While it improved from an injury-riddled 2018-19 season, it’s unlikely Notre Dame would have made the 2020 NCAA tournament as an at-large team had it taken place. The Irish will take help however they can, and if a Monday report from 247Sports is any indication, help might come in a couple of years.
Santa Clara guard Trey Wertz has listed Notre Dame as one of 11 schools on his short list of schools he would like to transfer to. The Irish made the cut from an initial round of over 40 schools. They’ll have to battle it out with ACC rivals Virginia, North Carolina and NC State for Wertz’s services. Rounding out the list of finalists are Ohio State, Butler, Oklahoma, Arizona, Stanford, Vanderbilt, and Xavier.
Wertz averaged 11.9 points, 3.5 rebounds and 3.5 assists a game this past season while shooting 40.0 percent from 3-point range. It was a slight dip from the year before, in which he averaged 12.2 points and 4.7 assists a game and made the WCC All-Freshman Team.
The COVID-19 pandemic will make it difficult for Wertz to make visits, so it’s likely Notre Dame will have to rely on reputation alone to win him over. The inability for recruits to make visits during this crisis has hampered the entire athletic program, though the same could be said for other schools, too. If there’s one thing Notre Dame has going for it in this case, it’s that the university is closer to Wertz’s hometown of Charlotte, North Carolina. Hey, anything is worth a shot to gain an advantage in this race.