ACC Basketball: Each team’s best acquisition out of 2023 transfer portal
Kebba Njie – 6’10 Forward/Center – Notre Dame Fighting Irish
Things are looking rather bleak for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish as they return just three players from last year’s squad while welcoming a slew of new additions. Kebba Njie joins the Fighting Irish out of the transfer portal after spending the 2022-23 season with the Penn State Nittany Lions in the Big Ten.
He’ll look to provide size on the interior on a Notre Dame squad that will need an interior presence of his stature. At 6-foot-10 and 237 pounds, Njie certainly holds the potential to pose issues for opposing players in the frontcourt.
In his best outing this past season, he showed his potential to be a presence around the rim and an ability to get to the free throw line. He put up a season-best 12 points along with six rebounds and two assists back on Nov. 10, 2022 against Loyola (MD). He went 4-of-5 from the floor and 4-of-5 from the free throw line in 16 minutes of action.
On the shot-blocking front, he’s shown flashes of his ability as a rim-protecting presence. He swatted a career-high four blocks back on Dec. 22, 2022 against Quinnipiac.
He put up 3.4 ppg and 3.5 rpg on 52 percent shooting from the field across just 14.3 minutes per contest across 37 appearances for the Nittany Lions this past season. With plenty of opportunity for minutes ahead of him and experience under his belt, look for Njie to be an emerging face on the interior to get to know with Notre Dame in 2023-24.
It could be a struggle for Notre Dame this upcoming season as they’ll be without four double-figure scorers from a season ago and a lot of holes to fill with the departure of head coach Mike Brey.