BREAKING: Doherty Commits To Notre Dame Hoops

During his Signing Day press conference on Wednesday of last week, Mike Brey said his 2018 recruiting class might not be completed just yet.

Well, now it may be as Chris Doherty, the 2018 Massachusetts forward Brey was clear hinting at, announced his commitment to Notre Dame.

After dealing with injury issues, the 6-foot-7 Doherty flirted with the idea of reclassifying to the 2019 class, but decided he was ready for college and wanted to stay in the Class of 2018.

While his intention was to take multiple official visits in the coming weeks, after taking an official to Notre Dame two weeks ago, it was clear bringing it to a close sooner than later was a real possibility.

He wasn’t quite ready to make his decision when the signing period opened last Wednesday, but obviously was ready well before it’s scheduled closing this Wednesday.

Doherty joins his New England Playaz AAU teammate Nate Laszewski in the Irish’s class along with point guard Prentiss Hubb and swingmen Robby Carmody and Dane Goodwin.

Doherty’s name may be a relatively new one for Irish fans, but it’s a name the staff has been monitoring for quite some time.

He comes from the same Marlborough, Mass., town as former Irish standout Zach Auguste, somebody he looks up to.

Doherty saw a surge in attention when he officially decided to stay in the Class of 2018 with schools like Arizona, Virginia, Rutgers, Xavier, South Carolina, Georgia Tech and others all making pushes.

T.J. Gassnola, the program director for the New England Playaz, gave Brey a ton of credit for staying with Doherty and staying on him.

“Chris got hurt his sophomore year of high school, so he didn’t play last year, so no one really knew,” Gassnola said. “Brey was always watching Nate and Chris though. He saw them before anybody else, when they were sophomores in high school.

“He was there watching a game in Texas to watch other guys and Chris and Nate stood out. He was smart enough to follow them. Chris fell off for a year, but as soon as everybody laid their eyes on Chris in July and saw him back healthy with all of that athleticism, it was off to the races.”

And while the recruitment was relatively quick once Doherty made the decision to stay in the 2018 class, that doesn’t mean it was an easy one for the Irish.

“People don’t realize this, but Tom Izzo recruited that kid, Arizona recruited that kid, Archie Miller recruited that kid,” Gassnola said.

But Brey was in early, building that relationship.

“Mike knew it,” said Gassnola. “Mike was at every game. Mike Brey and Rod Balanis were at almost 90 percent of our games in July.”

And in the end, that’s probably what sealed it.

“He connected with Mike and that was great,” said Gassnola. “That was the most important thing to everybody in my organization.

“He knew it. I always told Chris. (New England Playaz head coach) John Carroll always told Chris, ‘When you meet the right coach, you’re going to know it. It’s going to feel good in your heart and that’s what you’re going to want to do.’ My guess is it felt right to him and good for him.”