate offense. He could finish, if only on clear path/straight-line drives. He leaves behind averages of 15.1 points, 5.3 rebounds and 1.7 assists per game in a team-high 1,017 minutes. Somebody want to grab those?
Freshman Jalen Haralson likely will have the first chance, but he needs an adjustment window before we see his true toolbox. Watch for sophomore Sir Mohammed as a potential surprise Swiss Army knife option. Mohammed’s a natural lead guard, but with Burton back, he can explore various plug-and-play roles. Handle. Guard. Defend. Score. Be a basketball player. Be in shape. Be healthy.
It would be nice to have a graduate transfer (Carson Towt) deliver.
∎ How early does the freshman class have to hit?
Is the first day of summer school too soon? It can’t be for this foursome, which at one point was ranked the nation’s No. 1 class before finishing a consensus Top 15 nationally. The class has size and shooting and athletic ability. Let’s see if it has smarts. Haralson’s going to play. He fancies himself a potential one-and-done, so his game must be there from the start.
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Ryder Frost may have the size (6-foot-6, 205 pounds) and the shot-making ability to be an early rotation guy. Center Tommy Ahneman and swingman Brady Koehler may need time on the court and in the weight room to get up to ACC speed, but this group cannot follow the blueprint from last year’s class. Mohammed and then-freshmen Cole Certa and Garrett Sundra took so long to adjust that once they did, the season was about done.
This freshman class must show from the start for Notre Dame to have a chance. Group two of the freshmen with three veterans on that first day of summer workouts. If it looks promising, so might be this season.
Plenty of programs have freshmen hit early. Why not Notre Dame?
∎ Is the clock really ticking on head coach Micah Shrewsberry?
Shrewsberry swung and missed in his post-Louisville loss meltdown when he claimed that followers of Irish basketball wanted him fired after two seasons. Nobody “gave up on him” and wanted him gone. What they’ve wanted ― really, needed ― is to see something we expected to see last season but never did.
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Progress.
Beat a ranked team, either at home or on the road, neither of which has happened on Shrewsberry’s watch. Win a league game that you’re not supposed to win. Win a game with a late play design that leaves everyone delightfully dumbfounded. Give the fanbase a reason to show up. To care. To hope.
Win on Tobacco Road, where the Irish are 0-4 in Shrewsberry’s two years. String together win streaks of four straight here or six in a row there. Walk around Rolfs Hall with your chest out after one good month, not one good game. Close out close contests.
Do some of that and it still may not result in a trip to the NCAA Tournament trip, but that’s OK. Seriously, it is. Don’t set the NCAA tournament as the bar. Be good, then be better and that bar will take care of itself.
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It will at least show everyone that this program is on the right track. And keep a certain sound – tick … tick … tick … – quieted in the corner.
Follow South Bend Tribune and NDInsider columnist Tom Noie on X (formerly Twitter): @tnoieNDI. Contact Noie at tnoie@sbtinfo.com
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Notre Dame basketball looks to sidestep a fourth-straight losing season
