Men’s basketball update: How can Notre Dame fill out its 2023 roster?
Summer transfers Joe Toussaint and Paul Mulcahy committed to Texas Tech and Washington, respectively, Tuesday afternoon. Notre Dame contacted Toussaint, according to On3 national recruiting expert Joe Tipton, and ZagsBlog basketball insider Adam Zagoria reported that Mulcahy visited South Bend last week.
With around four months until the season, Notre Dame has 10 scholarship players. NCAA rules allow for 13. Notre Dame coach Micah Shrewsberry has time, but not that much time, to fill out his roster.
Here are a few traits the Irish might be looking for in the transfer portal from now until November.
Experience
Toussaint and Mulcahy are both entering their fifth years of college basketball, and they’ve both played more than 120 games. They have a combined five NCAA Tournament appearances between them, and a non-canceled 2019-20 season could have added two more.
Notre Dame’s roster is quite young, with only two seniors, four freshmen and two sophomores (three, including redshirt sophomore J.R. Konieczny) on scholarship. While Shrewsberry likely intends to play his underclassmen significant minutes in an effort to build the team for the future, the Irish could use some more experienced players.
Ball handling
Notre Dame only has one true point guard on its roster: Markus Burton, a freshman from Mishawaka (Ind.) Penn. Mulcahy would have been one, as he averaged 5.3 and 4.9 assists in the past two seasons. Toussaint would have been one as well, averaging 2.9 in 2022-23.
Only a few point guards remain in the transfer portal. At the very high end, West Virginia (and before that, Arizona) transfer Kerr Kriisa entered June 23, and Jahvon Quinerly made the surprising decision to leave Alabama on June 26.
Kriisa and Quinerly may be too lofty for Notre Dame to target right now, coming off a difficult season, with a new head coach and an inexperienced roster. Other options include Youngstown State transfer Shemar Rathan-Mayes, California transfer Dejuan Clayton and UT-Arlington transfer Kyron Gibson.
Shooting
It is impossible to have too many 3-point shooters in college basketball. The only proven long-distance threat with experience at the college level that Notre Dame has right now is Northwestern transfer Julian Roper II, who shot an impressive 42.1 percent with the Wildcats. He only shot 1.3 3-pointers per game, though. Expect that number to rise in South Bend.
Shrewsberry has been recruiting several talented shooters in the 2024 and 2025 classes, securing a commitment from combo guard and 3-point specialist Cole Certa.
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