Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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36 DECEMBER 2025 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED BY JACK SOBLE AND TYLER JAMES N otre Dame saw what championship basketball looked like when Hous- ton guard Emanuel Sharp outhustled its guards for a loose ball. Sharp, a redshirt senior and one of the most dangerous three-point marksmen in the country, is No. 3 Houston's lead- ing scorer. He and the Cougars came within an inch of the national cham- pionship last year. And yet Sharp, in a sparsely attended weekday regular- season game against Notre Dame in Las Vegas, was putting his body on the line in ways the Fighting Irish did not. Sharp dove for the basketball and corralled it on the floor, retaining pos- session on one of Houston's 16 offensive rebounds that day. The ball eventually found its way to sixth-year forward Ka- lifa Sakho, who made a layup to put the Cougars back up by 13. Plays like that stuck with Notre Dame head coach Micah Shrewsberry, even after his team shrunk what was once a 26-4 Houston lead to as few as four points. "If you have aspirations of playing real basketball in March, this is what it looks like," Shrewsberry said. "Every loose ball. You gotta run through it. You gotta run through people. That's what March looks like. Until you start to do it every possession, you'll always be a step slow or a step short." It certainly wasn't all bad for the Irish at the Players Era Championship in Las Vegas, where they went 1-2 with losses to Kansas and Houston and a win over Rutgers. There were even positive signs during that loss to the defending na- tional runner-up. Mounting that come- back against a team as good as the Cou- gars was impressive, particularly when it looked like Notre Dame was about to get run out of the gym. But if there's one lesson from Feast Week to take back to South Bend, it is this: To reach that standard of champi- onship-level basketball, the Irish have a long way to go. "I don't enjoy playing Houston," Shrewsberry said. "I don't think any- body does. But you need games like this for your program. You need it. "We have young guys that need to see this up close and personal and say, 'This is what championship-level basketball looks like.'" FRONTCOURT FEARS CONFIRMED VERSUS KANSAS To be fair to Notre Dame, the only teams on its schedule with a front- court on Kansas' level are Duke (Cam- eron Boozer and Patrick Ngongba) and North Carolina (Caleb Wilson and Henri Veesaar). But its matchup with Jayhawks forwards Bryson Tiller and Flory Bidunga went exactly the way you expected and feared it would. Bidunga was a complete terror. He scored 18 points, grabbed 9 rebounds (3 offensive), dished 5 assists and blocked 5 shots. When Notre Dame forward and rebounder extraordinaire Carson Towt found himself in early foul trouble — another concern observers had for this season — the Fighting Irish simply could not defend him. At one point, Bidunga blocked Notre Dame junior guard Markus Burton and raced down to the other end for a bucket. As he did so, Burton grabbed him in a manner that was ruled flagrant (he didn't go for the ball). Bidunga hit the ensuing two free throws and proceeded to knock down another post bucket, meaning he scored 6 points in one possession. The Ko- komo, Ind., product is so athletic that when he switched onto Burton, it wasn't a mismatch. Tiller added 17 points and 9 rebounds, and while he was more vulnerable de- fensively than Bidunga, his contribu- tions as a scorer and on the glass were huge. Notre Dame tried to double team Bidunga, but too often he would just Irish Fall Short Versus Tough Competition In Las Vegas, Have A Long Way To Go MEN'S B A S K E T B A L L Emanuel Sharp and the Houston Cougars showed Logan Imes and Notre Dame what championship-level basketball looks like en route to a 66-56 victory over the Irish in the Players Era Championship Nov. 26. PHOTO COURTESY HOUSTON ATHLETICS