The Notre Dame men’s basketball team will launch year two of the Micah Shrewsberry era on Wednesday night as it welcomes the Stonehill Skyhawks to Purcell Pavilion for the 2024-25 season opener. Both universities are affiliated with the Congregation of Holy Cross and thus have a storied and connected history both academically and athletically.
The Irish and Skyhawks have met twice all-time, with Notre Dame collecting convincing victories in both meetings. The two schools last played Nov. 26, 1982, when Irish guard and future NBA champion John Paxson led Notre Dame to a 74-60 non-conference victory.
The Irish struggled in Shrewsberry’s debut season in South Bend, finishing 13-20 overall and 7-13 in ACC play. Despite the losing record, the young Irish took tremendous strides in late February and early March 2024, winning four of their last seven regular-season games, including victories over postseason teams Wake Forest and Clemson.
Expectations for this year’s team are much higher than a year ago, as Notre Dame returns the highest percentage of scoring (85.6%) of any power conference team in the country. The Irish are headlined by the reigning ACC Freshman of the Year Markus Burton, who was also selected to the preseason All-ACC First Team, as voted on by the league’s coaches.
The sophomore backcourt tandem of Burton and Braeden Shrewsberry led the high-powered Irish offense against Purdue Fort Wayne in last week’s charity exhibition, scoring 18 points apiece. Senior forward J.R. Konieczny added 11 points of his own in the 91-54 win.
Irish fans can expect a faster offensive pace this year, as Coach Shrewsberry has stressed the importance of pace and spacing to his group throughout the preseason. Experienced graduate transfers Matt Allocco at guard and Burke Chebuhar at forward should complement the returning pieces well in that regard, as both shot over 40% from three a year ago.
Stonehill will make the trip to South Bend following an 81-62 home victory on Monday over Division III school Framingham State. The Skyhawks are in year three of their NCAA transition period after reclassifying from D-II to D-I in July of 2022.
Competing as a member of the Northeast Conference, they are ineligible to be selected for the NCAA Tournament due to their reclassification, but their roster is expected to be much improved from a disappointing 4-27 campaign a year ago.
Notre Dame will need to slow down the duo of Josh Morgan and Todd Brogna if the Irish want to avoid the early-season loss. The two Stonehill guards combined to score 45 points on Monday while connecting on seven threes and converting 90% of their free throws.
The Irish haven’t dropped a home opener in Purcell Pavilion since the 1998-99 season, but Notre Dame did falter in two buy games against inferior competition last year, as Western Carolina and The Citadel both escaped South Bend with upset victories.
Wednesday night’s opener is set to tip off at 7 p.m. inside Purcell Pavilion and can be streamed on ACC Network Extra.
