Micah Shrewsberry had a good weekend.
On Thursday, Garrett Sundra committed to Notre Dame. A four-star, top-100 recruit on 247’s composite rankings, Sundra is a 6’10” forward playing his high school ball in Fairfax, Virginia. I don’t have a lot of information on Sundra’s style of play, but he calls himself a stretch forward and at just 215 lbs., he looks like one. It sounds like we should expect him to shoot.
On Saturday, a bigger name joined the ranks. Sir Mohammed, another four-star, top-100 recruit (but ranked 54th to Sundra’s 91st) committed. Mohammed is listed as a combo guard, and he’s the son of Nazr Mohammed. He plays for Myers Park High School in Charlotte. His reputation is that of a guy who can help make an offense hum, and he’s drawn comparisons to Jalen Pickett, the face of Booty Ball this year at Penn State. He is also, as his lineage would suggest, quite long.
Micah Shrewsberry and assistant Mike Farrelly had been recruiting at least Sundra prior to their move from State College to South Bend. This is a small thing, but it’s a reassuring reminder that while Shrewsberry has a lot of infrastructure to build back home in Indiana, some of his work at Penn State follows him to us. Also, while he isn’t landing five-stars, I don’t know how possible five-stars are right now at Notre Dame, with the Under Armour deal and the NIL situation each being what they are. Shrewsberry is instead amassing four-star talent with reputations for being smart players. Like that line in Miracle, he seems to be picking the right guys, even if they aren’t the best guys.
Still, the 2024 class—these two guys plus Cole Certa, who committed in May—is strong. Three guys in or around the top 100. It’s doubtful it’ll stay in the top five nationally as bigger prospects commit elsewhere, but it’s a good, solid class, and it pushes Notre Dame up to an even 13 scholarship players in the projection for 2024–25, eight of whom were Shrewsberry recruits when entering college (these three, this year’s four freshman, and Kebba Njie, who transferred over from PSU). The turnover is happening, and while we might not see a tournament berth until 2026, the program should be in a great place when it does get there. It’s hard to believe anything else.
National Conferences Can Rock
My contrarian streak is starting to wane, as is my emotional reaction to media people pretending they don’t know better about all sorts of things (the Pac-12 has NOT existed for 100 years, you liars). I’m becoming more sympathetic to those mourning the loss of all the regular season football matchups we’re used to seeing. I understand why a Washington fan will miss the familiarity of playing Cal.
I will say, though, that to use Notre Dame as an example (as we did last week), interregional rivalries can be great if they’re given the time to ferment. Notre Dame and USC is one of college football’s greatest rivalries historically. Even Notre Dame vs. Clemson is turning into a pretty good one. And that latter development shows another important angle to this: It doesn’t take too long, and it doesn’t require playing every single year. Once programs get used to each other, they know the other well enough for the familiarity to come through thick. Not every new matchup will be ND/USC or ND/Clemson, but we might get some gems from Oregon playing Michigan every other year, or from UCF and Utah.
Quick(er) Hitters
The men’s basketball nonconference schedule is out:
- Monday, November 6th: Niagara (H)
- Saturday, November 11th: Western Carolina (H)
- Thursday, November 16th: Auburn (N)
- Friday, November 17th: Oklahoma State or St. Bonaventure (N)
- Wednesday, November 22nd: Maryland Eastern Shore (H)
- Tuesday, November 28th: South Carolina (A)
- Tuesday, December 5th: Western Michigan (H)
- Saturday, December 9th: Marquette (A)
- Saturday, December 16th: Georgetown (H)
- Friday, December 22nd: Marist (H)
That’s five buy games and six or seven should-wins. If a goal is to avoid 20 losses, a point at which things are downright unsightly, this should get Notre Dame about halfway there.
This Week
The 2023–24 athletic season is officially underway. On Thursday, the women’s soccer team hosts Milwaukee. On Sunday, they host Ball State. Both games are on ACC Network X. In the preseason coaches poll, the Irish were picked to finish fourth in the ACC, a 14-team league for this sport. Eva Gaetino, a senior defender, was Notre Dame’s lone preseason all-ACC honoree among twelve named league-wide.
