Former Notre Dame guard Jewel Lloyd led Team Stewart to a 143-127 victory over Team Wilson in tonight's WNBA All-Star Game with a record-breaking performance.

Lloyd was named the game's MVP for scoring an All-Star record 31 points on 10-of-21 shooting from 3. She made her lone free throw attempt, missed her lone two-point attempt and added six assists, four rebounds and one steal.

Fellow former Irish players Arike Ogunbowale (18 points) and Jackie Young (6) started for Team Wilson.

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I spoke with Notre Dame 2024 four-star shooting guard target Sir Mohammed Wednesday. He is the son of former NBA center Nazr Mohammed.

The 6-foot-6, 200-pound recruit is ranked as the No. 56 overall player in the 2024 recruiting class. Mohammed led Charlotte (N.C.) Myers Park to a 28-2 record last season and averaged 13.5 points, 5.3 rebounds and 4.9 assists per game.

He took an official visit to Penn State last fall and said it was great to be back with head coach Micah Shrewsberry at Notre Dame on his official visit this week.

"It was amazing," Mohammed told Inside ND Sports. "Coach Shrews has always been great for me and my family. He's recruited me hard and been respectful of everything and my [decision] timeline. He's a great coach."

Mohammed said Shrewsberry is selling him on being a combo guard in Notre Dame’s offense. Mohammed told me he really enjoys distributing the ball and setting up his teammates.

Mohammed is close friends with Notre Dame 2024 football commits Jack Larsen and Micah Gilbert.

"Those are two of my guys," Mohammed said. "Jack, we grew up playing basketball and I've known him since I was little. Micah, I played with him my freshman year on Team Curry. The stuff he does on the football field he's just as good on the basketball court. That's probably something people don't really know about him."

Mohammed plans to take an official visit to Virginia Tech in July. He took an official visit to Marquette earlier this June and Stanford last fall. He's also in contact with Miami (Fla.) and St. John’s.

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With the path forward in the 2024 class pretty clear, these are Notre Dame's biggest needs in the 2025 class.

The NCAA finally announced its ruling for the Tennessee football violations that occurred from 2018-20 under head coach Jeremy Pruitt. The violations included impermissible paid recruiting visits, direct payments to prospects, student-athletes and their families and unethical conduct.

The penalties include a six-year show-cause order for Jeremy Pruitt, show-cause orders for other staffers, a vacation of all records in which the student-athletes participated while ineligible, fines totaling more than $8 million, a reduction of scholarships, a reduction of official and unofficial visits, a recruiting communication ban, a reduction of evaluation days and five years of probation.

Per ESPN, the fine is believed to be the largest as a result of an NCAA infractions case.

Here's the full report from the NCAA:


Some more details from our Tennessee site:


I'll highlight some of the infractions in the post below.

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To give:

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Rivals Basketball Recruiting Director Rob Cassidy is on sight in Henderson (Nev.) this weekend for the Sportradar Showdown. Notre Dame 2024 shooting guard commit Cole Certa is playing for Illinois Wolves and putting together an impressive weekend.

Certa scored 33 points on Friday and did enough to be one of three recruits mentioned by Cassidy on his first-day takeaways.

"His shooting gets most of the ink, but Certa also comes equipped with solid court vision, which he’s showcased during his recent run of high-level success," Cassidy said. "The future Notre Dame guard is a good vet to bust into the rankings during the next update."

The 6-foot-5, 175-pound shooting guard is Notre Dame's only commit in the 2024 recruiting class currently. He is rated as a three-star and ranked as the No. 36 shooting guard.

Certa plans to attend Bradenton (Fla.) IMG Academy for his senior season after playing at Bloomington (Ill.) Central Catholic last season.

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I spoke with Notre Dame 2025 defensive end target Matthew Johnson and his trainer, Ben Hawk Schrider of Big Skills Training, over the weekend.

