2025-2026 ND Basketball Thread

[WMassIrish]

I simply don't know how you can retain him after last night. If they were playing inspired basketball. Playing hard. In games, keep him. This is only going to get worse unfortunately. I just don't understand. He was a X/O savant at Penn State. I am flabbergasted on bad he and the team has been. Taking his son, was his first mistake...

I am biased, but it’s Jalen Pickett’s fault. As a Siena College alum/season ticket holder, Pickett was the coach on the court.

Pickett got Carmen marciello promoted from assistant to head coach at Siena partially to try and retain Pickett. When Pickett left for PSU, Carm got fired after. Pickett helped get Shrews the ND job. Without Pickett, he’s going to get fired.

 

[BruinDomer]

I was surprised to learn that ND one of the top 10 winningest programs of all time. To be fair, that’s not winning %age…just wins. But I was still pleasantly surprised. They’ve had two top five draft picks: Austin Carr (#1 overall) & LaPhonso Ellis (#5 overall). They also have one Hall-of-Famer in Adrian Dantley. All that doesn’t sound like a lot. Compare it to other schools & you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

For example, the University of Arkansas is considered a basketball school by most. They can claim a national championship in the early 90s. They followed that up w/ a runner-up finish the following season. They had some historic runs under Hall of Fame Coaches Eddie Sutton & Nolan Richardson. But they’ve only had one top five pick & only one Hall-of-Famer: Sidney Moncrief. I think a lot of ND fans conflate the football program w/ the basketball program historically. ND is not as bad historically at men’s basketball as it appears right now. Especially with younger fans.

The problem is the "younger fans" that you're referencing are not that young anymore. The names you mentioned as examples of our success did not play at ND during the conscious life of anyone 40 years or younger. ND fans having kids are left telling stories about Luke Harangody and Bonzie Colson and their kids are saying "who"? There's no appeal to the ND basketball program. Basketball is a far more star-driven sport than football so throw in the typical ND recruiting hurdles and I just don't see how we will ever build a competent roster outside of hitting lightning in a bottle like we did in 2015-2016.

Also I'm a Thunder fan so I'm aware that Isaiah Joe and Jaylin Williams went to Arkansas but Moses Moody, Anthony Black, Nick Smith, Bobby Portis and others went first round recently. Recency bias matters here.

Edit: I should say I'm using NBA draft results and NBA visibility as a proxy here. Obviously you can have college success without NBA stars but to build a solid program imo, you'll need to show some level of NBA success and professional development. ND hasn't done that recently and until we hit on a top recruit or develop NBA talent, we'll struggle mightily here.

 

[BruinDomer]

This is not the case of schools cooling. Of the 4 star recruits in ‘24 and ‘25

• ND beat out Indiana and MSU as the top 3 for Haralson.
• ND beat out Villanova and Virginia Tech for Sir Mo
• ND beat out Wisconsin, Michigan, and Syracuse for Ryder Frost
• ND beat out Virginia Tech and Iowa for Brady Koehler
• ND beat out Illinois and Nebraska for Certa

Sure, they’re not beating Duke or Kansas head to head anytime soon, but they’re consistently beating out their peers who are all performing better than them on the court.

ND basketball may have some limitations for sure being a football school. Those limitations shouldn’t have them worse than the top half of the ACC with consistency.

The talent is young but it’s not getting developed. I have zero faith in him as in game coach. So if all he can do is get the players here (which I am overstating anyway since he can’t get them in the portal), he needs to go.

I'm not sure. Our recruiting situation is bad when compared to other ACC schools. If you're going to go play basketball for 1-4 years in some place, NC, Virginia, SC or other coastal locales seems like a better place to do it. Unlike football where we can overcome the built-in recruiting obstacles cuz of historical and recent success, tradition, draft success, etc., we just don't have any way to overcome the recruiting disadvantages in men's basketball. Maybe I'm still bitter they took away Rolf's from the students for this program, but I just don't see it changing any time soon.

 

[Irish#1]

How much revenue does our basketball program generate? I’ve no clear idea.

How much more would it generate if we spent enough on transfers to become, say, a middle-of-the-pack ACC team that contends for Tournament slots?

Again, I don’t really know. Sure we’d sell more tickets but what beyond that?

I wouldn’t be shocked if they’ve run the numbers and decided the ROI isn’t there right now, and so they’d rather invest in football and in sports where we can realistically compete for titles for less money.

Yeah, I have no idea how much it generates, but BB is typically the second largest revenue stream behind FB. Win more = sell more tickets = generate more interest = sell more merch.

I'm not sure why ND would pick MBB to treat like the proverbial red headed stepchild, but it doesn't make sense to me that they would do this. I think this is just a lousy coaching job by Shrews.

 

[PolishDomer]

Maybe I'm still bitter they took away Rolf's from the students for this program, but I just don't see it changing any time soon.

whoa whoa...what happened? its not around anymore?

 

[Pete]

whoa whoa...what happened? its not around anymore?

Rolf’s was converted into the basketball practice facility. I believe the new student workout center is in one of the buildings that was built around the football stadium.

 

[stlnd01]

Rolf’s was converted into the basketball practice facility. I believe the new student workout center is in one of the buildings that was built around the football stadium.

Back in my day Rolfs was for students (including an excellent pickup game scene in the wintertime), and the basketball team practiced somewhere in the bowels of the JACC, and they won more games. Coincidence?

