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Brey got canned. He's got information, but he's in too deep IMO.

Who has improved under Shrews coaching?

you bring in top 100 kids and from the few games I watched, I was trying to figure out how they were ranked in the top 100.

Burton chasing money could mean that after two injuries his NBA stock isn't what it was and he needs to get paid now.

Haralson isn't a great 3 point shooter and that's what's needed in today's NBA.

I don't blame kids who see a huge pay day if their pro careers aren't going to take off.

Lastly, this team didn't even make the ACC tournament but we should run it back?

But if IU is spending $25MM for their roster then I'd argue that's a fucking complete waste of money. I think Darian DeVries will get it figured out but the juice has to be at least halfway worth the squeeze.

I just hate this notion that Tom fabricates: money spent = success for the program.

Clearly there had to be some money already at Shrews' disposal because he was having some success on the recruiting trail. But at some point, capital, resources, commitment, and support has to be meritocratic.

I just don't subscribe to this idea that ND spends at the bottom of the conference. But let's pretend that's true for a second, I also don't believe that if you keep the status quo intact sans increasing spending and all of a sudden ND is returning to the elite 8 again.

It's some really twisted logic going on.

Let's start with the premise that just about everyone on the roster knows what everyone else is doing. I don't think that's unreasonable to assume.

Noie claims that the first 3 out the door left for playing time reasons. Then states that the next 3 are leaving for more money.

If everyone knows what everyone is doing, why would the first 3 leave for "playing time?" Clearly there's going to be plenty of minutes if 3 starters are walking out the door.

The whole article smacks of excuse-making and covering for the coaching staff.

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College basketball is watered down, a shell of what it used to be in its heyday. I'd rather ND spend money on students and sprinkle it across other sports.

After Cuse fired Autry, claiming that $10-$12MM per year is the starting point, and the elite programs are really closer to $20MM.

Who knows if he's right, but some of the numbers thrown around recently about IU, Tennessee, etc. spending had them in the $25MM neighborhood for the roster. IU's was inflated a bit by including the buyout numbers from Woodson's contract.

Upgrading the investment works if you are sure you have someone that might actually be able to do something with it. I don't' expect to see a championship run with where we are at, but at least show me upward trajectory and a winning season with a tourney appearance. If you can do that, then sure, talk about enhanced investments in the program to get us over the hump.

To take the football angle, I have no doubt that there are contingencies that go along with the resources the football program might be getting. Marcus wins, and he elevates the players/coaches around him. He's also a great representative of the University. It should not be shocking that the admin sees that as a good investment.

Like, how is this even a logical take? We've been a dogshit program for the last 2 years and your solution is....run this back?!?!? But spending even more to do so!?!?!? What!??!

Nothing about that makes sense.

Regarding your other takeaway, about ROI, that was discussed here last week and some great points were made:

https://bluegraysky.com/forum/index.php?mode=thread&id=581034#p581066

I don't know if it makes sense.

But I have another issue/question on this: how do we even know if this is true? Because Tom Noie says so?

I think we're caught in a little bit of a vortex where there is this projection of pinning past ills on every subsequent regime and it stays there into perpetuity.

- Rolfs was long overdue, the Pit sucked. But this is a nice facility:

https://fightingirish.com/rolfs-athletics-hall/

- Micah Shrewsberry allegedly makes $4+MM annually ( https://www.on3.com/college/notre-dame-fighting-irish/news/micah-shrewsberry-receive-7-... )

This ranks him close to the top 20 in college basketball: https://sportsdata.usatoday.com/ncaa/salaries/mens-basketball/coach

- ND's reported spending to the NCAA puts them in the top quartile of the ACC

https://ope.ed.gov/athletics/#/institution/details

The one area we don't know is NIL/roster spend. All we get is guys like Noie complaining about the capital spend but doesn't offer up anything tangible. But we know that Markus Burton turned down other NIL offers to return and we also know ND landed a top10 class last year. That doesn't happen without spending. But if $10MM is what it takes, is it worth it?

https://www.cbssports.com/college-basketball/news/the-10-million-club-college-basketbal...

Given the pro options that are available much earlier than football, it was always hanging on by a thread fully cut by NIL and the transfer portal. Without instituting multi-year commitments, can any team avoid ~75% or greater churn in their roster? Women's basketball is avoiding this a bit, but I dunno for how long.

Men's hoops is really where all the bad downstream effects have collected, and coupled with ND's run of form it does nothing for me anymore.

I really can't believe that a similar pitch just doesn't work for basketball players. Is Freeman just really THAT good at selling it?

