The modern age of intercollegiate athletics has fostered a landscape of rapid player movement and roster instability completely foreign to the majority of sports fans. In an era devoid of oversight and regulation, the terms “NIL,” “revenue-sharing” and “eligibility” have superseded “team,” “amateurism” and “student-athlete.”
However, there is perhaps no contemporary issue more ingrained in the minds of collegiate sports fans, administrators and players than the “transfer portal.” While the University of Notre Dame has preferred to “minor in the transfer portal,” as termed by head football coach Marcus Freeman, the circumstances of the 2024-2025 season for both men’s and women’s basketball have made engaging in the novelty of the portal a necessity for Micah Shrewsberry and Niele Ivey.
Shrewsberry understood the Notre Dame rebuild would be a multi-year undertaking when he accepted the gig in March of 2023 after guiding Penn State to new heights in a two-year stint. He has stuck to his word, with very few players transferring out of Notre Dame, as he fosters a rare sense of continuity that should bode well for a now experienced Irish roster. The only non-graduate outbound transfers under Shrewsberry have been forwards Carey Booth, who barely played at Illinois this season, and the much-improved Tae Davis, who recently landed at Oklahoma.
Notre Dame has decided to build around the backcourt nucleus of guards Marcus Burton and Braeden Shrewsberry, both rising juniors who averaged double-digits points a year ago. The surrounding pieces are mostly unproven at this point, which is where dabbling in the portal may come in handy. While rising sophomores guard Cole Certa, guard Sir Mohammed and forward Garrett Sundra all displayed flashes of becoming quality pieces during their freshman seasons, it has become increasingly difficult to find success in March without uber-experienced players, who have often played at multiple schools.
To begin the second year of his tenure in South Bend, Shrewsberry and his staff brought in three graduate transfers to complement the returning young core that had a promising finish in the 2023-2024 season. The combination of a lack of defensive intensity and injuries to the ACC’s leading scorer, Burton, and the only transfer to pan out, Matt Allocco, made the 2024-2025 season gravely disappointing for the men’s program, as they finished with a record of 15-18.
So far, the Irish have only added one player in the portal this go-around, but it was a splash. Shrewsberry was able to outbid consistent winning programs Baylor, Saint Mary’s and Xavier for Northern Arizona big Carson Towt. After a redshirt, COVID year and season-ending injury, the Gilbert, Arizona, native is entering his seventh season at the collegiate ranks, shoring up a veteran frontcourt alongside rising senior Kebba Njie. Towt led the nation in rebounding last season for the Lumberjacks, pulling down over 400 boards for an average of 12.3 a night.
Notre Dame also possesses the seventh-ranked recruiting class, headlined by five-star Jalen Haralson, which paired with Towt and the returners should create a formidable roster in the ACC. Shrewsberry will likely secure one or two more additions in the portal, with the team being linked to numerous point guards and shoot-first wings. Much like Towt, however, all additions will most likely be graduates from the mid-major ranks as the admission process for undergraduate transfers nearing a degree has proved to be an insurmountable hurdle.
Across the hall in the Rolfs Athletic Hall, Ivey’s women’s program endured a much messier start to portal season. After the school’s most talented roster since the 2018 national championship crashed and burned in a fourth consecutive Sweet 16 exit, projected top-2 pick Olivia Miles shocked everyone by not declaring for the WNBA Draft, instead transferring to TCU, who had just eliminated the Irish a week prior.
Whether it was an increased NIL deal, a desire for a new challenge removed from the non-basketball stressors of Notre Dame or a beef with rising junior guard Hannah Hidalgo, Miles’ surprise exit started a chain reaction of transfers. The next dominoes to fall were Emma Risch and Kylee Watson, two talented players expected to return from injury for the Irish, before former five-star freshman Kate Koval also entered the portal. Coupled with the graduation of five players, including three WNBA selections, these exits left Notre Dame with just two returning healthy scholarship players.
In her five seasons at the helm, Ivey has only brought in nine transfers total, while nine for this cycle alone would still leave the Irish short of the 15-scholarship limit. After striking out on the nation’s leading scorer Ta’Niya Latson, the Irish plucked graduate forward Malaya Cowles from Wake Forest to fill a spot in the frontcourt vacated by Liatu King and Maddy Westbeld.
Cowles slides in nicely next to rising junior guard Cassandre Prosper and the Wooden Award finalist Hidalgo, but Ivey and company still have a long way to go as both rising senior guard KK Bransford and lone incoming freshman Leah Macy are working their way through injuries.
Ivey faces many of the same monetary and admission roadblocks as Shrewsberry, but may need some more leeway as she attempts to build a new roster almost entirely from scratch. The Irish have been tied to many of the top available prospects remaining in the portal, but just one commitment at this point in the cycle is concerning.
Both programs still have work to do before the portal closes next Tuesday, April 22. While Notre Dame athletics remain steadfast in their preference to build competitive rosters traditionally, centered around multi-year high school recruiting, the desires of the players, and the fans for that matter, may have just forced their hand.
