As head coach Micah Shrewsberry looks to continue building Notre Dame men's basketball progam, he'll have to worry about attrition from his roster.
That became clear again Monday when freshman forward Carey Booth entered the transfer portal. Booth announced the news on his Instagram account Monday afternoon.
In the announcement, Booth said he is keeping all of his options open, including a return to Notre Dame. Two Notre Dame players already entered the transfer portal in March: senior forward Matt Zona and junior Alex Wade, a former walk-on.
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Booth, a former Penn State signee, followed Shrewsberry to Notre Dame as a recruit last offseason when the Irish hired Shrewsberry away from the Nittany Lions. Booth started 19 games and played in all 33 for the Irish (13-20) during the 2023-24 season. He logged the seventh-most minutes for Notre Dame as he averaged just under 20 minutes per game.
Booth scored 6.4 points and grabbed 4.3 rebounds per game at Notre Dame. He shot 39.1% (75-of-192) from the field and 29.7% (35-118) from 3-point range. Booth also blocked a team-high 21 shots.
When Booth eventually signed with Notre Dame in May, he became the highest-ranked recruit in the Irish class. Rivals ranked the four-star recruit out of Wolfeboro (N.H.) Brewster Academy as the No. 82 overall prospect and the No. 16 power forward in the 2023 class.
Shrewsberry issued a public challenge to Booth and sophomore forward Kebba Njie following Notre Dame's 73-61 loss to Miami on Jan. 24. He kept both on the bench for the entire second half even when a smaller lineup started to run out of gas after making a nice run at a comeback.
"I’ll stick with the dudes that are going to give me the effort that I want," Shrewsberry said following the game.
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Booth, who played less than 12 full minutes in the Miami loss, didn't play more than 15 minutes in the next three games — losses to Boston College, Virginia and Pittsburgh. But Booth's playing time increased down the stretch. He played at least 20 minutes in nine of the last 11 games of the season and started the final 10 games. He averaged 8.1 points and 4.5 rebounds in that 10-game stretch, in which the Irish won six games, to close the season.
Booth's father, Calvin Booth, is the general manager for the NBA's Denver Nuggets. The elder Booth played college basketball at Penn State (1995-99) before spending 10 years as a player in the NBA.
Fellow freshmen Markus Burton (17.5 points per game) and Braden Shrewsberry (10.2) outperformed Booth this past season despite being ranked lower than him on Rivals. Both Burton and Braeden Shrewsberry were rated as three-star recruits. Rivals ranked Burton as the No. 140 overall prospect in the 2023 class. Rivals excluded Braeden Shrewsberry from its top 150 and ranked him as the No. 40 shooting guard.
With more attrition possible, Notre Dame's projected roster for the 2024-25 season currently consists of 11 scholarship players: three incoming freshmen in four-star guard Sir Mohammed, three-star forward Garrett Sundra and three-star guard Cole Certa; three returning sophomores in guards Burton, Shrewsberry and Logan Imes, two returning juniors in Njie and Tae Davis, two returning seniors in J.R. Konieczny and Julian Roper II and one returning graduate senior in Tony Sanders Jr. The NCAA scholarship limit is 13.
Sanders, who played a total of 15:28 in seven games last season, remains a prime transfer portal candidate on Notre Dame's roster.
The Irish have also been actively trying to add through the transfer portal with scholarships available. UMass forward Josh Cohen, who averaged 15.9 points and 6.8 rebounds last season, visited the Irish last week but has since announced a graduate transfer commitment to Arkansas.
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