Notre Dame’s coaching staff spent three weekends this month watching its recruiting targets. The July live evaluation periods are now over, and the Irish will turn their attention to setting up official visits for August and September.
Class of 2022 recruits are allowed 10 official visits. The rules normally permit basketball prospects to take five as a junior and five after their junior year, but since the dead period wiped out last fall’s visit opportunities, they’re condensed into this summer onward.
Onto some notes and nuggets about a few targets.
*** Notre Dame watched four-star Grand Island (Neb.) wing Isaac Traudt at the Under Armour finals in Indianapolis this weekend. Head coach Mike Brey, associate head coach Anthony Solomon and assistant Ryan Humphrey all saw him at least once. He has been a target since picking up an offer last summer.
The 6-9, 200-pound Traudt had a big junior year that launched him into the top 70 of the Rivals150. Michigan State, Virginia and North Carolina jumped into the mix. He visited those three plus in-state Nebraska and Creighton in June.
Traudt hasn’t committed yet, though, and has left the door open for someone else to make a move. Notre Dame has an opportunity that didn’t seem too likely a couple months ago. If it can get him to take an official, that’d help its chances a lot. There’s some optimism that will happen. We’ll see. He told Rivals’ basketball recruiting director Rob Cassidy last week he’s planning to visit Kansas soon.
*** I saw Traudt play this weekend as well and was impressed. He’s a high-level shooter with little wasted motion, a high release point who can get his shot off in a variety of ways. He has a little bit of a post-up game. He can make basic ball-screen reads and drive-and-kick as a ball handler. He’s probably a four in college.
*** Brey saw IMG Academy (Fla.) forward Alex Karaban and Oakdale (Conn.) St. Thomas More guard Desmond Claude play on the EYBL circuit this month for Expressions Elite. They picked up Irish offers in June. Karaban is a big wing or a 4, similar to Traudt, while Claude is a lead guard. Both played well at Peach Jam too, which Brey saw Friday.
Karaban put up 18.6 points and 7.1 rebounds at Peach Jam. He hit 36% of his three-pointers. Claude averaged 15.3 points and 4.5 assists over six games, shooting 36% from deep as well.
Notre Dame’s next step with both is getting them on campus. I think there’s a good chance they visit. Karaban took officials to Northwestern and Penn State in June and unofficially visited UConn. He’s from New England originally and went to the same prep school as former Irish forward Zach Auguste, who he knows. It seems the Irish offer meant something to him.
Claude’s stock has taken off this summer. He has not taken any officials yet.
*** Two longtime Irish targets in the Rivals100 are four-star Severn (Md.) Archbishop Spalding wing Cam Whitmore and Hyattsville (Md.) DeMatha Catholic combo guard Rodney Rice. Notre Dame made Rice’s top six and Whitmore’s top 10 earlier this summer.
Rice said he’s planning a fall official visit to Notre Dame. He took officials to Louisville and Alabama and unofficially visited Virginia Tech, which he will return to for an official Sept. 3. Whitmore took an official to Maryland in June and saw Georgetown, Maryland and Pitt unofficially.
Both are priorities for Notre Dame. I’m told the Irish are extremely high on Whitmore and think he’s one of the better athletes they’ve recruited recently. As with others, the next move is to get them on campus.
*** Notre Dame remains involved with four-star La Lumiere (Ind.) shooting guard J.J. Starling and three-star Gladstone (N.J.) Gill St. Bernard’s guard Denver Anglin and saw them both this month. Starling was on campus multiple times in June for unofficials and spent a lot of time around the team. He has been a big priority since last summer.
Anglin took June officials to Stanford, Northwestern and Providence and saw UConn and Georgetown unofficially. Notre Dame offered in June.
I don’t have much else to add other than Notre Dame will try and get them to take official visits. It’s good for Notre Dame Anglin has not committed after all those visits.
*** Notre Dame saw four-star Philadelphia Haverford School combo guard Jameel Brown this month too. He’s a former Purdue commit Notre Dame offered shortly after he reopened his recruitment this spring. He’s pretty interested and I think is gettable if Notre Dame pushes. He has taken one visit so far, and that was to Minnesota.
Brown plays on a deep team that won Peach Jam, and he can get crowded out sometimes. He averaged only 4.7 points in 13.8 minutes per game. He’s a good shooter, though the ball doesn’t have a lot of arc when it leaves his hand. In a game I watched via stream this week, he missed a pair of three-pointers when they hit the front rim. He didn’t shoot it particularly well at Peach Jam.
