Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM NOV. 23, 2024 47 BY JACK SOBLE A s it turns out, Jalen Haralson found Micah Shrewsberry before Shrews- berry found Haralson. In early January of Shrewsberry's and Notre Dame director of recruiting Brian Snow's first season together at Penn State, one of Haralson's high school coaches reached out to Snow on his behalf. Then a freshman at Fishers (Ind.) High, Haralson liked the way the Nittany Lions played. "We had just beaten Indiana," Snow said. "Which was, you know, a predictor of the future." Snow took Haralson's call, but he and Shrewsberry agreed it was a pipe dream. Haralson, attending school seven hours from Indianapolis? Yeah, right. Good luck with that. Little did they know that nearly three years later, that exchange would be the start of something special. On Nov. 13, Notre Dame signed its highest-ranked recruiting class in the modern era, with Haralson, a five-star guard, at its center. "We get the job here, and we just went full-in," Snow said. "Some of you think, 'Hey, you don't have much of a shot here.' And then, bam. We had a five- star kid reach out to us because he was interested in how we play." Haralson joins four-star forward Brady Koehler, four-star center Tommy Ahneman and four-star guard Ryder Frost as the No. 5 early signing class in men's college basketball, per the On3 Industry Team Recruiting Rankings. Notre Dame sold Haralson on coming to South Bend by making it a "basketball decision," Shrewsberry explained. He saw 6-foot-9 (Haralson is 6-foot-6) junior forward Tae Davis bringing the ball up the court and thought, "That could be me." He saw sophomore guard Markus Bur- ton scoring off pick-and-rolls and dribble handoffs and thought, "I could do that." Even on the Penn State film, he saw then-Nittany Lions and current Denver Nuggets guard Jalen Pickett posting up and playing "booty ball," as it was af- fectionately called in State College, Pa. He knew that style would play right into his hands. "I think he could see a clear fit that fit his game," Shrewsberry said. "There was clear and visual evidence that, 'My game fits how they coach.' I think that was one of the biggest selling points." Contrary to popular belief, Haralson was not the most difficult sell for the Irish. If that was anyone, it might have been Frost, due to the distance from his home in Massachusetts. None of them were easy, per se — if that's the case, Snow joked, you're recruiting the wrong kids — but all were receptive to Notre Dame. "All of them caused sleepless nights for us at different times, but it got done," Snow said. "The easiest sell had to be Brady because he's smart. He was raised well by his father, and he's a Ben- gals fan. I can talk to him about being a Bengals fan quite a bit." Notre Dame got Haralson, Frost and Koehler on campus the weekend of Sept. 7, when it closed the deal with all three of them. That weekend wasn't easy to pull off. It took a great deal of coordina- tion, with every detail planned out down to the newspaper the recruits held dur- ing their photo shoots. That newspaper read "Irish rally to stop UCLA streak," from the day Notre Dame became the first team to beat the Bruins in 88 games. Development and recruiting coordi- nator Grady Eifert somehow found that newspaper. Eifert and assistant to the head coach Tre Whitted, Shrewsberry said, are huge for the operation along- side associate head coach Kyle Getter and assistant coaches Ryan Owens and Mike Farrelly. "I tell all those recruits, they're the secret weapons to what we do, with their player development plans for when these guys get here and the amount of time that they put in on the court," Shrewsberry said. Ahneman visited three weeks later and committed during the second quar- ter of Notre Dame's win over Louisville, which had never happened to Shrews- berry before. The Midwestern big man was a late riser, and he didn't receive his Notre Dame offer until July 1. In most classes, but this one in particular, Snow ex- plained, there just weren't many tal- ented centers. The Irish looked every- where until they found Ahneman in Fargo, N.D., and knew he was someone they had to have. Ahneman will have time to develop behind junior forward Kebba Njie, just like Koehler will have time to develop behind Davis. Haralson, by all accounts, will fit in a backcourt with Burton like a glove. And in Frost, the Irish can never have enough shooters. S h rews b e r ry s t re sse d t h a t h e 's thrilled with the fit for the 2025 class with the current roster. But he also be- lieves it raises Notre Dame's ceiling. "If you look at the entire class, you see what we're trying to target," Shrews- berry said. "Skill, obviously, is really important for us, but the body types of bigger, taller, longer, more athletic." ✦ The Irish's Top-10 Recruiting Class Was Years In The Making Five-star prospect Jalen Haralson headlines the fifth- ranked early signing class in men's college basket- ball per the On3 Industry Team Recruiting Rankings. PHOTOS COURTESY ON3 MEN'S B A S K E T B A L L 2025 ON3 INDUSTRY TEAM RECRUITING RANKINGS As of Nov. 14 Rk. School Commits 1. Duke 4 2. Arkansas 2 3. Connecticut 4 4. Kentucky 3 5. Notre Dame 4 6. Florida 2 7. Baylor 1 8. Miami 2 9. Alabama 2 10. Kansas 2