Finishing the season 15-18 overall and 8-12 in the ACC, Notre Dame men’s basketball built on head coach Micah Shrewsberry’s first season with one more conference win and two more wins overall. Battling injuries and a challenging schedule, Shrewsberry's group have a lot they can build on heading into 2025, including the return of sophomore guard Markus Burton, the ACC's leading scorer.
The Irish began the season 5-0 with three wins in Purcell Pavilion. The most impressive win of this stretch came against a Georgetown team that began the season 12-2 overall. Notre Dame handed them their first loss of the season up to that point, winning 84-63 and controlling the pace all game. They shot an efficient 59% from the field and 42.9% from 3-point range in the victory.
The first loss of the season came on Nov. 22 when they fell 84-77 to Elon at home. The Phoenix had already taken on ACC opponents North Carolina at the start of the season, falling 90-76, but would get their first win against the conference since 2005 against the Irish. After opening the game strong with a 46-41 halftime advantage, the Notre Dame defense could not stop Elon in the final two minutes, despite a 25-point effort from sophomore Markus Burton.
The Elon loss preceded a difficult slate of games at the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas, where the Irish would take on three tournament teams. The tournament began with Rutgers, who sported Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey, two projected top-5 picks in this year's NBA Draft. Just minutes into the first half, sophomore star Marcus Burton suffered a knee injury, promptly sending him to the locker room. The Irish were forced to make adjustments, but stuck around with a talented Rutgers team, taking a 35-34 lead into halftime. The two teams seesawed back and forth in a battle for the lead in the second half. Trailing for the final three minutes, graduate guard Matt Allocco hit a clutch 3-pointer to send the Irish to their first overtime bout of the season. Allocco scored a season-high 24 points on six 3-pointers against the Scarlett Knights, but his final attempt from beyond the arc to win the game rimmed out.
The week did not get any easier, as the Irish battled then-No. 6-ranked Houston, the future National Championship runner-ups. The Cougars dominated a struggling Irish offense without Burton, cruising to a 65-54 win. Notre Dame then lost to Big East championship runner ups Creighton 80-76, before finishing the week with a 69-48 loss to Georgia, who also made the NCAA Tournament. The Bulldogs held the Irish to a season-low in the contest. After dropping five in a row and falling to an even 5-5, the Irish needed to get back on track ahead of conference play.
When asked about responding to losing streaks, Shrewsberry said, “So after every game, every loss, whatever losing streak, you gotta look at that first. Are we doing what we’re supposed to do the entire time at the right level? If not, let’s do that first, and then let’s try and change the other things.”
The Irish began conference play hosting Syracuse at home. Sophomore guard Braeden Shrewsberry scored a season-high 25 points on six 3-pointers while senior guard J.R Konieczny added 15 off the bench to help the Irish begin conference play on the right note. They managed the 69-64 win even in the wake of Burton’s injury absence.
The Irish tallied two more non-conference victories against Dartmouth and Le Moyne before embarking on a stretch that included UNC at home and a trip to eastern North Carolina to face NC State and Duke. The Irish lost on a heartbreaking 4-point play to the Tar Heels as Allocco fouled Elliot Cadeau on a last second 3-pointer that he drained before sinking the game-winning free throw. This game was Markus Burton’s return from injury. They lost on another blown second-half lead away at NC State before falling 86-78 to the Final Four-bound Duke at Cameron Indoor. Cooper Flagg recorded a freshman ACC record 42 points, as every Irish defender was helpless against the College Player of the Year and likely No. 1 overall pick. This stretch sat the Irish at 7-9 overall and 1-4 in ACC play, but with a much easier stretch awaiting.
Notre Dame finished the month of January 3-1 to bring their ACC record closer to .500, but started to falter during a pivotal stretch in February going 2-6 during the month. The wins were both critical and exciting for Irish fans, but the defeats were unfortunately just as memorable. They earned a hard-fought, double-overtime victory away against Boston College that saw Burton’s put up a season-high 32 points. It would be Shrewsberry’s first overtime win.
