Tom NoieSouth Bend Tribune
SOUTH BEND — Welcome to September, when everything about men’s college basketball gets serious.
At least from a recruiting standpoint.
For head coaches and their staff, it started on Labor Day when many met to finalize September strategies. Who’s going on the road? Who’s coming to campus? Wednesday was the first day coaches could visit prospects. For Notre Dame men’s basketball and head coach Micah Shrewsberry, it rolls into this weekend, the first weekend that college football returns to campus.
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Football aside, this is Notre Dame’s largest official recruiting visit weekend since Shrewsberry was named head coach in March 2023. Shrewsberry has yet to do this September dance with prep seniors. Last year at this time, an Irish recruiting class that ranked as high as 26th nationally (247Sports), was locked down. Notre Dame cornered commitments from guards Cole Certa and Sir Mohammed and power forward Garrett Sundra all by Aug. 10, 2023. They signed in November and arrived in June.
Who’s next as another national signing day (November 13) nears?
Three prep seniors make official campus visits this weekend – Ryder Frost, a 6-foot-6, 205-pound swingman from Phillips Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire by way of Beverly, Massachusetts and a pair of Indiana natives — Jalen Haralson, a 6-7, 205-pound combo guard from Fishers, set to start his second year at La Lumiere School in nearby LaPorte and Brady Koehler, a 6-9, 180-pound lefty combo forward from Indianapolis Cathedral (Shrewsberry’s alma mater).
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Notre Dame received an official visit last weekend from guard Kayden Mingo, a consensus four-star, Top 50 prospect from Glen Head, New York (Long Island Lutheran High School).
Shrewsberry can offer four scholarships to current high schools (or eventual college transfers) for 2025. He could sign as many as six with some creative roster management. That class, and the ones that follow, will include mainly high school seniors. Maybe only high school seniors. Notre Dame will continue to monitor the transfer portal, but Shrewsberry will lean more toward developing high school players as prospects than the quick fix of the portal.
“We have to hit on freshmen,” Shrewsberry said. “We have to keep them here and develop them.”
Frost played AAU on the Under Armour circuit for head coach Michael Crotty and the Middlesex (Massachusetts) Magic, which has had a pipeline to Notre Dame since 2010. Former Irish swingman Pat Connaughton played for the Magic. So did former Irish guard Cormac Ryan. Dominic Campbell spent one year at Notre Dame before transferring to Howard.
What makes Frost possibly the next in that line?
“Every single thing,” Crotty said. “Who he is as a person, his work ethic, his talent. He’s an ideal young man at everything.”
Notre Dame is one of seven schools Frost has or will officially visit (no longer is there a five-school visit limit). He's seen Iowa and Virginia Tech. He saw Michigan last weekend. He'll see Notre Dame this weekend and Wisconsin the next. He’s not queried Crotty about Notre Dame, a place the coach knows very well, for obvious reasons.
“He’s been on such a whirlwind tour; I’ve never had a guy visit more than five schools,” Crotty said. “He’s just been going so fast since the end of August; we haven’t had a lot of time to debrief.”
Crotty could tell during the 2023 AAU season that Frost, who reclassified to spend an additional year in high school, was ticketed to be a high Division I recruit. Frost’s game — and his recruiting — took off this spring, but it was last spring when he really became a player by taking it slowly, even if that meant it best he back up Ryan Mela, now at Providence.
“It just showed me how strong his mental approach to the game was,” Crotty said. “He was willing to jump off a Top 10 team in the country to play with our sophom*ore group because he knew it was better for himself and the team. I remember thinking, ‘Wow, this kid’s got a level of understanding about the process that’s at an extremely high level.’”
Crotty believes Frost is the best shooter in the class. Right now.
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Haralson and Koehler were AAU teammates with the Indy Heat on the Nike EYBL circuit.
“They’re taking this recruiting process with a more traditional approach,” Heat coach Jon Avery said. “They’re not concerned with the highest bidder. They’re more concerned with the best fit for them.”
Fit on the basketball court has long mattered for Koehler, who averaged 15.5 points, 6.5 rebounds and 2.3 blocks as a prep junior. He often affects games in other ways than scoring. He’ll rebound. He’ll block shots. He’ll find the open man. He’ll guard. He plays.
Avery has watched Koehler since he was in middle school. He just started coaching him with the Heat this past spring/summer circuit. The more he watched Koehler, the more he was reminded of former Utah Jazz swingman and 11-year veteran Andrei Kirilenko with what he can do. Maybe not anything great, but a lot very well.
“He can dominate the game in more ways than just scoring,” Avery said. “It’s his unique strength. Probably last spring and summer (of 2023), I was like, ‘OK, he’s not just a mid-major. He’s a high major, change your program type of talent.’”
A consensus four-star recruit by the three major services — ESPN.com, Rivals and 247 — Koehler is ranked as high as 65th (247). He’s already seen Northwestern and Iowa.
Haralson is a unicorn, at least when it comes to the kind of player that Notre Dame men’s basketball recruits. Or, for too long, didn’t recruit. He’s a consensus five-star, Top 10 prospect and has been ranked as high as seventh nationally. Kids like that often don’t give Notre Dame a first look let alone a second or a third.
Notre Dame is in Haralson’s final seven alongside Auburn, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan State, Missouri and Purdue. He averaged 16.3 points, 6.7 rebounds and 5.3 assists last season, his first at La Lu. He also carried a 3/1 assist/turnover ratio and shot 41 percent from 3.
“He’s special,” Avery said. “He’s a rarity. What he’s done over this past year to become a consistent 3-point shooter has really set him apart from everyone in his class.”
That Koehler and Haralson are two of a handful of Indiana kids with Notre Dame on their final wish lists is no accident. Shrewsberry has made it a point to recruit his home state. Not like the previous coaching staff did — occasionally getting a V.J. Beachem or a Demetrius Jackson or a Chris Thomas or Luke Zeller — but every single cycle. This year is the first full year Notre Dame has been all over Indiana. Irish coaches have been everywhere. It shows. People notice.
For so long in basketball recruiting, it’s been the big two — Indiana or Purdue. Purdue or Indiana. Notre Dame may soon join that group and make it a Big Three.
“If it comes down to IU, Notre Dame and Purdue, you think, what’s the best decision for me, but also, what staff is going to invest the most time in my development? Which staff is going to make sure that I succeed?” Avery said. “I will put Coach Shrewsberry and his staff at the top of the list.”
Follow South Bend Tribune and NDInsider columnist Tom Noie on Twitter: @tnoieNDI. Contact: (574) 235-6153.
