After two straight 20-loss seasons that saw the Mike Brey era come to a close and the Micah Shrewsberry era get off to a predictably difficult start, it feels like a long time since there was a sustained Era of Good Feelings that Irish men’s hoops fans could enjoy.

With a new season about to kick off, what are the reasons to be excited about the 2024-25 Notre Dame men’s basketball team?

 

Getting in on the Shrewsberry Era early

 

That’s right, my first reason to be excited about this team is… not really about this team, but about the progress of the program in general. Those who follow Irish hoops recruiting, even on a cursory level, will have noticed that the primary narrative around the ND basketball program is the buzz that Micah Shrewsberry is generating on the recruiting trail. Next year’s recruiting class is currently ranked 3rd in the country, with 5-star gem Jalen Haralson becoming the highest-ranked recruit ND has landed in the internet rankings era.

While we’ll have to wait another year to see that much-anticipated influx of talent on the court, it’s hugely rewarding to see some payoff for the ambition that Shrewsberry has shown in his early days with the program. At an ND Club of Chicago event this winter, Shrewsberry talked about a tournament appearance as the goal for this year’s team, and with the 2026 Final Four happening to be in Indianapolis, targeting that as a tangible goal. While that might be viewed as pie-in-the-sky ambitious, the unprecedented recruiting progress is creating the feeling of an imminent corner being turned.

Even before next year’s monster class, Shrewsberry and his staff have been no slouches recruiting. Shrews and co navigated the chaos of a job switch to land a 26th ranked class in year one, and brought in another solid 28th ranked composite class this year. Just watching Shrewsberry in press conferences and behind-the-scenes videos (the postseason speech he gave that I linked above was particularly powerful), it’s hard not to feel optimistic about his combination of dedication and experience on the tactics/basketball side and his sincere presence/ability to connect that’s bringing more and more talent into the program.

 

Markus Burton is a special player

Let’s be honest – the Irish were a tough watch for much of last year. As choppy and ugly as things got, one consistent bright spot was Markus Burton doing everything in his power to give the Irish some juice. At a listed 5’11” and 166 pounds, Burton is the kind of undersized dynamo that you get maximum enjoyment out of at the NCAA level, and he’s deservedly the first ND Cousy Award watch list (top college point guard) recipient since Matt Farrell.

It’s worth calling out some of his accomplishments that he achieved in a really challenging environment last season. He won ACC Rookie of the Year and was named 3rd team All-ACC. He also set a number of ND records, most notably surpassing Troy Murphy to become ND’s highest scoring freshman of all-time. Burton’s usage rate of 33.6% led the ACC (not ACC freshmen, the whole league) easily, and he led the Irish in scoring in 20 of their 33 games. And it wasn’t selfish ball-hogging that propelled him to those stats. Time after time, the inexperienced Irish faced late shot-clock situations in which the only hope for a bucket was “give the ball to Markus and hope he does something cool.” Many of his efforts were downright heroic, with Burton visibly winded but doing everything he could as not just our go-to option, but our only option.

His success was made all the more remarkable by the fact that he didn’t even shoot well from 3, ending the season at 30.0% exactly. Most of his damage was done going to the rim and creating midrange looks. Despite his diminutive frame, his hangtime and craftiness allowed him to pull off some beautiful finishes inside. His 43% shooting from the midrange and 82% clip from the free throw line are positive indicators that his 3 point shot will tick up in efficiency this year, making him a truly special scoring threat from everywhere on the court.

In the offseason, Burton entered the 2024 NBA Draft to receive feedback before ultimately withdrawing. Due to his height, always seemed like more of a multi-year high-level college player than someone to make an early leap, but you never know. As a South Bend native, and with a huge amount of talent coming in next year, the hope is that we are still early on in the Markus Burton Notre Dame experience, but we should treasure every moment of it that we have.

 

The Newcomers

As would be expected in year 2 with a new coaching staff, a lot of new faces will trickle into the Irish lineup this year. Matt Allocco should have the greatest instant impact. Allocco is a grad transfer coming from a really solid Princeton team, and he brings the Irish a much-needed knockdown shooter. Advanced stats love him. BartTorvik projects him to be our best player, full stop. Evan Miyakawa has him as the 7th best 3P shooter in the entire nation. These metrics probably overstate his impact as he’s a role player transferring into a much tougher conference, but a veteran 43% 3P shooter will be exactly what Shrews wanted out of the transfer portal.

Sir Mohammed is the guy to watch as a likely key contributor to the next great ND team. Mohammed is a 6’7” do-it-all perimeter player whose versatile skill set will be hard to keep off the floor. He played often as a primary ball-handler in high school and AAU, but with Burton firmly entrenched in the Irish PG spot, he’ll likely slot in as a secondary creator from a wing spot. The size, feel, and creation drove his top-50 ranking, but his shooting may determine how early he gets big minutes for the Irish. Interestingly, I read a lot of Jalen Pickett comps for Mohammed – the same comparison attached to Jalen Haralson, next year’s incoming 5-star.

