Tag: Tony Sanders Jr.

Two Notre Dame guards out with injuries against The Citadel

Hope this only is a minor setback.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – You never want to be down bodies no matter who your opponent is. Yet that’s exactly the situation Notre Dame finds itself in with two of its guards against The Citadel. Tom Noie of the South Bend Tribune tweeted the following regarding [autotag]Julian Roper II[/autotag] and [autotag]Logan Imes[/autotag]:

Roper’s absence is significant in that the transfer from Northwestern has started every game so far this season and is by far one of the most polished players on this young Irish team. He ranks fourth on the team in scoring (8.9 points a game) and third in rebounds 5.2 a game.

Replacing Roper in the starting lineup will be [autotag]Braeden Shrewsberry[/autotag], who hasn’t started since doing so in the Irish’s first three games. Rounding out the starting lineup are [autotag]Markus Burton[/autotag], [autotag]J.R. Konieczny[/autotag], [autotag]Tae Davis[/autotag] and [autotag]Kebba Njie[/autotag].

Imes is another key loss in [autotag]Micah Shrewsberry[/autotag]’s rotation. In nine games off the bench, he is averaging 18.1 minutes a game, the most for any Irish player who hasn’t started this season. He has a scoring average 2.1 points a game.

[autotag]Tony Sanders Jr.[/autotag] has played in two games this season and has a single 3-pointer in the scoring column.

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

Notre Dame has easy victory over Maryland Eastern Shore

That was domination.

Notre Dame won’t be playing many games this season that are nearly this easy. But opponents like Maryland Eastern Shore should provide the young Irish opportunities to really show off what they can do when they’re at their best. Those chances came early and often in a 75-55 victory.

Although the Irish (3-2) trailed the Hawks (2-3) during the first couple of minutes, that was as treacherous as it got. Once they went ahead by double digits in the first half, they didn’t look back.

The Irish led by as much as 28 late in the second half, allowing [autotag]Micah Shrewsberry[/autotag] to empty his bench. That led to late 3-pointers from [autotag]Tony Sanders Jr.[/autotag] and [autotag]Thomas Hattan[/autotag], much to the delight of the rotational players on the sidelines.

[autotag]Braeden Shrewsberry[/autotag] scored all of his team-high 13 points in the first half with 12 of them coming on a game-high four 3-pointers. [autotag]Markus Burton[/autotag] scored 12 of his own points, making it five games of scoring in double figures to start his career. He also led the Irish with six rebounds and five assists.

Kebba Njie has seven points and four boards in his first game for the Irish after missing the first four with a hand injury.

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

Notre Dame forward Kebba Njie will miss opener with right hand injury

This isn’t ideal.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – [autotag]Kebba Njie[/autotag] followed [autotag]Micah Shrewsberry[/autotag] to Notre Dame, but he won’t officially start the new journey alongside him. The Penn State transfer forward injured his right hand in practice this past weekend and will not be available for the Irish’s season opener against Niagara.

Njie was expected to start against the Purple Eagles, but [autotag]Matt Zona[/autotag], one of the few incumbents on the Irish’s roster, will do so instead. Tom Noie of the South Bend Tribune was the first to report the news:

This is a tough break for the Irish as Njie is one of their more highly touted transfers. Ironically, Njie and Zona both accompanied Shrewsberry at the ACC Tipoff media session. Now, one of those players will have to step up for the other.

Zona’s only career start coming into Monday’s game was a January 2021 road win over Miami during his freshman year. He had two rebounds in the first four minutes. Interestingly, [autotag]Tony Sanders Jr.[/autotag], another Irish returnee, also started that game.

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

Notre Dame returning only 1.57% of its 2022-23 scoring for 2023-24

How concerned are you about this?

We know Notre Dame is going to look completely different in 2023-24. The few returnees have made minimal impact on the program so far, and it’s one reason why Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports has picked the Irish to finish last in the ACC. Rothstein has indirectly taken that reasoning a step further by listing the percentage of returning scoring for each conference program. You’ll see that the Irish aren’t even in the same hemisphere of anyone else:

The only inaccuracy with this is that it actually goes up to 1.6% if you round it up to the nearest decimal, so for our purposes, we’re going with 1.57%. Nitpicking aside, if you take [autotag]Matt Zona[/autotag]’s 34 points and [autotag]Alex Wade[/autotag]’s single free throw and divide them by the 2,227 points the Irish scored during the season, the math checks out. [autotag]Tony Sanders Jr.[/autotag] was scoreless in five games, and [autotag]J.R. Konieczny[/autotag] didn’t play at all.

While none of this technically means anything for the upcoming season, it does illustrate how it might take even the most diehard Irish fans some time to get to know this new team. No one is projected to make a big splash right away either. Time for some of the new guys to prove those projections wrong.

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

Look at Notre Dame’s current 2023-24 roster

Do you have confidence in this group as it stands?

There still is time for Notre Dame to add to its 2023-24 roster, but don’t count on a game-changer suddenly emerging onto campus. Barring an unforeseen circumstance, the players the Irish have now figure to make up the core. That’s not a strong vote of confidence for Irish fans, but remember that first-year coach [autotag]Micah Shrewsberry[/autotag] practically has to start from scratch after the program lost all of its rotation players to graduation and the transfer portal.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that this is going to be a very bad season for the Irish. The few holdovers from [autotag]Mike Brey[/autotag]’s tenure have played very little. While Shrewsberry was able to bring his 2023 Penn State recruiting class and one of his Nittany Lions starters from the 2022-23 season, that’s not a lot of college basketball experience coming in. He must be in one of, if not the least envious position in the country.

Hopefully, the day will come when Shrewsberry has built the Irish back into a winner. Until then, try and get behind these players who are just there to do their jobs and play basketball: