While he’s been head coach of Notre Dame for three years now, Micah Shrewsberry is still looking for that breakthrough with the Fighting Irish. He did fantastic work at Penn State and has been coaching basketball in his home state for a few decades, but Notre Dame has been a work in progress, with a 41-56 mark through three seasons. Last season, the Fighting Irish tied for 16th place in the ACC and really scuffled.
Hit hard by the transfer portal, Notre Dame watched Markus Burton, Cole Certa, and Jalen Haralson all find new homes in the offseason. The news isn’t all bad in South Bend as it was far from an empty cupboard this offseason for the Fighting Irish. Star guard Braeden Shrewsberry is back for his senior year while Brady Koehler returns in the frontcourt after showing promise as a freshman last season.
Other new faces in South Bend
Among the new faces, 4-star point guard Jonathan Sanderson likely carves out a role while Notre Dame added a number of transfers as well. The team really needed upgrades in the frontcourt and are hoping for dependability from Winthrop center Logan Duncomb, a former Indiana transfer, and Ethan Roberts, an Illinois native who starred out at Penn.
We could easily highlight one of those two players and their importance but we’re instead thinking about Braeden Smith. A 6-0 point guard from Seattle, he had two phenomenal seasons at Colgate and was even Patriot League Player of the Year back in 2024, averaging 12.5 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 5.6 assists as a sophomore. Smith then redshirted and transferred closer to home at Gonzaga but didn’t become that same type of playmaker with the Bulldogs this past season.
What he brings to the Irish
Notre Dame adds Smith into the fold, hoping his veteran experience and leadership becomes a major boon for the program. Shrewsberry is expecting to shoulder the scoring load but giving him a reliable backcourt partner sets the Fighting Irish up for more potential success. Smith at his best is an excellent scorer and distributor and could create quite the 1-2 punch if he can recreate some of what he accomplished with Colgate a few years back.
This isn’t a roster anyone’s going to expect to win the ACC or be nationally relevant, but Micah Shrewsberry really needs his son and the rest of this talent to come together. Adding a veteran presence like Smith at the point was the banner move of the offseason even if Notre Dame also needs some of those new pieces at the back end to step up too.
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