The other newcomers face more uncertain roles heading into this year. The Irish welcomed journeymen big men Nikita Konstantynovskyi (averaged 9 and 8 at Monmouth last year) and Burke Chebuhar (7.5 and 5 at Lehigh) into the fold. It was disappointing that the Irish couldn’t land a Paul Atkinson-level plug-and-play 5, and Shrews will mix and match these newcomers behind Kebba Njie in the big man rotation.

Cole Certa is a 4 star freshman who comes with a big-time shooting reputation, but will likely find himself behind a slew of more experienced guards, at least early in the year. Garrett Sundra is the third incoming freshman, a versatile 6’10” forward who also will likely start the season out of the rotation.

 

What are the expectations?

Rankings:

KenPom: 69 (118th last year)

BartTorvik: 69 (124th last year)

Evan Miyakawa: 69 (162nd last year)

Picked 10th of 18 in the ACC preseason poll

 

It’s kinda crazy to see the stats sites all have ND ranked at the exact same spot (I would normally have resisted the nice joke, but 3/3 is… nice), projecting the high percentage of returning minutes and injection of talent to carry the Irish to a notable improvement this year.

Despite the youth of last year’s team, they finished 5th in the ACC in adjusted defensive efficiency (and 3rd in conference play), and finished with a higher ranked defense than any Brey team. Sustaining the competitiveness we saw on the defensive end last year will be imperative and hopefully complemented by noticeable offensive progress.

The offense was borderline unwatchable at times, finishing dead last in the ACC and 223rd in the country. The tempo was slow, with more shot clock violations than I can ever remember seeing a team having. The Irish lacked any consistent shooting threats, finishing below 32% from 3 on the season. Finally, the turnover rate exploded, something particularly disorienting after a decade plus of taking care of the ball under Brey.

Hopefully, many of these offensive woes will be solved naturally through a combination of individual experience and added familiarity playing together. Shrews has talked about upping the pace in the preseason, installing a 24-second shot clock to get things moving faster. His Penn State teams were slow tempo-wise but developed into a devastatingly efficient group, and probing for advantages earlier in the shot clock will be a big indicator of progress for ND this year.

One more thing to note here: the ACC could be the weakest power conference this season, with Duke and UNC placing well above the rest of the conference in most preseason rankings. Newcomers Stanford, Cal, and SMU are all expected to be bottom-of-the-league fodder, further watering down a league that had already been fading in national reputation in recent seasons. The variance for where ND finishes in-league could be immense, as they project to be one of a huge number of teams duking it out in the middle tier of the ACC.

 

Projected starting lineup: Markus Burton/Matt Allocco/Braeden Shrewsberry/Tae Davis/Kebba Njie

 

I have not seen who the Irish started in their secret scrimmage against Xavier, but this is the group that makes the most sense to me. 

Braeden Shrewsberry started his career as an almost inexcusably shameless chucker, negatively impacting the team despite the evident need for someone willing to pull from 3. He made a huge amount of progress as the season progressed, highlighted by back-to-back games against Louisville and Syracuse in which he shot 7-11 and 6-9 from 3. Expect him to start, and while it may be a volatile ride game to game, the volume shooting upside is there.

Tae Davis went through stretches of being a solid #2 option, using his size and athleticism to slice to the rim and finish impressively. Unfortunately, his lack of any kind of shooting threat (18% from 3, 19% from midrange) hurt the Irish’s ability to space the floor. His defense as a big wing was strong, and any development in shooting could make him a two-way weapon.

Kebba Njie stands out as the clear weak point in the starting lineup, struggling massively last year after coming back from injury. His stats were cover-your-eyes bad across the board, a disappointment after starting 26 games for a really good Penn State team the previous year. That said, he is consistently cited as a team leader and one of the hardest workers on the team. He is one of the youngest juniors in the country, and Coach Shrews has singled him as a guy who added long-range shooting to his game over the off-season.

Other names we can expect to see off the bench are Logan Imes, Julian Roper, and JR Konieczny. Imes played a lot of minutes last year with almost comically low usage, and will likely serve as a steady-handed backup PG. Roper began last year as a starter, but struggled to shoot and found his minutes reduced severely as the year went on. Konieczny flashed perhaps the highest highs of these projected bench guys, leading ND in scoring on five occasions, but is probably best suited as a rangy catch-and-shoot guy who can spell Davis at the 4 spot. 

 

The big-picture question that this year will answer is this: is 24-25 the year before the year, or the true start of the next era of competitive ND basketball? 

A cold, rational view would suggest that the former may be more likely, with Burton leading a collection of talented but flawed players to an improved, but middling position in the ACC. But the combination of good vibes and precedent from Shrewsberry’s second year at Penn State allows the optimist in me to dream on the in-season progress from last year carrying over, and the added pieces filling in the cracks to bring the Irish back into the NCAA tournament.