Johnson attends Concord (Calif.) De La Salle and played with Notre Dame 2023 signee and freshman tight end Cooper Flanagan.

The three-star recruit reported an offer in late May. His sophomore season was cut short due to injury, so he's not as highly rated or ranked as other 2025 defensive end targets, but Schrider expects a big junior season from Johnson.

"This kid is a special kid," Schrider told Inside ND Sports. "I don't say that about a lot of guys ... he's a special kid and you don't find a lot of guys like him in terms of his work ethic and the way that he thinks about the game. There's no entitlement and it's all humility. That's going to serve him for the rest of his life."

The 6-foot-5, 250-pound recruit has 12 total offers including Notre Dame, Michigan, Oregon, USC and Washington. He is ranked as the No. 19 weakside defensive end in the 2025 recruiting class. Johnson said he's open to all schools but wants to go somewhere that offers a great education.

Johnson said he'll line up everywhere on the defensive line for De La Salle but has the most experience playing defensive end. I believe defensive line coach Al Washington views Johnson as someone who could play the vyper position.

"Being able to gain more ground quicker than everyone else and then bending that corner to get the sack on a true speed rush is something I have been working on a lot this offseason," Johnson said. "I'm really tall and sometimes I get a little bit high, so something I've been focusing on a lot is pad level."

Johnson told me he spent the majority of this summer focused on training with Schrider and De La Salle. He did not take any visits this summer but hopes to make the rounds this fall, including hopefully making his first trip to Notre Dame.

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*Edit - I apologize - link not working behind paywall - I have print version on a USA Today network publication..... he basically says "ND is a magical place" and "we couldn't come together on an agreement relative to providing the resources for the student athletes, then I became interested " ( in making a move).

From a non-competing site. While ND is way in his rearview mirror he did briefly touch on his rationale for leaving.

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Marcus Freeman continued to nail his objective of not bouncing it, but only Irish eyes see that one as a strike.

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Oh, and the Irish met Michiana native Kate Upton tonight, too.

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CBS Sports published a long story yesterday detailing with Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick, men's basketball head coach Micah Shrewsberry and his wife, Molly, the process that led to Shrewsberry being hired at ND.

It's worth a read if you have the time, but I'll pull some of the highlights from Matt Norlander's reporting:


Jan. 18: Brey decides he needs to step down

Jan. 19: Notre Dame announces the news.

ND reaches out to three "three shoot-for-the-moon candidates." Then builds a list of 80 candidates to weight against this criteria:

• Excellence on- and off-court at highly competitive academic institution
• Proven success (athletically and academically)
• Great recruiting prowess
• Proven commitment to student-athlete development
• Aspire to win titles
• Passion for Notre Dame and lean into what differentiates the school from most other high-majors
• Consider ND a true destination job
• Will win the right way and ethically
• A track record of being a leader of staff, someone with managerial temperament
• Committed to style of play

Feb. 3: That list gets cut down to roughly 15.

Mid-February: Shrewberry becomes the favorite following background calls to Matt Painter, Brad Stevens, Niele Ivey and others.

Meanwhile, Shrewsberry doesn't want to talk about it. "He's so one-track. He shuts it down," Molly said. "I, of course, am like, could this be a possibility? Notre Dame is amazing, going back home. He literally would be like, 'I'm trying to focus on my team and focus on the next game.' He would not engage me at all."

Feb. 21: The list gets cut down to 8 active head coaches with calls to agents to set-up Zoom conversations. Swarbrick intends to not have discussions with them again until their seasons end.

Feb. 27: Shrewsberry meets with Swarbrick via Zoom for 45 minutes.

March 14: Penn State offers Shrewsberry a restructured contract despite Shrewsberry's agent trying to get that done for months prior to that. "Had Penn State come in January with a contract extension, Shrewsberry is almost certainly still coaching there," Norlander wrote.

March 18: Penn State loses in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

March 20: With Penn State's offer of nearly $26 million for seven years in hand, Shrewsberry agrees to meet with Swarbrick and Notre Dame president the Rev. John Jenkins the next day at the Pittsburgh Airport Marriott. Meanwhile, ND believes its No. 2 choice would be a yes if Shrewsberry turns it down. (My note: I'm not sure if that was Darian DeVries or Matt Langel, but likely one of them).

March 21: The official offer from ND comes in that night. He eventually accepts after consulting his children.

Two non-timeline things that I wanted to highlight as well ...

This ridiculous story that captures the difference between South Bend and State College:

In Happy Valley, the Shrewsberrys laid down a basketball court in their backyard shortly after moving there in 2021. A neighbor was a pest about it. She'd yell across the yard to Braden and his brother Nick, "You're not going to the NBA! Give it up already!" She'd complain about the noise in the middle of the afternoon. One night, Molly came home at 7:30 p.m. to discover two policemen in her driveway.

This neighbor had called the cops on the boys for playing basketball too loudly.

Hard to envision anything so absurd happening in basketball-obsessed Indiana.

"That sums it up," Molly said. "It's so different. Coming back here, it's a different culture and a different experience. When you follow your intuition, it's not that big of a decision."

This note about ND's 2024 recruiting efforts:

Back at the Peach Jam, Shrewsberry is eying one of the 20-plus 2025 prospects ND's staff is monitoring. The real chase is with 2024. He's already landed one commitment (shooting guard Cole Certa, a top-100 player and native of Bloomington) and has four other primary targets. Most coaches in his position would be spreading a wider net.

I consulted with @Charleston Bowles and our best, educated guess is that those four primary targets in the 2024 class are: PG Travis Perry, SG Sir Mohammed, PF Jackson McAndrew and PF Garrett Sundra.

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Former Notre Dame first baseman Niko Kavadas continued his climb up the Boston Red Sox farm system Friday. He made his Triple-A debut with the Worcester Red Sox in a 9-2 victory over the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp.

Kavadas finished the game 1-for-3 at the plate with a single, a walk and two runners left on base while playing first base and hitting in the No. 8 spot.

Kavadas, an 11th round pick of the Red Sox in 2021, spent the rest of the 2023 season playing for the Double-A Portland Sea Dogs. Kavadas led the team with 14 home runs and 42 RBIs in 69 games played. Kavadas hit .204 with a .386 on-base percentage and a .430 slugging percentage. He struck out 110 times against 64 walks.

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I know Freeman and Hartman have been making the rounds in public, but overall I can’t get a sense of where things are heading with this program. I think this upcoming seasons schedule is super tough. Away games at NC St, Duke, and Louisville we can’t overlook. Personally I feel good about the offense. But the first 3 games I’ll be looking at the linebackers, to see if they take the next step. Guys like Sneed, JT, and even someone like Zeigler can he get in the rotation?… Random thoughts on a Saturday morning. Anywho, as always Go Irish! Beat Navy

It's hard to keep track of all the different interviews Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman and a handful of players who joined him in New York this week have done. But I'll try to include them all in this thread. We've covered some of them elsewhere, but it doesn't hurt to have them all together.

Sam Hartman on SportsCenter:

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I'll wait until Saturday to put these into the system, but I wanted to share these with our subscribers on The Insider Lounge first. I guess it's FutureCast Friday around here.

I am putting in three Rivals FutureCast predictions in favor for Notre Dame for 2024 OT Guerby Lambert, 2025 OT Owen Strebig and 2025 RB Justin Thurman.

Let's take this one at a time.

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We've discussed in The Heat Index that there's been some optimism from Notre Dame on its chances with Lambert for weeks now, and everything I'm hearing continues to follow that. So I'm ready to put my prediction in for the No. 4 offensive tackle in the 2024 class with a decision date still unknown. I'll be upgrading Lambert's Heat Index rating to Extremely Hot.

