ACC Basketball: Louisville, Wake Forest rise in updated way-too-early ranking for 2024-25

12. Notre Dame Fighting Irish

The Irish finished with seven wins in ACC play and compared to the low preseason expectations, that was considered a “win” for first-year head coach Micah Shrewsberry. And that’s mainly because of the development of freshmen guards, Markus Burton and Braeden Shrewsberry.

Both of them are back, with Burton (17.5 ppg and 4.3 apg), being a darkhorse ACC Basketball Player of the Year, depending on where the Irish finish in the standings next season. Also back are rotation players JR Konieczny and Julian Roper, along with the addition of Princeton transfer Matt Allocco, who averaged 12.7 ppg on 42% shooting from deep.

How good Notre Dame will be next season will depend on the new-look frontcourt, which was a major weakness on the roster last year. Tae Davis (9.2 ppg and 5.1 rpg) was the best forward and is back for another year, while Matt Zona and Carey Booth are replaced by transfers Nikita Konstantynovskyi (9.3 ppg and 8.1 rpg at Monmouth) and Burke Chebuhar from Lehigh.

If the frontcourt is better and the young guards take an expected leap, the Irish very well could move up a few spots. But since these bigs don’t spread the floor much, it’s going to be hard to maximize the spacing potential. That’s going to be something to watch with this team.