Notre Dame Hoops Inks Three Top 100 Prospects
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Mike Brey and the entire Notre Dame men’s basketball program knew they needed to boost their recruiting efforts and that’s exactly what they did.
The Irish used innovative ideas – Brey piloting a Ferrari to scoop up one prospect for his official visit – shows of force – the entire staff flying down to Orlando to visit another prospect – and old-fashioned tactics – identifying an underrated prospect and pouncing.
The multitude of approaches and their successful implementation has led to the Irish signing a trio of their top targets to National Letters of Intent on Wednesday, the first day of the Early Signing Period.
Notre Dame has now received signed National Letters of Intent from guard JJ Starling and forwards Ven-Allen Lubin and Dom Campbell.
6-9, 235-Pound Power Forward Dom Campbell
Campbell, from Phillips Exeter in New Hampshire, plays his summer ball with the Middlesex Magic. At the time the Irish offered the 6-foot-9, 235-pounder, he was the top target on a number of boards for Ivy League programs, who were surely disappointed to see a major conference power like Notre Dame join the race.
By the time he committed to Notre Dame in July, his offer sheet had expanded to include schools like Boston College, Penn State, Oklahoma, Stanford, Tennessee, Virginia Tech, Providence and South Carolina among others.
A reworked physique and a strong summer period helped Campbell go from being an unranked prospect to a Top 100 player nationally.
Rivals: 4-Star, 96th Nationally
247: 4-Star, 92nd Nationally
ESPN: 4-Star
6-4, 180-Pound Combo Guard JJ Starling
Starling had been a Top 100 player nationally for a long time.
And the New York guard had been a top target for Notre Dame for almost as long.
The Irish caught a bit of a break when Starling decided to transfer to La Lumiere School in La Porte, Ind., less than an hour from Notre Dame’s campus. This gave the Irish staff the ability to get Starling on campus for multiple unofficial visits during the summer while schools like Maryland, Syracuse and UConn hosted him for official visits.
When Duke joined the race in a serious way, many downgraded Notre Dame’s position from darkhorse to longshot. But the Irish continued to recruiting Starling hard and eventually got him to come back down to South Bend for an official visit the first weekend of September, a trip that began with Brey shuttling up to La Lumiere to pick him up in a Ferrari.
When Starling announced his commitment to Notre Dame on Oct. 12th, the high-four star player represented the top prospect the Irish had landed in almost a decade.
6-7, 220-Pound Power Forward Ven-Allen Lubin
Landing Starling to go with Campbell would have made the 2022 class a success even if Notre Dame didn’t add to it, but on Tuesday, the Irish landed Ven-Allen Lubin.
The Florida forward committed to Notre Dame over Clemson, Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech among many others, giving the Irish a third Top 100 player in the class.
A versatile prospect owns an ACC-ready body along with the potential to become even stronger once he gets into a college weight program. He could provide an immediate impact on both the offensive and defensive ends depending on how the Irish’s roster looks come the 2022-2023 season.
This 2022 recruiting class represents a big step forward for the program, but it’s just one step of many that needed to be taken in order to get the program back where it needs to be.