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With Strebig set to make his third visit to Notre Dame since April, I'm ready to log my Notre Dame prediction for the No. 10 offensive tackle in the 2025 class. It seems like the Irish are out in front for Strebig right now, and it's not too crazy to put him on commit watch following the July 30 visit.

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Thurman had a busy June with camps and visits, but his trip to Notre Dame seems to have really resonated with him. That's why the No. 26 running back in the 2025 class plans to return to Notre Dame later this month. Notre Dame likes Thurman a lot, and the feeling appears to be mutual. The fit with Thurman and Notre Dame makes too much sense, so it's time to put in an Irish prediction.

Julian Love was a guest earlier in the week and he gave his list of the top five Notre Dame football players of all time.

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Jaylon Smith shared his All-ND team (they must have wanted a different format after Love's top five)

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And Marcus Freeman joined the show too.

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Thanks to all who submitted questions for me and @Charleston Bowles on our latest podcast. These are the questions we answered with timestamps.

18:41 • Nathan Reynolds - @Enforcers2117: Are there any Northwestern players that ND may go after, if they enter the transfer portal, based on needs and/or recruiting misses?

22:58 • @CharlesWWolfe: Who are your top guys still on the board for the 2024 recruiting class, and how do you feel about ND’s chances with them?

26:58 • @sjb75: Please predict the next 2024 verbal commit.

29:34 • @NWI_Irish96: DL seems to be the weakest spot so far in recruiting. Any thoughts on that?

33:55 • @NDJeff06: Will MF allow Scott to visit during the OSU game? I'm sure it wouldn't be an OV, but seems like ND would just be giving away a free ticket to a game that won't sway him to flip to the Irish. Am I being negative or do you think it's realistic for the Irish to flip him?

36:41 • @Brady L: I’ll be that guy that asks if you have heard any news on how the freshman look?

38:12 • Marie Biafore - @biafore_marie: Of the three big games on the schedule, which do you think ND will win and which do you think they will lose, and why? Do you think they are more likely to go 3-0 or 0-3?

43:26 • Nathan Reynolds - @Enforcers2117: Where is the Minchey love?? I feel like I keep hearing Hartman to carr and/or go get another transfer QB next year and then Carr.. Minchey is a 4* Elite11 QB just like Carr.

Expect to be in SB Aug 5 to 6th with son. Thanks.

Jeff Brohm will probably make the Cardinals a factor in the ACC, but not this year. Even playing ND at home should not matter.

Obviously, this is game 7 and I must assume ND is healthy everywhere it matters, which is pretty much everywhere.

USC will present ND with huge challenges when their O and D lines do and when their D is better than it has ever been under Riley. Yes, USC is a recruiting behemoth, but Oklahoma ain't chopped liver and his Ds were weak to OK there. ND's OL must impose its will on the Trojan's front and ND must run the ball. That will allow Hartman and the WRs/TEs to do their thing. The interior DL must crush/collapse the pockect and the DEs must get to Williams under control. NDs corners must take away quick passes and force Williams to play into a three count. At that point, he will have nowhere to hide. The DEs cannot lose contain. A little OLB help could matter.

The thing is, ND could do all of that. If they do, they win. If they do it enough, they win. Both sides of the ball must go into this game determined to do whatever it takes to win. My dad's pep talk to me works here: "Play like he'll and beat those sonsabitches."

What is it about the BiG tEn and all this diddiling of different types. It’s not cheating or paying players that you hear about, it’s of a sexual nature. WoW!

Notre Dame second-year head coach Marcus Freeman was one of 21 FBS coaches named to the Dodd Watch List on Thursday.

The Dodd Trophy "celebrates the head coach of a team who enjoys success on the gridiron, while also stressing the importance of scholarship, leadership and integrity – the three pillars of legendary coach Bobby Dodd’s coaching philosophy."

Here is the entire list ... do you think he belongs here? What would the Irish need to do for him to win it?

