2020 Guard DJ Steward Likes Notre Dame, Wants To Return

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – DJ Steward is building a solid relationship with Notre Dame assistant Ryan Humphrey.

“That’s my guy,” Steward said from the HoopHall Classic at Springfield College here this past weekend. “He’s just saying that they’re very interested in me and want to get me down for a game and stuff like that.”

The 2020 Chicago guard has already made the trip down to South Bend a few times.

“It was a great atmosphere,” he said. “I watched some games, I watched them play against Wake Forest. I watched some football games. I like the campus and Touchdown Jesus and stuff like that.”

The 6-foot-1, 165-pounder said he will get back “for sure” and hopefully as soon as the spring.

“Just all around the campus, just seeing everything, the environment,” he said of what he wants to check out next time.

The Whitney Young High School standout currently has offers from schools like Illinois, DePaul, Marquette, Florida, Georgia Tech, Texas and Saint Louis while also receiving serious interest from schools like Northwestern, Michigan State and Virginia.

He’d love the opportunity to add the Irish to that offer sheet.

“It would be great,” he said. “It’s a great school overall, Catholic school and it’s a great program over there.”

He hasn’t taken any visits of late and doesn’t have any locked in, but added, “I’m looking to set some up pretty soon.”

He isn’t going to rush the process and said his relationships with coaches and players will be most important when he makes his choice.

Steward enjoyed his trip to the HoopHall, where his Whitney Young squad beat The Maret School 54-46 on Sunday.

“This is a great experience to be able to come out here and play in this great tournament, Hall of Fame, this is like a dream,” he said. “A lot of different teams want to come here. Being a Nike team and coming here to represent Chicago, it’s great for us to see some change. I mean, the weather is the same.”

Steward scored 15 points and described his play as “alright.”

“I struggled a little bit knocking down some shots, not hitting the shots that I usually make,” he said. “But you have games like that, you’ve just got to keep pushing and keep playing.”

He did have one of the highlights of the game with a driving dunk over a defender.

“I changed my mind at the last second about dunking,” he laughed.

“At first, I didn’t want to dunk it and then I realized I was high enough to dunk it, so I went up and slammed it.”