 

[Irish Norseman]

The Micah Shrewsberry era is Charlie Weis Era 2.0 minus the good start. Great recruiter who can get high end talent but roster gaps everywhere. Both blew out their legs and will have to hobble around on the sidelines. Now it’s inevitable that Micah will last one more year and then get canned like Charlie did.

 

[RDU Irish]

Noie knows ND basketball. He knows where the real problems lie.

Strongly disagree with this take. We have more talent and depth than Brey was fielding for most of his time at ND. We are obviously paying enough to get the talent to compete in the ACC. I've seen some terrible ND basketball rosters over the years (John MacLeod, Matt Doherty anyone?). Matt Gotsch trying to break 200 pounds. Marcus Young trying out FTs granny style to try to get over 50% from the charity stripe. That's well before Brey struggled to put together serviceable seven man rotations that frequently got derailed by a key injury or two. Culture falls on coach - this team sucks.

 

[SeekNDestroy]

Strongly disagree with this take. We have more talent and depth than Brey was fielding for most of his time at ND. We are obviously paying enough to get the talent to compete in the ACC. I've seen some terrible ND basketball rosters over the years (John MacLeod, Matt Doherty anyone?). Matt Gotsch trying to break 200 pounds. Marcus Young trying out FTs granny style to try to get over 50% from the charity stripe. That's well before Brey struggled to put together serviceable seven man rotations that frequently got derailed by a key injury or two. Culture falls on coach - this team sucks.

Remember the Ross brothers and Brooks Boyer? That was quite a team; Digger had given up recruiting apparently.

 

[RDU Irish]

Remember the Ross brothers and Brooks Boyer? That was quite a team; Digger had given up recruiting apparently.

Still couldn't manage to lose by 46 points at home. Ever.

 

[stpeteirish]

Noie has been covering ND hoops for a very long time, but that doesn't mean he's correct here. As some one who has been reading his stuff for the entire time I can weigh in: Noie never blames the coach when we suck, its always some outside factor or the administration. Always.
Actually makes sense when you consider he's been the beat guy for the SBTrib for most of this time. And basically the only one, so he gets access no one else has and he blows the access by blaming the coach.

Anybody who thinks Burton and Haralson aren't being paid market value is delusional. We suck because Shrewsberry sucks.

 

[irishandy]

A top 6 team in the ACC Conference with a 19-9 record should've been a win for NC St. yesterday; glad that it could be ND that gave them a bad loss.

Great game yesterday
- it was louder than Duke
- Haralson played like a 5*
- Certa is due for a raise in the offseason
- if this wasn't Pat Garrity's first year as the GM Shrewsberry would be gone, I still think you give him 1 more year
- football autographs courtesy of Loghan Thomas, Bubba Frazier, Logan Saldate, Leonard Moore, Cooper Flanagan, Preston Fryzel, & Tionne Gray:

 

[BeatSC]

A top 6 team in the ACC Conference with a 19-9 record should've been a win for NC St. yesterday; glad that it could be ND that gave them a bad loss.

Great game yesterday
- it was louder than Duke
- Haralson played like a 5*
- Certa is due for a raise in the offseason
- if this wasn't Pat Garrity's first year as the GM Shrewsberry would be gone, I still think you give him 1 more year
- football autographs courtesy of Loghan Thomas, Bubba Frazier, Logan Saldate, Leonard Moore, Cooper Flanagan, Preston Fryzel, & Tionne Gray:

Could you just get Leonard Moore’s signature or did you have to go thru the other guys first to get Leonard’s? Didn't exactly role out our all stars. No comments here on the actual game? Not to mention the wildly inconsistent play of this team? They have shown when hot they can compete with almost anyone except Duke on their schedule. How do they get coaches to do that for 30 games?

 

[Irish Norseman]

It’s funny to look at the Bracketology and see TCU and Missouri as the last 4 in and ND beat them. Also to see Cal and OSU in the next 4 out group. This should be a tournament team IF everyone comes back and stays healthy.

 

[irishandy]

Could you just get Leonard Moore’s signature or did you have to go thru the other guys first to get Leonard’s? Didn't exactly role out our all stars. No comments here on the actual game? Not to mention the wildly inconsistent play of this team? They have shown when hot they can compete with almost anyone except Duke on their schedule. How do they get coaches to do that for 30 games?

This is the 2nd time I've gotten Leonard Moore's autograph- the first time was just him at a Verizon store. When ND does these autographs the signees are all sitting by each other and there is a table that whatever you have to have them sign they all sign it.

I did comment on the game- Purcell being loud, Haralson & Certa. This was a good win for the program, a needed win.

Yes this team has played inconsistent this year- we've all seen it and complained about it all year. Yesterday they pulled out a gutsy win vs. a team that should've won the game.

This team has gone in a ton of spurts showing they can compete with almost anyone but Duke. I want to see what Shrews can do with a (hopeful) healthy Burton, a (hopeful) return of Haralson- he is not ready for the NBA, and if these guys stay figuiring out what 5 guys he can put on the court to win. Getting rid of Shrewsberry, finding someone new thinking that will solve the problem of not winning is not the answer right now. I think getting new blood on the coaching staff would be a good start.

 

[stpeteirish]

It’s funny to look at the Bracketology and see TCU and Missouri as the last 4 in and ND beat them. Also to see Cal and OSU in the next 4 out group. This should be a tournament team IF everyone comes back and stays healthy.

Big if but we'd be a midpack ACC team with Haralson and Burton all year. Next year's team could be good with those guys back and competent or better portal additions at point guard and center. (another big if)
I doubt if the incoming freshman are going to solve the problem at those two spots.