Photo via The Irish Tribune
With Notre Dame basketball tipping off tonight against Stonehill, head coach Micah Shrewsberry is looking to build off the 13-20 season he put together in year one. While going seven games under .500, the rebuild of Notre Dame basketball is in the right hands.
After rebuilding Penn State, Shrewsberry decided to return to his home state and take over for former Notre Dame coach Mike Brey after 23 seasons. The program was left in a difficult position, however, Shrewsberry handled it well, putting together a solid end of the year that included a win over at the time 20-8 Clemson and an ACC tournament win over Georgia Tech. Now entering his second season, the talent on the roster has increased, but so have the expectations.
A major factor heading into the season is the returning production for the Irish. Despite Carey Booth transferring to Illinois and Matt Zona graduating, Notre Dame returns the six players with the highest minutes per game a season ago and their four leading scorers.
The Irish are led by sophomore guard Markus Burton, who is getting national attention before his second season. He was featured on the Preseason All-ACC First Team with 41 votes after being the conference’s Rookie of the Year last season. The Mishawaka, Indiana native averaged 17.5 points per game, 4.3 assists, and an impressive 1.9 steals in his freshman season where he scored double figures in all but three games.
His best performance of the year came against Wake Forest on February 27th where he finished with 31 points, four steals, three assists, and the game-sealing block. That stretch during the middle of February that trickled into March is where the Irish hung their hat during the 2023-24 season.
In the Irish’s exhibition game against Purdue Fort Wayne on Oct. 30, Burton finished with 18 points while shooting 7-11 from the field, while also picking up six assists and three rebounds. However, Burton turned the ball over six times which was one of his biggest concerns in his freshman season. Adjustments are going to be a necessity in that department as he enters his second season.
One area that Burton is going to have to leap in would be his leadership now entering his sophomore year. He’s already in a good position to fully become the leader of this Notre Dame team due to the small number of seniors on the roster a season ago. Now as he enters his second season, it will be interesting to see if his presence on the floor changes at all.
Following a big win over Virginia on December 30th, Notre Dame would go 1-9 in their next ten games with the season considered a failure. However, after knocking off Virginia Tech on February 10th, the Irish entered a hot streak where they won five of six games including wins over Clemson and Wake Forest. During that streak, the entire team began meshing and working well on both sides of the ball, which allowed other young players to find their roles.
Junior Tae Davis found his feet during this time, averaging 12.6 points per game during the final nine games of the season, scoring double figures in eight of those.
Sophomore Braden Shrewsberry, who is going to be a huge piece in his second season, had an up-and-down freshman year. There were games where he looked lost and like a freshman, which is to be expected. However, like his dad in year two, we need to see more of the other side of the inconsistency in 2024-25. He was a huge part of the ACC tournament win over Georgia Tech in the opening round where he put up 23 points and hit five of his eight threes.
Shrewsberry shot the ball well from beyond the ark in the exhibition game, going 4-7 from three, finishing with 18 points and a steal. He was exclusively contributing from long range in his freshman season, which was a problem for the offense due to his inconsistencies. However, if he can find himself getting good shots from the mid-range and inside, he will be a much more important piece on that end.
Junior J.R. Konieczny was an important player on offense for Notre Dame last season, contributing 7.7 points per game on 40.1% shooting while also grabbing 4.5 rebounds per game. He found himself in double figures 11 times including the third game of the season against Auburn when he finished with 18 points on 7-11 shooting, and grabbed 11 rebounds. It was the first of four times Konieczny would grab double-digit rebounds, which Irish fans would love to see more of in his junior season.
He found himself in double figures once again in the exhibition game as he totaled 11 points, going 3-4 from three, and grabbing six rebounds. After shooting 33% from three last season, that number going up would have a massive impact on the Notre Dame offense.
Freshman Cole Certa also proved he can have a big role in the offense this season in his five minutes of play against Purdue Fort Wayne, finishing with six points and going 2-3 from three. Getting Certa and Sir Mohammed minutes in their first year in South Bend is something that Micah Shrewsberry is going to focus on.
Both Sports Illustrated and CBS project Notre Dame to be the tenth-best team in the ACC this season as they return 85.9% of their scoring. This would be an upgrade from their 12th-place finish last season, however, you can expect Shrewsberry and the Irish to be looking to take a much higher jump than that.
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