In another episode of as ND MBB burns....

I am sure Tom Noie is taking "I told you so victory laps" as Markus Burton made it official today. Something Tom will be sure to remind you that he predicted.

Which will inevitably reopen the tired and lazy administration support boogeyman reasons for systemic failure. There's some kernels of truth to that but I don't think it's lack of institutional support as much as it is an almost unrelentless patience for all sports.

I am sure people are bored of me saying it but it's lazy because this rests on the supposition that ND's NIL is somewhere in the $3-4 MM range. There's no real sourcing other than hearsay so that's what everybody believes as gospel.

I doubt the figure...unless 95% of all of that money was to Burton and Haralson ( https://spartanavenue.com/posts/interesting-nil-detail-emerged-hours-before-jalen-haral... ?!?!??!?!?!??!?!?!?). But let's say it's true. Does that mean ND fielding a competitive MBB team is a complete nonstarter?

Apparently not.

On3 put out a premium article ( https://www.on3.com/news/college-basketball-transfer-portal-the-programs-ready-to-spend... ) so I can't tell you the contents. My guess is that schools are preparing to get to $10MM at least moreso that this anecdotal wivestale that the best of MCBB is already there.

And look, as a fan, I'd have no problem with ND spending that. But even with football, money and commitment didn't come over night. There was a process where the program deserved a spend commensurate with the top of the CFB. MBB? Well, we're a long way from them deserving anything. But this notion of simply throwing money there and things will be fixed is about as vapid and shallow as it gets.

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I'd let Micah go before noontime.

--
"F--- everyone who isn't us."
#Team128

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So I don't know whether there's been any further reporting on this. But O'Malley, Brice, and Sampson discussed this recently and basically made the point that nd couldn't promise Burton anything that he couldn't get elsewhere. And I'm sure he realizes, just as the rest of us do, that this program is broken right now. Even if we gave him more dough than anyone else, the kid wants to play in meaningful games.

As for Haralson, and really anyone with NBA aspirations - what has Shrews shown in 3 years that would make anyone believe that he's capable of getting anyone ready to play professionally?

This is a failed experiment and we're just playing out the string now.

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That's why I really struggle with the narrative that money would fix the ills of ND Basketball. If you want to point the finger at ND's administration then do so because they've supported Shrewsberry for this long, not because he doesn't have resources and support.

The fact that Shrews escapes so much accountability is mindblowing. Everybody kind of sweeps that aspect under the table.

In my post above, we beat out Michigan St. for Haralson because they didn't think they could match ND's NIL offer. In another tidbit, both Iowa and Nebraska seem to be competing with NIL and revshare less than $5MM.

Can we please quit pretending that throwing money at this issue solves it?

But the other element that has been brought up here many times before, even if there was more money, and even if we squeezed in a decent post season run every ~5 or so years...what's it really worth? Is the ROI there? I am not sure we'd feel better about the program.

But no matter what, even if you grant these talking heads all of their defenses and rationale, this is a program that should be capable of making a damn conference tournament that includes 15 or 18 teams. There is no excusing that kind of performance.

Instead, we are going to watch the lamest of lame duck seasons in MCBB. This will set us back another year in fielding a competitive basketball team. Here's hoping for the 2029 season.

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Taxman came out of hibernation with a very lengthy and thoughtful post about everything. Not really anything new from what we've been discussing here, but a good summation of where things stand, and whether its really in ND's best interest to do what "needs to be done" to compete in modern college basketball.

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And the ROI point is a very good one.

But I still think there is a decent amount of deflection in his punch line.

Maybe I am just overly persuaded by Hollywood, but I watched Moneyball on my flight back last night. And I think for ND to be competitive in this sport, it can't be the same way Kentucky or UConn or Duke or Arizona compete. Those schools have made very conscious efforts to make basketball priority #1. And I am not sure football is #2 for some of those programs. That's not a mutually exclusive proposition I am ready to sign up for. I don't think any ND fan is.

