Penn High School’s Markus Burton was named Mr. Basketball last week in Indiana, giving the South Bend area its first Mr. Basketball in nearly fifty years. Burton is staying home this fall, at the moment headlining Notre Dame’s class of 2027.
Only a three-star recruit, Burton is an undersized point guard, checking in at only 5’10” and 170 lbs. Three inches shorter and thirty pounds lighter than even Demetrius Jackson, Burton has his college skeptics. Still, he garnered roughly 80% of votes in the statewide competition, outpacing McDonald’s All-American and Michigan State-bound Xavier Booker by a measure of more than 4-to-1.
The thing about Burton’s size and the thing about Burton’s associated potential is that he doesn’t need to be the best college basketball player in the state of Indiana to mean something to Notre Dame. One of the beauties of college basketball—its calling card, really—is the opportunities it offers to those nature ignored. Among professional sports, none rivals basketball in its physical wonder, but at the college level, the game is less about soaring dunks and mind-bending feats of agility. It’s cliché, but it’s true: College basketball is more about heart. In a format where every game matters, and in a “league” with 363 teams, there is room for the Markus Burtons of the world alongside the Xavier Bookers, and often against them, head to head. College basketball is more like good high school basketball than it is like professional basketball, and while this by no means means Burton will be a better college basketball player than Booker, the possibility is there that Burton will mean more, especially as the hometown kid who, even experiencing a senior year which left him named the best high school basketball player in high school basketball’s best state, stayed home when the man who recruited him was pushed out.
Burton is Notre Dame’s third Mr. Basketball, joining Chris Thomas and Luke Zeller and finally pushing the Irish ahead of Vincennes University in the all-time rankings. For those of us who’d love for South Bend to be considered more a part of Indiana, and who’d love for Notre Dame to be considered more an Indiana school, this helps the cause, even if it isn’t something that thoroughly changes the game. Really, we’re left with two believable scenarios: Burton is a limited college point guard who shows his limits but helps lead the team through the early stages of a massive transition, or Burton becomes—to some degree—a folk hero in the world of Notre Dame men’s basketball. That’s a great pair of options.
Sam Hartman: Starting Quarterback
We wrote last week that we weren’t going to learn much from the Blue–Gold Game, and we were right: We didn’t learn much. We did, however, get further confirmation on one point: Sam Hartman is Notre Dame’s quarterback.
Marcus Freeman didn’t say this—he explicitly said there’s still a competition, in fact—but the game was the kind of small sample that’s so overwhelming it becomes significant in spite of its size. Hartman was playing with a different offense than Tyler Buchner, sure. But just as we’ve seen in each’s career so far, Hartman was a good quarterback while Buchner was a quarterback who might one day be good. That’s not exactly what we wanted, but it feels like a good thing.
What we really want out of Sam Hartman is, of course, transcendence. We want Hartman to combine Jimmy Clausen-style passing effectiveness with Ian Book-style competitive effectiveness. We want Hartman to make the offense so good that the defense merely needs to be top-25 to make the Irish a national title contender (and the defense should be comfortably among the nation’s 25 best). This is unlikely, but it’s what we want. What’s more realistic? It’d still be a good outcome, but the realistic positive scenario is that Hartman is good enough to make Notre Dame’s vulnerable wide receivers look good, that Hartman is good enough to make a tight end emerge as a reliable presence in the middle of the field, and that Hartman makes offensive coordinator Gerad Parker look every bit as smart as Tommy Rees. Notre Dame is not going to light up the draft boards next spring like Alabama or Georgia. But if Hartman can be a Davey O’Brien candidate, a playoff berth is a possibility even with Ohio State, USC, and Clemson all on the schedule. The front seven has its questions, but Notre Dame has been holding its own in the trenches in recent years. Hartman getting somewhere near his sky-high ceiling really is the uncertain variable that matters most.
Quick(er) Hitters
Sticking with football for a second, Lorenzo Styles entered the transfer portal on Saturday after a brief, much-covered flirtation with life as a cornerback for the Irish. As we said last week, it’s probably a good sign for Notre Dame’s receivers that the coaching staff felt they could afford to lose Styles, for whom this reads more as a cut loose than a decision to seek higher waters. Meanwhile, Notre Dame grabbed a commitment from a three-star defensive lineman, Cole Mullins. This brings Freeman’s class to 8th nationally in the 247 rankings, but classes nationally aren’t yet halfway built, and as we were emphatically taught this winter, little in recruiting is set in stone.