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Even though there haven't been many new offers reported, Notre Dame men's basketball has expanded its board and reached out to several new prospects this summer including 2025 four-star shooting guard Dante Allen.

I caught up with the Miami (Fla.) Riviera Prep product on Wednesday night. Allen is an NBA legacy recruit. Allen's father, Malik, played 11 seasons in the NBA from 2000-2011 after playing college basketball at Villanova (1996-2000). Malik is currently an assistant coach alongside former Notre Dame point guard Chris Quinn for the Miami Heat.

Dante's initial contact with the Irish began last month when his AAU head coach set up a phone call with associate head coach Kyle Getter.

"He put me on the phone with him and we had a good conversation," Dante told Inside ND Sports. "From there we exchanged contact information. He's reached out to me occasionally and we also talked a little bit more from there."

With Malik's history in the NBA, Dante wasn't shy in saying that in addition to academics and team culture, he's looking to go somewhere that can mold him into an NBA Draft pick

Head coach Micah Shrrewsberry has professional experience from his time as a Boston Celtics assistant coach and just had two of his former Penn State players — Jalen Pickett and Seth Lundy — hear their names called in the 2023 NBA Draft.

“That comes from how much they grew in college," Dante said about Pickett and Lundy, who were both three-star prospects per Rivals. "There are definitely kids who were higher up coming out of high school that dropped because their game didn’t translate as much. There were also some kids that weren’t highly ranked coming out of high school, but when they went to college [and] were trained the right way, given the right tools and played in an NBA-type environment.”

Rivals list Dante at 6-foot-4, 205-pounds. He is ranked as the No. 46 overall player in the 2025 recruiting class.

Former Irish head coach Mike Brey went into Miami and signed current senior guard Tony Sanders Jr. from Gulliver Prep in the 2020 class. It's too early to get a gauge on Dante but the Irish are making an effort early to grow a connection with him.

Dante holds five offers from Florida Gulf Coast, Memphis, Miami (Fla.), Michigan and Villanova.

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What a terrible goal given to panama, how was that guy not offsides. Who cares who wins now. It’s now “The Tarnished Cup”.This is not good for panama. Hard to win without your best guys playing. Not the same team that played in the Nations Cup. Go Irish

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Notre Dame men's basketball hasn't seen enough from 2025 center Ben Winker to extend an offer, but the 6-foot-10, 220-pound center is on the list of prospects the Irish are keeping tabs on.

Winker told me communication has been minimal, but he exchanged messages with associate head coach Kyle Getter that included sharing his July AAU schedule.

"I actually have a family friend whose daughter went to Notre Dame and did pretty well there, it's a great university with history and it's just an honor to be on the coaches' radar," Winker told Inside ND Sports.

Winker attends Saint Louis (Mo) Chaminade, the same school that produced Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum and Phoenix Suns guard Bradley Beal. He played on the Nike EYBL grassroots basketball circuit with Brad Beal Elite this spring and summer.

"I follow a lot of ACC basketball," Winker said. "My dad is from Syracuse. He's a pretty big Syracuse fan. Whenever Notre Dame plays, I watch them a lot on ACC network. It always seems like they have a great product out there on the floor."

Winker said his mobility. ability to run the floor and grab rebounds are strengths of his game. He's working on expanding his shooting range and becoming more comfortable on the perimeter.

Rivals hasn't assigned Wimker a rating or ranking, and he only reports one offer from Southeast Missouri State. However, he could see more attention if he has a productive junior season and coaches see him develop into a Power-Five caliber prospect. He's receiving interest from Notre Dame, Illinois, Missouri and Syracuse. He took an unofficial visit to Missouri in February.

Below are highlights of Winker (No. 33, white uniform) and Chaminade against Saint Louis (Mo.) De Smet. He blocks a shot around the 0:37 mark and scores on a pick-and-roll around 1:30. He also grabs an offensive rebound for a putback score at 6:17.

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