When Carey Booth entered the transfer portal on April 1, the freshman forward left open the possibility of a return to Notre Dame men's basketball.
Booth closed that door Tuesday when announced a commitment to transfer to Illinois. The 6-foot-10 Booth will leave the Irish after scoring 6.4 points per game during the 2023-24 season.
Booth became the second transfer portal departee to find a new college home. Former Notre Dame forward Matt Zona announced his graduate transfer commitment to Fordham last week.
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Booth became Notre Dame's highest-ranked signee in the 2023 class when he followed head coach Micah Shrewsberry from Penn State to Notre Dame. Rivals rated Booth as a four-star recruit and ranked him as the No. 16 power forward and No. 82 overall prospect in the 2026 class. Booth finished his high school career at Wolfeboro (N.H.) Brewster Academy.
Booth started 19 games for the Irish as a freshman, including the last 10 of the season. He played in all 33 games, logged the seventh-most minutes for the Irish and averaged nearly 20 minutes per game. Booth shot 39.1% (75-of-192) from the field and 29.7% (35-118) from 3-point range. He also blocked a team-high 21 shots.
Rivals ranks Booth as the No. 158 overall prospect in the transfer portal this offseason.
Notre Dame's offense was actually led by two other freshmen last season: leading scorer and ACC Rookie of the Year Markus Burton (17.5 points per game) and 15-game starter Braeden Shrewsberry (10.2 points per game). Burton put his name into the NBA Draft pool last week, but he's still expected to return to Notre Dame. Both Burton and Braeden Shrewsberry, son of Micah Shrewsberry, are expected to be a major part of what the Irish are trying to build.
The Irish need to do some adding via the transfer portal as well and have the room to do so. Junior guard Alex Wade is in the portal and senior guard Tony Sanders Jr. has yet to declare what he's doing next season, though a return to Notre Dame would be a bit of a surprise. If both Wade and Sanders are gone, the Irish are looking at a roster of 10 scholarship players with three available to reach the NCAA maximum.
Notre Dame signed three recruits in the 2024 class that will join the program later this year: four-star guards Sir Mohammed and Cole Certa and three-star forward Garrett Sundra. Barring other departures, the returning Irish roster would include sophomores Burton, Shrewsberry and guard Logan Imes, junior forwards Tae Davis and Kebba Njie and senior guards J.R. Konieczny and Julian Roper II.
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