Moments after Marquette thumped Notre Dame 78-59 in an uncompetitive laugher in December, Golden Eagles coach Shaka Smart pulled Fighting Irish coach Micah Shrewsberry aside and whispered in his ear.
"You guys remind me of my group from a few years ago. Now keep 'em," was Smart's message, Shrewsberry recalled this week.
Shrewsberry doesn't take losing all that well so it may have taken a while for Smart's encouraging words to sink in, but in time it served as a valuable reminder that good things usually take time.
Time was something Shrewsberry was promised by the Notre Dame brass just over 18 months ago, when he was hired after coaching Penn State for two seasons and leading the Nittany Lions to the second round of the NCAA Tournament in 2023. It wasn't just lip service. A seven-year contract backed it up. Quick rebuilds don't just happen right away at a place like Notre Dame where rigorous academic standards make it harder than ever to get transfers through admissions.
"This isn't a place where it's going to be a transfer-heavy acceptance rate," Shrewsberry told CBS Sports. "It's unique here and different."
Shrewsberry, a former assistant for Matt Painter at Purdue, hoped to emulate that build-from-scratch gameplan utilized by the Boilermakers and Marquette that doubled down on high school recruiting while numerous competitors invested more and more resources into the transfer portal.
"It's an old-school approach," Shrewsberry said.
It's working. Notre Dame inked the No. 26 recruiting class in 2024, headlined by Sir Mohammed, a top-50-ranked, 6-foot-7 guard who has the pass-dribble-shoot attributes that Shrewsberry's system craves. The burgeoning 2024 class was just the start.
Notre Dame, the same program that went 13-20 last year and got 20-pieced by The Citadel, currently owns the No. 1-rated recruiting class in 2025, according to 247Sports. Five-star, two-way wing Jalen Haralson is the highest-rated player to commit to Notre Dame since 247Sports began ranking recruits in 2000.
"Coach Shrews was Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown's shooting coach at Boston and I feel like he can help me with my shooting and help me stay consistent," Haralson told 247Sports' national basketball director Eric Bossi. "He's a tough, hard-nosed coach but after practice, we are right back to family.
5⭐️ Jalen Haralson has committed to Notre Dame and the Fighting Irish ☘️ #GoIrish@JalenHaralson3 I @NDmbb I @LaLuBasketball pic.twitter.com/TKEpdd4uIE
— League Ready (@LeagueRDY) September 25, 2024
Haralson is the jewel, but four-star pledges like Ryder Frost, Tommy Ahneman and Brady Koehler all look like gems for how Notre Dame wants to play in the not-so-distant future.
"Sometimes, recruiting is like a water faucet," Shrewsberry said. "You can turn it on and get rolling. Sometimes, you need turning on. If it's not turned on, it's dry."
It's just another step in executing the plan that's been brewing in Shrewsberry's mind for months.
Transfer changes coming
Massive changes are coming to the transfer portal in the 2025 cycle. Transfers using their COVID year accounted for over 23% of the 2024 cycle, per Sports Illustrated's Kevin Sweeney. That provision is disappearing next year. The number of players who can transfer is dissipating and the merit of said transfers could be slightly down, too. Six of the top 10-ranked transfers (and 15 of the top 30) in CBS Sports' 2024 portal rankings are only eligible in 2024-25 because of the COVID year.
Even with the quality of the transfers likely decreasing, the name, image and likeness price for players in the portal will still be ridiculously high.
Notre Dame hopes its money moves on the recruiting trail could help it sidestep needing to lean on a 2025 portal cycle that might be filled with pitfalls.
"Our strategy isn't something that's brand new," Shrewsberry said. "People have been doing it for years, but if you go back to the NBA level, it's like signing people to a rookie contract. They're a little bit cost-controlled. You have them under your control for a little bit. Now, you gotta keep them. Keeping them is the most important thing, but you have to find guys that fit and pay them what they're worth, but the market gets crazy driven in the spring when the supply and demand is a lot different with what people are looking for. The transfers drive that cycle up a lot."
None of this works without player development and retention. Notre Dame is returning nearly 84% of its returning minutes from last season. That's a massive outlier in the 18-team ACC where Wake Forest and Pittsburgh are the only other programs returning more than 50% of their minutes.
Losing forward Carey Booth (who transferred to Illinois) was certainly a big blow, but the Irish return six of their top-seven scorers. Pair that with the ready-to-play 2024 recruiting class, a trio of transfers –– headlined by sharpshooting Princeton graduate transfer Matt Allocco –– and Notre Dame has all the pieces to be one of the nation's most improved teams in 2024-25.
"I think our guys believed in what we were doing, but they also believed in their teammates and the guys who were going to be their teammates," Shrewsberry said. "They could see the positives throughout last season and what we could look like going forward."
Irish raise 'Rally' flag
Notre Dame has a new NIL collective dubbed 'RALLY' that should arm Shrewsberry with more roster-building resources. While other programs will spend the big bucks in the portal, Notre Dame could use its NIL budget to retain some of its homegrown players, a strategy utilized early and often in college football where developing talent is crucial.
"That puts a little pressure on us like we have to sign the right guys," Shrewsberry said. "Guys that we believe in but also trust our development as a staff. When we get the right guys, they're going to get better and continue to grow in their games. I'm not frustrated (by the portal limitations). I knew what it was when I got here. We started a plan for this is how we're going to get this stability and how we're going to start building. Our plan right now is working."
Everyone wants to find the "right guys," but Shrewsberry has certain characteristics that he's eyeing when he sidles into crowded AAU games or empty open gyms in local high schools. Shrewsberry noted that all three of Notre Dame's current freshmen (Mohammed, Cole Certa and Garrett Sundra) come from winning high school programs and "high-demanding" AAU programs like Team Curry (Mohammed), Illinois Wolves (Certa) and Team Takeover (Sundra).
"I love to see guys get coached," Shrewsberry said. "I love to see the programs that they're in, the player development that they're doing and the emphasis on defense and toughness and little things. That stuff stands out to me. It's easy to see if a guy can play or not. Those intangibles, how he interacts with his teammates and how he reacts to coaching both and bad, is what we're searching for."
All that's left to do is maybe the hardest part. Win.