The way he's framing this. But the thing I want to keep coming back to is this - basically Noie is saying the administration doesn't make the (monetary) effort to field a winning basketball program. And the evidence he presents for this is that we aren't paying the current players on the team enough.

But these players, at least coached by this coach, haven't been successful. At all. How is throwing them a bunch more money going to make them better basketball players? Is that a valuable investment into the program?

The bigger "problem" here, as I see it, is that, if Noie is correct, and $10MM/year for the roster is the MINIMUM investment needed to be competitive, I just don't see the return here. Basketball is not football - even a winning (ie, going to the tourney regularly) program wouldn't bring in the type of money to justify that type of spending. And for the types of numbers that this would involve, the players would be making more than football players, and more than their coaches. I recognize that this is occasionally happening in football. But these numbers would make it the norm in hoops.

If all of this is the new reality, I'm just not sure that ND can compete in this environment. And frankly, not quite sure that they should. I recognize that this is all a bit defeatist, but at least we had 2015...

"That is college basketball today. This four for 40 stuff that Notre Dame so trumpets was nice while it lasted, but it ran its course even before former head coach Mike Brey decided that it was time to get out after 23 seasons and 483 wins."

Hey, Tom. You can stop schilling for a coach after he's been fired for 3 years.

EDIT: Apologies Jeremy, I just realized the article I posted was exactly what you summarized above. I thought the full context was helpful in understanding Tom's deluded perspective.

TL;DR

- "ND Admin hates ND men's basketball!"
- How do you arrive at this conclusion? "Well, they keep losing and fans don't show up."
- But doesn't ND Admin make material investments in other sports like Football, Lacrosse, Hockey (an issue for another day), Soccer, Fencing, etc.? "YES!!! See that's exactly my point! They only hate NDMBB!"
- But didn't Micah Shrewsberry sign a pretty ridiculous deal (7 years/$28MM)? "Yeah, but you have to invest in the players!"
- Didn't we land a top 10 class for 2025? "Yeah, but you need to land portal guys and keep your good veterans."
- Didn't Markus Burton return twice after being highly coveted and receiving a nice NIL payday? "Yeah, but...."
- I don't get this then? "Well, you just need to throw millions more at these current players to keep them on the roster, run it back, and hope that will maybe work out. All I know is the ND Admin hates ND MBB and won't make an investment in the sport."
- ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

https://www.southbendtribune.com/story/sports/college/basketball/2026/03/25/notre-dame-...

Roster turnover for Notre Dame basketball may finally open some eyes

SOUTH BEND ― In case the Notre Dame administration decided it best to hit the snooze button after that February wake-up call about its basketball program, the alarm clock is chirping again.

If it wasn’t enough that Notre Dame basketball lost to top-ranked Duke last month at home by 44 points, the largest margin of victory in Purcell Pavilion history, this week happened. Is happening.

Does anyone across campus care?

In just over a recent 24-hour stretch, Notre Dame saw three players enter the transfer portal, the same number it lost in two previous seasons combined under head coach Micah Shrewsberry. Three transfers down, at least three transfers to go. Maybe tomorrow or the next day or early next month, but there will be more. Bad news is on the doorstep.

This round is just the start. This next round will cut the program to its core. It will set it back seasons. Hopefully, it will open some eyes.

Losing at least six players in one transfer cycle should be enough for athletic director Pete Bevacqua and general manager (and former Irish All-American) Pat Garrity to see that whatever they've done financially to date for the basketball program, whatever they plan to do moving forward, is not enough. Not good enough. Not close enough.

Forget the basketball adage about being two years away from two years away. Notre Dame basketball is light years away from the lights of another NCAA Tournament. March Madness? Not around here. Not anytime soon.

The game has changed; Notre Dame hasn’t. If it cared about Notre Dame basketball, if it wants Notre Dame basketball to survive, if it hopes for Notre Dame basketball to thrive again, a greater financial commitment is paramount. Not tomorrow. Today.

Whatever millions of dollars set aside for 2026-27 are not enough. Find more dollars to make this crazy sport make sense.

When sophomores Sir Mohammed and Garrett Sundra and freshman Ryder Frost announced plans to enter the transfer portal, which opens April 7, it had little to do with a chance to make more money elsewhere as it did the chance to play more minutes elsewhere. Somewhere. Anywhere but here.

The three, for myriad reasons, never became key rotation players in Shrewsberry’s system. Each leave for more opportunity on the basketball court. The next three expected to exit ― Markus Burton (a Michiana native), Cole Certa (Shrewsberry’s first recruit to Notre Dame) and Jalen Haralson (the highest-rated recruit in program history) ― will depart, in large part, to deepen their bank accounts.

