Notre Dame added to its early signing day haul on Friday morning, when four-star guard Blake Wesley committed to and signed with the Irish during a ceremony at his school. A South Bend, Ind., product, Wesley chose the hometown school over Purdue, Xavier, Maryland, Kansas State and others, saying his choice was based on a level of comfort other programs couldn’t match.

Proximity to home has always been a game-changer in recruiting. Turns out, it only becomes more lethal during a global pandemic.

“Last time I was over there was for a football game,” Wesley said of Notre Dame. “I go over there to Eddy Street after every football game. Last year, I went to, like eight football games over there. The last one was Virginia Tech. It’s just really comfortable for me.”

Still, it wasn’t just the fact that Notre Dame’s campus sits a handful of miles away from the top-100 prospect’s family home.. This choice was also about relationships and the fact that Wesley sees himself as a glove-like fit for a system that prioritizes his skill set.

“Notre Dame needs -- needs badly -- a player like me,” Wesley said. “Now they have a player like me. They don’t have a guy like me right now. Coach [Mike] Bray wants me to be All-ACC first team as a freshman. He wants me to come in there, play defense, score and help my teammates out.”

In the 6-foot-5 Wesley, Brey has landed a long, incredibly high-motored guard that can get to the basket off the dribble and shoot the ball well enough to keep defenses honest. Defense, however, is where Wesley says his passion lies. In fact, he becomes audibly excited when he talks about it.

“I can play defense," Wesley said. "I’ve gotten a lot better at it, too. With offense, that’s there, but I don’t really care about it. I’m all about defense. I just want to lock somebody up.”

Wesley says he’s known for more than a month that he would eventually choose the Irish but kept his thoughts to himself until recently. He joins a Notre Dame class that already holds letters of intent from Three-star forward J.R. Konieczny, a fellow Rivals150 member.