Notre Dame men's basketball found its first addition of the offseason.
Former Northern Arizona forward Carson Towt committed to transfer to Notre Dame, his agency announced Sunday. The 6-foot-8, 235-pound Towt led Division I in rebounds per game last season with 12.4. Towt also averaged 13.3 points per game while shooting 56.9% from the field.
Adding an interior presence was arguably the biggest need for head coach Micah Shrewsberry heading into next season. The Irish are returning just two players taller than 6-foot-6 from last year's roster: 6-11 forward Garrett Sundra, who will be a sophomore next season, and 6-10 forward Kebba Njie, a senior-to-be.
The Irish have inexperienced size on the way in the incoming freshman class — 6-10 center Tommy Ahneman and 6-9 forward Brady Koehler — but Towt shouldn't need time to develop when he arrives at Notre Dame. He graduated from Gilbert (Ariz.) High in 2019 when Notre Dame's incoming freshmen were finishing up sixth grade.
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Towt averaged 10.7 points and 11.2 rebounds while leading Gilbert to a Class 5A state championship in Arizona in 2019. He signed with Cal Baptist out of high school but ended up transferring to Northern Arizona and joined the program for the spring semester of the 2019-20 season, in which he didn't play. Towt worked his way into the starting lineup at Northern Arizona in the 2021-22 season and became a full-time starter the following season.
Northern Arizona, which competes in the Big Sky Conference, ended its season with a 18-16 record. The conference received one bid in the NCAA Tournament: No. 14 seed Montana (25-10), which lost to Wisconsin in the first round.
Towt, who will complete a graduate transfer, finished his Northern Arizona career with 120 starts in 123 games. He was forced to miss the 2023-24 season due to an injury, which allowed him to gain eligibility for next season. Towt played the most productive basketball of his career last season. He improved his rebounding average by 4.6 rebounds and his scoring average by 3.2 points per game since his last healthy season.
Towt led Division I in total rebounds with 423 and was one of only two to surpass 400 rebounds last season. He recorded three more rebounds than UAB's Yaxel Lendeborg despite playing in three fewer games. Njie finished last season as Notre Dame's leading rebounder with 182 at a rate of 5.9 per game. The Irish finished ranked No. 188 out of 355 Division I programs in rebounds per game (35.09).
Towt does most of his work in or around the paint. He didn't attempt any 3-pointers last season and struggles at the free throw line. Towt is a career 42.2% free throw shooter after shooting 37.9% last season. Towt is a decent passer with 115 assists (3.4 per game) and 63 turnovers (1.9 per game) last season.
The addition of Towt puts Notre Dame at a projected roster of 12 scholarship players next season. The Irish lost a pair of potential returners to the transfer portal: forward Tae Davis, who committed to Oklahoma, and guard J.R. Konieczny. The current scholarship limit for men's basketball is 13, but it could be raised to 15 with impending NCAA vs. House settlement.
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