Notre Dame Basketball Lands Commitment From Three-Star Wing
Notre Dame has landed a third member of its 2020 recruiting class.
The Irish received a commitment from Miami Gulliver Prep 2020 wing Tony Sanders Jr., he announced on Instagram Friday. Sanders is Notre Dame’s first addition this spring. He picked up the offer on Tuesday.
The 6-7, 175-pound Sanders also holds high-major offers from Florida State, Xavier, Dayton, South Carolina, Georgia and Georgia Tech. He did not sign in November, even though most of those offers had already been extended. His most recent visit was to Dayton in February.
Notre Dame’s recruiting board for filling out the 2020-21 roster had consisted of transfer targets until the coaching staff decided in the last few days that it would look at taking a high school player if they liked the fit. Notre Dame assistant Ryan Humphrey has seen him play in person multiple times, a source said, and handled most of the work in the recruitment.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic and the NCAA’s imposed dead period that runs through May 31, though, Sanders wouldn’t have been able to visit Notre Dame or any other suitor anytime soon. That did not prevent him from jumping at the chance to play for Notre Dame. He committed without having visited.
Sanders played AAU for adidas-sponsored Game Elite, where he was teammates with five-star North Carolina signee Walker Kessler and North Carolina State-bound center Ebenezer Dowuona. His AAU coach, Russell Powell, touted his versatility.
“Everything he does, he does at 100 percent. He can defend multiple positions, score the ball at all three levels,” Powell said. “You talk about a guy who can really guard one through four on a lot of occasions. Offensively, with him being so tall and long, I think he creates a lot of mismatches wherever you plan to use him.”
As a senior, Sanders averaged 20.6 points, 7.2 rebounds, 1.5 steals, 1.3 assists in 30 games at Gulliver. He shot 42 percent from the field and 34 percent on three-pointers, with more than five attempts per game from the three-point line. He averaged at least 13 points per game in all four years of his high school career. Gulliver went 23-7 in 2019-20 and won two games in the Florida Class 4A state tournament.
Notre Dame now has three open scholarships for the 2020-21 season. The Irish are involved with a pair of transfers, former Santa Clara guard Trey Wertz and ex-Kentucky wing Johnny Juzang, a former top-40 recruit. The former included Notre Dame in his top 11, and the latter has the Irish in his top six.
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