But it is a reality confronting all universities. But somehow, schools like Iowa and Nebraska are figuring how to allocate dollars efficiently. There isn't an entry price for competitive basketball. If you want to tell me there is an entry price for consistently elite basketball programs? Fine. I'll agree. Whatever that price is, surely Duke is paying it. And for what? 2 Final Fours the last 10 seasons, where none of those teams had their best players return for sophomore years. I firmly believe we need to figure out more creative ways to find a competitive balance. But whining that we aren't spending like the big boys just doesn't really do it for me.

Where I also get lost is using an example like Haralson as evidence of lack of resources and support. Let's be very honest here. The reason he entered the portal isn't due to money. It's because our program has shown an inability to compete and play at a higher level. You can't convince me that ND outbid Michigan St. to land Haralson with the idea that he'd only be here one season. And I don't think we reneged on paying him a second season. Do I have proof? No. But somehow we not only landed Burton, but we paid him to comeback in his sophomore season and his junior one too.

But these are examples that evade even the most logical fans like the one Taxman appears to be.

I'd actually argue the reason we are in this predicament is because we threw too much support at the program. We signed a very coveted (at least at the time) coach to a 7-year, $28MM deal. That probably wasn't a prudent hire for a coach that hadn't proved much. But it's forced ND's hand to throw good money after bad to clean up this situation. Like Taxman suggests, a buyout north of $10MM is not a great use of proceeds. And the original commitment or investment probably locks us into this shitshow for at least another lame duck season.

It's also why I think ND football is generally a decent analogous example. Not absolute dollar wise but how the program has evolved. Marcus got a $2MM deal out of the gate. This coming off a decade where the previous coach whined, bitched, and moaned about resources. But once this new coach started building, started proving himself, started developing players, and started ****winning**** well it was easy to justify greater investment and spend. With Shrewsberry we just jumped into the middle of the pool (not the shallow end but probably closer to the deep end) but without much of a plan. When we started to drown, it was hard to justify continuing to throw even more resources to rescue this dumpster fire.

I just hope that Bevaqua and Garrity come out and address the long-term vision, goals, and future. It doesn't seem like we have anything that resembles a plan.

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And desperately hope that Garrity was brought in to try to formulate said plan. One would think that he would be very motivated to get that program back to something approaching respectable given his connections.

It really seems like the football program has benefited from the fact that so many of Holtz's players have gone on to be very successful, and that they're either on the Board now, or very interested in doing what they can to bring a title back to ND. Hoops is probably never going to have that (unless Connaughton decides to make it his mission to save the program).

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Connaughton's career earnings are $52 million.

Blake Wesley $13.2 million.

Jerian Grant $7.8 million.

Demetrius Jackson $3.7 million.

Troy Murphy ~$60.0 million.

Matt Carroll $28.4 million.

And that doesn't include a lot of good players that have made a good living playing overseas like Francis, Jack Cooley, Luke Harangody, Zach Auguste, Tyrone Nash. I think Scotty Martin had more than a cup of coffee.

Brey was responsible for every player on that list. I know all those guys loved playing for him. But I don't recall many public or anonymous gifts coming in during his tenure.

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A guy like Ronnie Stanley has made more than all those guys combined. Martin and Nelson are just a tad under

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Freeman's got so much riz they need to call him Aura Parseghian

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Or maybe it's pretty simple. I think there are some wealthy former football players donating to the program. But it's not guys who made millions on the football field. It's your Pat Eilers (Executive Chairman of AirJoule Technologies and founder of Transition Equity Partners) or Byron Spruell (vice chairman of Deloitte LLP) or Tracy Graham (founder and CEO of Graham Allen Partners) or Rod West (group president, utility operations for Entergy Corporation).

I think even some of Kelly's guys like Faine and Dayne Crist have been contributors.

So, I guess my point is a bit moot. It's not guys who racked up significant earnings on the field or on the court. It's guys who felt an affinity for the institution, made it later in life, and wanted to give back.

But now that we've brought the issue up, we should probably clear up a misnomer. I've made this point before and it bears repeating. Much of the funding that every sports program receives is primarily the beneficiary of external sources. It's not this Wizard of Oz ND Administration Boogeyman behind the curtain that is trying to screw over MCBB at every turn. Many of these sports have benefactor champions (Lacrosse - Arlottas; Hockey - Comptons [really Jeff Jackson and not hockey]; Fencing - Castellans; Men's Soccer - McFarlands). The list goes on and on. For whatever reason the men's basketball team doesn't have the waiting list of benefactors like other sports do. The Purcell brothers have been the primary donors but most of their contributions went to renovate the JACC (although I am sure they've contributed in many other ways). The Rolfs family was gracious to donate their facility from the general student population to the basketball program.