*** Look for more on new Notre Dame commit Dom Campbell tomorrow. I’ll put together some video clips and observations from watching him. If you missed my story on how his commitment came about, it’s here:
notredame.rivals.com
Class of 2022 recruits are allowed 10 official visits. The rules normally permit basketball prospects to take five as a junior and five after their junior year, but since the dead period wiped out last fall’s visit opportunities, they’re condensed into this summer onward.
Onto some notes and nuggets about a few targets.
*** Notre Dame watched four-star Grand Island (Neb.) wing Isaac Traudt at the Under Armour finals in Indianapolis this weekend. Head coach Mike Brey, associate head coach Anthony Solomon and assistant Ryan Humphrey all saw him at least once. He has been a target since picking up an offer last summer.
The 6-9, 200-pound Traudt had a big junior year that launched him into the top 70 of the Rivals150. Michigan State, Virginia and North Carolina jumped into the mix. He visited those three plus in-state Nebraska and Creighton in June.
Traudt hasn’t committed yet, though, and has left the door open for someone else to make a move. Notre Dame has an opportunity that didn’t seem too likely a couple months ago. If it can get him to take an official, that’d help its chances a lot. There’s some optimism that will happen. We’ll see. He told Rivals’ basketball recruiting director Rob Cassidy last week he’s planning to visit Kansas soon.
*** I saw Traudt play this weekend as well and was impressed. He’s a high-level shooter with little wasted motion, a high release point who can get his shot off in a variety of ways. He has a little bit of a post-up game. He can make basic ball-screen reads and drive-and-kick as a ball handler. He’s probably a four in college.
*** Brey saw IMG Academy (Fla.) forward Alex Karaban and Oakdale (Conn.) St. Thomas More guard Desmond Claude play on the EYBL circuit this month for Expressions Elite. They picked up Irish offers in June. Karaban is a big wing or a 4, similar to Traudt, while Claude is a lead guard. Both played well at Peach Jam too, which Brey saw Friday.
Karaban put up 18.6 points and 7.1 rebounds at Peach Jam. He hit 36% of his three-pointers. Claude averaged 15.3 points and 4.5 assists over six games, shooting 36% from deep as well.
Notre Dame’s next step with both is getting them on campus. I think there’s a good chance they visit. Karaban took officials to Northwestern and Penn State in June and unofficially visited UConn. He’s from New England originally and went to the same prep school as former Irish forward Zach Auguste, who he knows. It seems the Irish offer meant something to him.
Claude’s stock has taken off this summer. He has not taken any officials yet.
*** Two longtime Irish targets in the Rivals100 are four-star Severn (Md.) Archbishop Spalding wing Cam Whitmore and Hyattsville (Md.) DeMatha Catholic combo guard Rodney Rice. Notre Dame made Rice’s top six and Whitmore’s top 10 earlier this summer.
Rice said he’s planning a fall official visit to Notre Dame. He took officials to Louisville and Alabama and unofficially visited Virginia Tech, which he will return to for an official Sept. 3. Whitmore took an official to Maryland in June and saw Georgetown, Maryland and Pitt unofficially.
Both are priorities for Notre Dame. I’m told the Irish are extremely high on Whitmore and think he’s one of the better athletes they’ve recruited recently. As with others, the next move is to get them on campus.
*** Notre Dame remains involved with four-star La Lumiere (Ind.) shooting guard J.J. Starling and three-star Gladstone (N.J.) Gill St. Bernard’s guard Denver Anglin and saw them both this month. Starling was on campus multiple times in June for unofficials and spent a lot of time around the team. He has been a big priority since last summer.
Anglin took June officials to Stanford, Northwestern and Providence and saw UConn and Georgetown unofficially. Notre Dame offered in June.
I don’t have much else to add other than Notre Dame will try and get them to take official visits. It’s good for Notre Dame Anglin has not committed after all those visits.
*** Notre Dame saw four-star Philadelphia Haverford School combo guard Jameel Brown this month too. He’s a former Purdue commit Notre Dame offered shortly after he reopened his recruitment this spring. He’s pretty interested and I think is gettable if Notre Dame pushes. He has taken one visit so far, and that was to Minnesota.
Brown plays on a deep team that won Peach Jam, and he can get crowded out sometimes. He averaged only 4.7 points in 13.8 minutes per game. He’s a good shooter, though the ball doesn’t have a lot of arc when it leaves his hand. In a game I watched via stream this week, he missed a pair of three-pointers when they hit the front rim. He didn’t shoot it particularly well at Peach Jam.
*** Look for more on new Notre Dame commit Dom Campbell tomorrow. I’ll put together some video clips and observations from watching him. If you missed my story on how his commitment came about, it’s here:
How Fast Riser Dom Campbell Found His Way To Notre Dame
The Irish’s new commit saw his recruitment alter overnight, but that’s just the end result of a long process.