Each could make close to or beyond seven figures as college basketball players. They’re less interested in earning a Notre Dame degree and more interested in earning money. More money than they ever dreamed of playing this game. That matters.

That is college basketball today. This four for 40 stuff that Notre Dame so trumpets was nice while it lasted, but it ran its course even before former head coach Mike Brey decided that it was time to get out after 23 seasons and 483 wins.

A Notre Dame degree? Nobody cares. Pay me.

The game, the entire college basketball world, changed almost from the minute Shrewsberry strode down the tunnel from the Irish locker room and onto the Purcell Pavilion floor to the sounds of the Notre Dame Victory March for his introductory press conference on March 30, 2023.

College basketball has become an even bigger business. A pay for play business. Professional sport in every sense. It’s less about what a school can do for you over the next 40 years and more about what you can do in four, or however long it takes to get your game NBA-ready.

It has been three long seasons of frustration and failure under Shrewsberry. If Irish fans knew then what they know now about the Irish head coach ...

Fair, but that ball bounces both ways. If Shrewsberry knew then what he knows now about college basketball and about how Notre Dame would struggle to keep up, he doesn’t leave Penn State.

Shrewsberry must coach better. He must teach better. Recruit better. Develop better. A lot of this is on the head coach. But his employer also must do better. It must care more than it has cared. This is one of the top 10 (eighth) winningest programs in the sport’s history. Treat it like one.

All those years of Brey often doing more with less lulled the administration into a false sense of success. When it came time to commit, the university looked the other way. It was slow to renovate the arena. It was slow to build a practice facility. It’s slow to admit where the sport is today, and what it takes to get there.

It’s time to pick up the pace and stop pretending it can be done another way.

A competent, capable basketball roster that competes in March likely starts with a $10 million price tag. No discounts. No shortcuts. Notre Dame doesn’t spend half of that. Maybe not even a third of that. Do this sport on the cheap, and you’re left with the Duke game. You’re left with players running to the portal. You’re left with little hope and a lot of heartache.

There are plenty of college programs that deal with this every single season ― the losing record, the roster turnover, the frustration of not being better, the inability to build a roster than can beat ranked teams, the lack of funds. They’re called mid-majors.

Notre Dame runs like a mid-major. That hurts.

Mohammed and Sundra and Frost are gone. Burton and Certa and Haralson are going. Where this basketball program goes from here remains to be determined. Think of the 2026-27 season as the start of a new era of Notre Dame basketball. An awakening.

Will the administration act, or hit the snooze and go back to sleep?

Again.

Follow South Bend Tribune and NDInsider columnist Tom Noie on X (formerly Twitter): @tnoieNDI. Contact Noie at tnoie@sbtinfo.com

And I have no idea how it works within the confines of the rev share. Presumably everyone is either ignoring that completely, or finding work-arounds via deep-pocketed donors.

I get that Noie is frustrated that the program he follows appears to treat said program as the red-headed step child of the athletic department, but I refuse to believe that its as doom-and-gloom as he makes it out to be. Wasn't he the guy who, several weeks ago, was claiming that all the players love Shrewsberry, and that he anticipated most/possibly all of the roster back?

I won't beat a dead horse ( https://bluegraysky.com/forum/index.php?id=581056 ) but there was no way we landed the '25 class we did AND kept Burton without spending at least $3 million. At the time, there was lots of noise that Burton was getting some substantial offers to go elsewhere but stayed at ND. He's not staying for charity.

And $10MM?!?!? I still don't know all the ins and outs of the rev share stipulations. But I'll only say that $10MM would be nearly half that amount allocated for the entire athletic department. You can absolutely miss me with that shit. Maybe if there is some external NIL that makes up for that?!??! But not sure that's necessary to actually be...you know...marginally competitive.

And then this is where Baghdad Tom claims something to the effect of "well, if ND isn't willing to swim in the deep end, then this is what you can best expect. The Admin (***DRINK***) isn't willing to make the necessary commitment to make NDMBB great." GTFOH.

Claims the first 3 out the door (Mohammed, Sundra, Frost) are leaving for more playing opportunities.

The next (expected) 3 out the door (Burton, Haralson, Certa) are leaving for more money.

Noie claims the starting point for a roster from a monetary perspective should be $10MM annually. He claims we don't spend even 1/3 of that currently. Not sure that's accurate, as others have claimed Burton and Haralson themselves are making at least $3MM this year.

In any event, it sure sounds like the roster will be decimated, the team will almost certainly be in the basement of the ACC again next year, and Shrews probably won't make it to year 5. Then it becomes put up or shut up time.