Football will always be king, because nearly every student has some fond affiliation with the football program. It's hard to escape. So naturally it's easier to fundraise. Probably like basketball is for UNC, Duke, Kansas, Kentucky, UConn, Gonzaga, Villanova. Most schools have a primary sport. Football is the one that drives interest and dollars.

And if you're a donor with a bottomless stockpile, I am not sure that MCBB is the first sport you'd pick to donate. It's so fleeting and temporary especially among the elites of MCBB. I guess if you're a Michigan donor then today feels great. But next year is likely going to be a new roster and new names. It just doesn't feel like the payback is worth it. Many people say that there is a fatalist exaggeration of the future of college sports. Maybe there is, maybe there isn't. But if there is then it does feel like MCBB is at the forefront of that movement because of the temporary nature it's become.

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That truly love the school. Tracy is a great example of that. And it also helps that you can easily find a couple million bucks among former football players for whatever it is.

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Freeman's got so much riz they need to call him Aura Parseghian

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We know he has an affinity for the program. Though perhaps that might be a bit diminished if he felt Brey was treated poorly on the way out.

But I believe I've seen articles/references to the fact that Pat has been very savvy in investing his earnings, and by now, he's probably made more off the court than on.

I would think that, whenever he decides to hang it up, he might be in a position to make some serious contributions.

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Connaughton has killed it in real estate as Co-Founder and CEO of Three Leaf Partners.

https://threeleafdevelopment.com/about/

Pretty good article from the Times of India, of all places....

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/nba/top-stories/how-milwaukee-bucks-star-pat...

I am pretty sure he's been back to Notre Dame to speak to various real estate classes.

Here's hoping you're right.

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Think he's a South Bend resident, and sounds like he had "contacts" on campus at some point, but not sure what that means.

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Nothing really to disagree with, but why do ND hoops peer comparisons always go to the top, instead of to programs that should be more similar to our profile? I just did a search for the most NCAA appearances in the last 15 years, and yes there's the NIL-rich one-and-done factories like Kansas and Duke and Kentucky and UNC and Arizona, but there's also Gonzaga and Purdue and Villanova and Baylor and Iowa State and San Diego State -- all of whom appeared at least 10 times in the last 15 years. Surely we have the resources to achieve similar (with a good coach, obvs).

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Obviously their initial success under Hoiberg could be chalked up to having a very good coach. They had a nice 3-year stretch under his successor, but bottomed out in year 4 going 2-22 and winless in conference. They fired their coach and brought back a former assistant, who's been there since.

Under said assistant, they've gone 124-52, winning at a greater clip than they did under Hoiberg, and at the highest clip in the history of the program.

I expect they're devoting greater resources to hoops than ND. Probably by a wide margin. But nothing they're doing seems impossible or out of reach.

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Iowa State is in the top 20 nationally in attendance (their arena seats 14k and they sell out pretty much every game) so clearly they take in a lot more money on gameday than we could ever do (Purcell is 9k, if you can fill it).

But the team budget is $5 million which includes revenue-sharing streams and third party NIL. https://x.com/cfchangs9/status/1998072225438609675

So their spend is well within our capacity.

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--
"F--- everyone who isn't us."
#Team128

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the Polo Grounds

In another episode of as ND MBB burns....

Cole Certa out the door too.

I've been off the grid for the last week

This is exactly it

For those of you who still occasionally visit NDN

There's a lot to agree with there.

Agree with all that

Maybe basketball players are just stingier?

The thing is

It's probably more nuanced than we all believe

There’s a huge number of football guys

Connaughton is in an interesting position

You're right

what is/was his connection to ND?

Not sure

just read the post

Was talking with a colleague about Iowa State recently

looking it up (edit)

"Lack of resources" -- where have I heard that before?

Micah needs to find a new grocery store.