Next, the Irish returned home to take on four consecutive difficult opponents, a run they began with a loss to Louisville. The game was remembered for what happened off the court, as Shrewsberry slammed the microphone postgame yelling, “A lot of people have given up on this team. They’ve given up on me.” He went on to add, "I’m so invested in winning, so invested in this program, so invested in our players, that you know, if I feel any type of way that like those guys are being attacked or being slighted or shorted, then I’m gonna defend them.”
Even after the impassioned speech, his team's prospects did not improve. The Irish suffered the worst defeat of the season next game against Southern Methodist University. After falling down 50-25 at halftime, they lost 97-73 and substituted all the starters out in the first five minutes of the second half. Things did not get any better when Braeden Shrewsberry injured his hand, taking him out for the remainder of the season. The injury absences of he and Burton, who missed a combined 15 games, hurt the prospects of a successful season.
The Irish would close the year on a better note, highlighted by a four-overtime thriller against Cal in which Markus Burton added a career-high 43 en route to the 112-110 victory, closing out the regular season in Purcell.
Shrewsberry said: “[This year] I don’t think we had the same grittiness and toughness that we had the year before. I thought we needed to be a better offensive team while taking for granted that we were going to keep those same defensive principles.”
The Irish earned the No. 12 seed for the ACC Tournament after finishing with an 8-12 conference record, setting up a First Round matchup with Pitt, a team they had just beat 76-72 at home on Feb. 22. The game and season came down to a critical final possession with the game knotted at 54. Junior forward Tae Davis was fouled as time expired and sank the decisive free-throw to secure the 55-54 win and punch his team's ticket into the next round against North Carolina. The game against a red-hot Tar Heels team did not resemble the competitive first meeting between the two, as the Irish lost 76-56 and ended their season. UNC, who was fighting for one of the last four spots in, showed far greater urgency in the resounding victory.
The Irish were led all season by ACC scoring leader Burton, who put up 21.3 points per game. Burton also tacked on 3.6 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 1.7 steals while shooting 44.2% from the field and 37.5% from 3-point range. Davis took a huge leap for the Irish improving to 15.1 points per game along with 5.3 rebounds, finishing as the 17th highest scorer in the ACC. Junior forward Kebba Njie led the Irish on the glass with 5.9 rebounds per game. As a team, the Irish were 13th in offensive scoring and 11th in defense within the ACC, dropping significantly from their second place spot in defense the year before.
Looking ahead, Notre Dame have put together their highest-ranked recruiting class in program history, headlined by Jalen Haralson, who ranks No. 19 in ESPN’s top 100. They also added Ryder Frost and Brady Koehler, who sit at No. 79 and No. 94, respectively.
“I think those guys are going to be really good players,” Shrewsberry said. “I think physically a couple of them are going to be college ready right away. They have college level bodies as high school seniors. Now it’s about slowing the game, process, and thinking down and letting them adjust to college and going to class at Notre Dame.”
The Irish are expected to lose Davis and Konieczny to the transfer portal, but have added Carson Towt, who averaged 13.3 points per game at Northern Arizona and notably led the entire country in rebounds per game with 12.4.
“We use the transfer portal for need,” Shrewsberry said. When asked about the players who are sticking around, Burton the most notable among them, Shrewsberry added, “We invest so much in our current players that they feel good about Notre Dame, the education that they’re getting here. They feel good about our basketball program and where they think it’s going. They feel good about their role on the team. And they feel good that they’re getting better as players and they’re growing as people.”
With a great recruiting class, help in the transfer portal and core returning stars, the Irish will hope to be over .500 for the first time since 2022-23 next season.
“In order to do that [having a winning ACC record], the other guys that are staying have to make a huge leap,” Shrewsberry said. “The way they are working right now, I’m pretty confident that they will.”
