Irish Land At No. 6 Nationally In Initial Rivals Team Rankings
Rivals has released the initial team rankings for the 2018 basketball class and Notre Dame's three-man class comes in at No. 6 in the country.
Arizona, Michigan State, USC, Louisville and Maryland make up the top five. Notre Dame has the No. 2 class in the ACC behind Louisville.
Notre Dame's class is headlined by three guard commitments which all rank inside the top 105 with Washington (D.C.) Gonzaga point guard Prentiss Hubb leading the way at No. 62 nationally. Hubb was the first to pledge to Mike Brey’s program doing so in mid-May.
Mars (Pa.) High shooting guard Robby Carmody followed Hubb just over a month later giving the Irish a quality backcourt of two Rivals100 talents with Carmody ranking at No. 89 nationally.
The Irish took its backcourt efforts to another level just a couple weeks after Carmody announced reeling in former Ohio State shooting guard pledge Dane Goodwin out of Upper Arlington (Ohio) High. Goodwin, who ranks as No. 105 nationally, was committed to Ohio State before two-plus years before Thad Matta was relieved of his duties this summer.
Notre Dame is looking to add a post player to complement the trio of guards and two prime targets remain on the board: Saxton River (Vt.) Vermont Academy five-star power forward Simi Shittu and Northfield (Mass.) Mt. Hermon Rivals100 forward Nate Laszewski.
Shittu, who ranks No. 9 nationally, recently released a top 10 which included Notre Dame along with North Carolina, Kentucky, Arizona, Oregon, Vanderbilt, Connecticut, South Carolina, Arizona State and New Mexico. Laszewski, who ranks No. 98 nationally, does not have a top list, but is working on an official visit to South Bend in September and remains the most likely option between the two. He’s made two trips to Notre Dame in the past and added an offer in July.
Adding either Laszewski or Shittu would push the Irish into the top five as things currently stand.
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