Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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54 PRESEASON 2024 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED MEN'S BASKETBALL BY JACK SOBLE S tar Notre Dame point guard Markus Burton didn't have to think about the first question of his first press con- ference as a sophomore for long. He looked up, let out an "uh." But af- ter a short pause, he gave a matter-of- fact answer to the reporter who asked, "What's different about this team?" "We definitely have a lot more tal- ent," Burton said. "The talent level is way higher than what it was last year." Blunt, for sure. But it's what Burton and the Irish believe. He and Notre Dame head coach Mi- cah Shrewsberry have a renewed sense of confidence as they advance through summer practice, and it has everything to do with the six newcomers and six other returners on the roster. "There's competition," Shrewsberry said. "When I come out to practice and I look at the dude across from me, there's a real basketball player standing across from me." That runs in contrast to the 2023-24 team that finished 13-20 overall and 7-13 in the Atlantic Coast Conference while relying on 10 scholarship players — nine of whom played regular minutes. To improve the backcourt and add critical experience, Notre Dame added graduate student guard Matt Allocco from Princeton. The Irish can already feel his impact, both on and off the court. "Our practices have been really fun because of how competitive they've been, and [Allocco is] a big part of that," Shrewsberry said. "He's talking nonstop." Graduate student forward Nikita Konstantynovskyi is here to push junior Kebba Njie at center, and graduate stu- dent forward Burke Chebuhar will add depth and shooting to the frontcourt. All three transfer additions will ei- ther definitely play (Allocco and Kon- stantynovskyi) or compete for playing time (Chebuhar). Combined with three freshmen, they may force Shrewsberry to make some difficult decisions when cutting off his rotation. "It's hard to play 14 people," Shrews- berry said. Even the sheer numbers should pro- vide a boost for the Irish, who can feel the effects of their depth already. The Irish were one of the slowest teams in college basketball last season, finishing the year 339th nationally in fast-break points (there are 351 teams in Division I). That should change this year. "We're playing at a much quicker pace than we were," Shrewsberry said. "Part of that is we've named a lot of people [who can play]. It's hard to play that many guys. … I told them, 'In order for us to play like this, our tempo and our pace has gotta improve.'" From Burton's perspective in par- ticular, his job shouldn't be as difficult as it was last season. Even in an ACC Rookie of the Year campaign, he led the conference in turnovers — in large part because his usage rate was the highest among all high-major players. Notre Dame didn't have anywhere else to turn. That's going to change, and Burton believes it will make him more efficient. "Our team this year is extremely bet- ter," Burton said. "It's so much fun, playing with players that know the game. They know basketball. They know what to do on the court. "For example, Matt, Braeden [Shrews- berry], Tae [Davis], Julian [Roper II], all those guys, Kebba, they all know the game. I might be leaving people out — our freshmen, Nikita, they all know the game. "So, it's easier for me and it's more re- lief, due to the fact that I can trust those guys to handle a lot of pressure." Notre Dame has looked better on offense this summer than it did last season, both Shrewsberry and Burton maintain. No real surprise there; there was nowhere to go but up after being the 342nd-best scoring offense in Divi- sion I. But Shrewsberry said the ball is moving throughout a summer that has been offense-focused in terms of what drills the Irish have been running. Above all, Notre Dame's young core needs to learn how to win. Competi- tion-based segments throughout the summer will help; Shrewsberry ex- plained that each practice has a "teach- ing" component and a "winning" com- ponent. Putting his players in those situations as the calendar moves closer to November, Shrewsberry believes, will contribute to success in the winter. The core group already went through some of those situations, though, last season. Most of the time, especially early, they failed. But those experiences will help them as they move into Year 2 of Notre Dame's building process. "They're really helpful to know, like, 'This is gonna work. This isn't gonna work,'" Shrewsberry said. "'I know it's not gonna work, because we lost, be- cause I was doing this.' Growing through some of the pains of last year, I think it'll help this group take a step forward." ✦ Fighting Irish Feature More Talented, Deeper Group Notre Dame head coach Micah Shrewsberry noted this summer, "Our practices have been really fun because of how competitive they've been." PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER