After a disappointing 13-18 season for Micah Shrewsberry and Notre Dame men’s basketball, Notre Dame is struggling to retain players with the transfer portal looming. Notre Dame battled injuries throughout the season that sidelined junior guard Markus Burton and senior forward Kebba Njie with season-ending injuries and freshman guard Jalen Haralson for four games. Notre Dame missed the conference tournament and suffered its biggest home loss in program history against No. 1 Duke on Feb. 24. The hope of salvaging a forgettable season in Micah Shrewsberry’s third year at the helm is contingent on player retention. So far, that’s not off to a great start in March.
Although the transfer portal window won’t begin until hours after the NCAA Tournament is over, Notre Dame has already had four players declare departure for the next season. First, Carson Towt signed an NFL contract with the Indianapolis Colts to move over to be a tight end after seven seasons of college basketball. Towt only played one season for the Irish as a graduate transfer and averaged 9.0 rebounds per game and will join Mo Alie-Cox as a former basketball player turned tight end. Towt was out of eligibility regardless, but the move would not be the most shocking report in the month of March for Notre Dame.
Sophomore guard Sir Mohammed was the first Irish player to declare an entrance into the transfer portal. As a former top-100 recruit and 4-star player, Mohammed averaged 5.7 points this season for Notre Dame but saw inconsistent minutes throughout the season. Mohammed kept his commitment to the Irish through the coaching transition of Mike Brey to Micah Shrewsberry, and it will be a disappointing loss for the Irish.
Sophomore forward Garrett Sundra has also announced his departure from the team into the transfer portal. The 6-foot-10 forward was part of Shrewsberry’s 2024 recruiting class alongside Mohammed and averaged 3.5 points and 3.2 rebounds in the 2025-26 season.
Freshman 4-star Ryder Frost is the most recent player to enter the portal. The 6-foot-7 forward is widely regarded as one of the premier shooters in the 2025 class and averaged 2.7 points on 38.5% shooting from beyond the arc. Although young, all three of these players showed immense promise for the Irish. Losing a group to develop will hurt the Irish depth immensely and force the leaders to carry more of the scoring load into the next season.
Alongside the shuffling of the roster, rumors floated around South Bend about Micah Shrewsberry’s future following the seasons and particularly the end to conference play. The Irish only won four conference games and missed out on the ACC tournament as one of the bottom three teams in the conference. Despite the rumors, Shrewsberry publicly denied all reports of a coaching change or interest in any other programs and reinforced his commitment to the Irish.
Notre Dame will retain Micah Shrewsberry and the remainder of the 2025-26 roster alongside three new freshmen as part of the 2026 recruiting class. Only one season ago, Shrewsberry brought in the best-rated recruiting class in school history, headlined by Haralson, Frost and forward Brady Koehler. This 2026 class is made up of 6-foot-2 four-star point guard Jonathan Sanderson, three-star 7-foot center Gan-Erdene Solongo and 6-foot-5 shooting guard Nick Shrewsberry, who are all committed to Notre Dame. Clearly Micah Shrewsberry can recruit at a high level to Notre Dame, and looking deeper, the issues of player retention and buy-in stem are indicative of far deeper problems than the Notre Dame coach.
On Thursday, March 26, Irish Tribune reporter Tom Noie released an article detailing future concerns for Notre Dame basketball. According to the article, the Notre Dame athletic department is reportedly spending less than $5 million in NIL for the team, which ranks well below other comparable ACC schools. In fact, the number would rank Notre Dame in the middle of Atlantic 10 Conference schools in terms of spending, such as VCU or Dayton. The standard for an NCAA Tournament roster is up to $10 million in NIL money per year to fill a competitive roster. Additionally, with the limited budget, Noie projects the Irish to lose Burton, Haralson and guard Cole Certa this offseason for financial reasons. When the Observer reached out for comments, Noie confirmed the reports on spending, transfers and coaching future of Notre Dame.
While concerning, Notre Dame still has the opportunity to change the structure of its basketball spending and player acquisition before the transfer portal opens at the conclusion of the NCAA Tournament. If the athletic department refuses to change its current model, Micah Shrewsberry will be tasked with picking up the pieces to build a truly competitive roster.
