Notre Dame Hoops Signs Three In 2023
The Micah Shrewsberry Era at Notre Dame officially opened on the court Monday, when the Irish opened the season with a 70-63 victory over Niagara.
The Micah Shrewsberry Era of recruiting in South Bend officially opened Wednesday as the Irish received a trio of National Letters of Intent.
On the first day of the Early Signing Period, as expected, Notre Dame received letters of intent guard Cole Certa, forward Garrett Sundra and swingman Sir Mohammed.
After being hired in March, Shrewsberry and his staff wasted no time on the recruiting trail, identifying top players they viewed as fits for the style they’d be bringing to South Bend and getting after them.
Following commitments from Braeden Shrewsberry, Micah’s son, and Carey Booth to round out the 2023 recruiting class, the Irish were able to turn more of their focus to future classes.
The 6-foot-5, 175-pound Certa (pictured above) announced his commitment on May 4th.
“The relationship piece was huge for me,” Certa said. “They recruited me at Penn State and I just felt like a priority and they were just very, very consistent and very honest with me. That was just a huge part of it.”
Certa chose Notre Dame over offers from schools like Illinois, Butler, Northwestern, Nebraska, Penn State and others.
He averaged 26.1 points, 5.3 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game at Central Catholic High School in Bloomington, Ill. last year before transferring to IMG Academy and had the same vision for himself on the court as Shrewsberry.
“They think I'm a team guy, a guy who can pass, dribble and shoot,” Certa said of the Irish coaches. “If you watch how he coached at Penn State, they shoot a lot of threes. They're very skilled and I think I can fit perfectly into his system.”
Certa’s former coach at Central Catholic, Jason Welch, called Certa “an elite, elite shooter.”
“He can really shoot the ball, he can really score,” Welch told Irish Sports Daily. “I'm telling you, he's got In-Gym Range, he's really long and I would say he's a scorer too. So that's where his game has gone from really good to special is he can score the ball on you. Early, he was known as a shooter, but I would say he's a scorer.”
After a couple months, Sundra and Mohammed joined the group within a couple days of each other.
The 6-foot-10, 215-pound Sundra also pointed to Shrewsberry and his staff as a chief reason he chose the Irish over offers from schools like Villanova, Butler, Maryland, Virginia Tech, Miami, Providence and others.
“I would say just the coaching staff in general is phenomenal,” Sundra said. “I think Coach Shrews coaching in the NBA is something that not all coaches and not all schools have. Then, just the people that the Notre Dame coaches are off the court. They're all great people.
“Then, I'd say just Notre Dame the school in general. You can go a lot of places with a Notre Dame degree. It's a very, very, very great thing to have. I would say those are a couple of the main reasons. And then obviously the way Coach Shrews plays; shoots, lots of threes and kind of plays free basketball.”
Mohammed may have provided Shrewsberry with his biggest early splash in recruiting. The Charlotte native announced his decision from the UA Elite 24 All-Star Game in August.
The 6-foot-6, 200-pounder from Myers Park High School picked Notre Dame over offers from schools like Villanova, Marquette, Virginia Tech, Stanford and Oklahoma among others.
The son of former Kentucky standout and NBA player Nazr Mohammed is truly a versatile prospect.
“He's going to be a decision-maker with the ball, not necessarily have playing him as a direct point guard, but he's going to be able to facilitate,” Myers Park High School head coach Scott Taylor told Irish Sports Daily. “He can be a primary ballhandler if they need him to be.
“I'm sure that he'll be a piece that the offense run through. He's just got tremendous vision, especially in ball screen situations or closeout situations. He's going to read the defense and even if it's not the direct pass to the score, he'll make the old-school hockey assist, the pass that leads to the pass. He's going to get it to the right guy and the offense will flow with him.”
Everybody raves about Mohammed off the court.
Langston Wertz Jr., who has covered high school hoops in Charlotte for decades and is also the father of former Irish point guard Trey Wertz, may have summed that part up best.
“If you had a daughter and your daughter brought Sir Muhammad to your house, you'd be pretty happy.”
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