In the NFL Draft this weekend, Michael Mayer is still projected as a first-round pick, even after a small drop. Ideally, this lands with him on a good team with a good quarterback and the ability to put up good numbers right away. Isaiah Foskey is getting second round projections while Brandon Joseph and Jarrett Patterson look likely to be drafted in later rounds. It’s an underwhelming collection of talent, but it does highlight something positive: Last year’s team was really young. The program still feels like one in transition, which is a little disappointing—it’s not unreasonable to ask Notre Dame to be in a top ten position right now, given how strong the program was when Brian Kelly left and how much continuity persisted through the transition to Freeman—but there’s a lot of confidence in the run game, there’s a lot of confidence in the cornerbacking, and there’s only one position group of active strong concern, which is safety. That’s a huge problem against Ohio State and USC, but it’s only one huge problem. Last year the entire offensive passing game was a problem, which is something like 24% of a football program. Progress is being made.
On the men’s basketball side, Cormac Ryan committed to UNC, which seems like a good fit for him. UNC needs bodies, and if he acquiesces to playing off the ball he could get eight or nine good looks from deep a game. No word yet on Ven-Allen Lubin.
In incoming men’s basketball news, there doesn’t seem to be much new. Word seems quiet around Kebba Njie, Austin Nunez still has two crystal balls pointing him towards Mississippi, Logan Imes and Carey Booth remain uncommitted. The likeliest scenario for each of Njie, Imes, and Booth seems to be South Bend, but that still leaves the roster with only nine players if it comes to pass. There almost have to be more added, and with the transfer portal dominoes starting to fall in earnest (Harrison Ingram, arguably the top player in the portal, committed to UNC over the weekend while Kadin Shedrick committed to Texas), we could have a flurry of activity in short order. The deadline for basketball transfers, as I understand it, is May 11th.
This Week
It was a good week.
The men’s lacrosse team almost doubled up UNC on Saturday, heading into the last two weeks of the regular season still ranked tops in the country, at least in the polls I’m seeing. They visit Virginia on Saturday. 2:00 PM EDT on ACC Network.
The women’s lacrosse team was idle, but Madison Ahern and Kasey Choma were each among 25 nominees for the Tewaaraton Award, which goes to the country’s top lacrosse player. They’ll lead the Irish into the ACC Tournament, which starts for them on Wednesday afternoon against Virginia. 1:30 PM EDT, ACC Network, semifinals and championship on Friday and Sunday if the women can get there.
The baseball team swept eighth-ranked Virginia after beating both Western Michigan and Valpo in weeknight games. They’re now above .500 in ACC play, and they sit in third place in the ACC Atlantic Division. In RPI, they’re up to 36th, which I think puts them on the radar for a surprise NCAA Tournament berth? With the Selection Show more than a month away, it at least can’t be ruled out. Huge weekend. They get Michigan State tomorrow night on the road before hosting Florida State this weekend. The goal should be three wins in those four games.
The softball team lost Friday to Boston College but rallied on Saturday, taking both halves of a doubleheader to avoid a damaging series loss. They’ll also host Florida State this weekend, and with Florida State in the top five before sweeping a ranked Virginia Tech team in Blacksburg this weekend, it’s a huge opportunity. Friday night’s game will be on ACC Network, the others will be on ACC Network Extra.
As is often the case, it’s hard to tell how the track & field teams did, but they were active in Bloomington, Champaign, and down at Wake Forest. They’ll be around next weekend as well, with some appearing at the Penn Relays, some appearing at the Drake Relays, and some in an invitational down here in Austin.
The women’s tennis team lost its ACC Tournament opener to Wake Forest. The NCAA Tournament bracketing process is a bit vague, but my best impression is that the team and individual brackets will be announced a week from today, and at least some Notre Dame presence is expected (according to the athletic department’s website). The men’s tennis team also lost its ACC Tournament opener, theirs to Louisville. The selections for those are also coming next weekend, with the team not expected to be selected but freshman Sebastian Dominko a seeming lock for the Singles tournament while his doubles partner, Connor Fu, might get the nod with him for Doubles.
In golf, the Notre Dame men finished tenth out of twelve ACC teams in the conference championship, with senior Palmer Jackson the best individual finisher at 16th. The women’s team is waiting for the selection show on Wednesday, and my guess would be that the men’s selection show is a week later, but I’m not positive about the men’s timing and it doesn’t sound likely anyone from Notre Dame is being invited to either event, though clearly I’m not much in the know here.
The rowing team returns to the water this weekend for the Dale England Cup down at Indiana.
