Notre Dame MBB's young pieces continue surging, Zona steps up vs. Clemson
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Notre Dame men's basketball was picked to finish last in the ACC men's basketball preseason poll.
With two games remaining, the Irish are ranked 11th in the 15-team conference and own victories over two of the top four teams after defeating Clemson 69-62 on Saturday.
Freshman Markus Burton was the 32nd-ranked point guard in the 2024 recruiting class, per Rivals, behind five point guard recruits that signed with ACC programs.
At over 17 points per contest, Burton leads the entire ACC freshman class in scoring per game — and fed the Tigers 21 points — 17 of which came in the first half.
Senior forward Matt Zona hadn't played more than 20 minutes for head coach Micah Shrewsberry since last November.
Zona logged 28 minutes against Clemson, made two 3-pointers on Senior Day and took over defensive responsibilities on the Tigers' leading scorer, forward PJ Hall, with ND's Kebba Njie in foul trouble.
The Irish have hit another gear recently as winners of five of their last six, and the latest victory gave ND's three-man senior class of Zona, Tony Sanders and walk-on Raheem Braiton a win in what could be their final game at Purcell Pavillion. It also gave Shrewsberry a winning record of 9-8 at home in his first season in South Bend.
"I'm just proud of our guys, man," Shrewsberry said. "We talked about, before the game, Clemson [is an] NCAA Tournament team. It's not debatable, they're in the tournament. We talked about this is our chance to measure up against a team like that, see where we are and see what we look like."
"And this is the second game in a row where we've gone in, made some adjustments at halftime and then really executed those adjustments. I'm proud of our guys. Hats off to Clemson, they're good, man. They're a good team. But we're having fun. We're having a lot of fun."
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After Notre Dame chipped away at a halftime deficit and tied the score at 50 apiece with seven minutes left, Tae Davis' slam dunk through the lane out of a timeout gave the Irish a lead they never relinquished
Davis exploded for all of his 18 points in the second half, which ranked second in the Irish scoring column behind Burton. Davis, the former Indianapolis Warren Central standout, went 8-of-8 from the free-throw line down the stretch and added five rebounds.
"There's times where I want him like more, want more from him," Shrewsberry said. "He's gotta recognize matchups and get involved more ... sometimes he'll fade and be standing in the opposite corner and he's got an advantageous matchup.
"My message to Tae, and this is me and Tae talk, is, 'It's OK to turn up from the start of the game. I don't have to wait until the last nine minutes to do it. Twenty minutes in the first half, it's cool to turn up and do that the entire game.'"
Davis' starting mate, freshman Carey Booth, served as Notre Dame's marksman against the Tigers with 11 points on 3-of-6 shooting from the 3-point line. Booth, who also brought down five rebounds, benefited from Burton's penetration, which left him open on the perimeter when Clemson defenders' helped near the lane.
Around the eight-minute media timeout, Shrewsberry said he went to Booth on the bench and told him to be ready, but that's when Davis' momentum began picking up. Booth remained on the bench for the rest of the game, but Shrewsberry felt positive about his performance in 23 minutes.
"I told him at the end I thought he was fantastic," Shrewsberry said. "I think early in the game, he wasn't physical enough as he needed to be. But as the game wore on, he was. He was starting to rebound better. He had one at halftime [and] ended up getting four in the second half in really limited minutes but his confidence is picking up. His energy has been great whether he's playing well or not. He's really growing."
Clemson outscored the Irish 32-18 in the paint and were led by Hall with 21 points and seven rebounds. Tigers head coach Brad Brownell mixed up his defensive looks throughout each half, sprinkling in some 2-3 zone defense against the Irish but predominately showing man-to-man looks.
But whether Burton was facing man-to-man or zone defense, he orchestrated Notre Dame's offense with precise dribbling moves and used his shot fake to draw fouls or get defenders up in the air for less contested jump shots.
"Markus Burton is an elite player and he's just hard to handle for every team in the league," Brownell said. "He puts so much pressure on everybody that he makes everybody else better. That's what great players do."
Zona's lasting impact
The 6-9, 252-pound Zona — who originally signed with the Irish as a three-star recruit in the 2020 class — arrived at Notre Dame as an undersized center.
After having only attempted 14 3-pointers in his career before this season, Zona changed his skill set and became more of a positionless forward, which catered to the style of big that fit Notre Dame's new coaching staff and scheme.
Zona's progression from beyond the arc culminated at the 8:25 mark of the second half when he stepped comfortably into a 3-pointer in front of Notre Dame's bench, which gave ND a two-point lead at the time. Zona embraced and high-fived Shrewsberry on the way back for defense, where he played a large role in limiting Hall to five second-half points.
"Anytime I'm out there I try to help lead this team and do whatever I can to help us win," Zona said. "Markus is unbelievable for us. Kebba has been an anchor. We got a lot of guys on this team that can come in and produce. There's no lineup that we think is a lesser lineup, so we have full belief in every guy that's out there."
Zona and Sanders still have one season of NCAA eligibility available to them, though their status for next season remains unclear. Zona, Sanders and junior J.R. Konieczny are the only scholarship players who remained with the Irish during the transition from Mike Brey to Shrewsberry, and while Zona's statistics won't go down in the record books, Shrewsberry said he'll be remembered as a building block.
"He's a guy you look back on everyone and his career, and what it is while he was here, he's a guy that [will] always be a foundational piece for me," Shrewsberry said. "I'm using him as an example for other guys about how you handle yourself when things might not be going your way."
"How you handle yourself as a teammate on a daily basis. How you come in and prepare to play even though you might not play that much. He's a prime example of that. That's how you build and our culture isn't what it is without him."
Notre Dame returns to action on Tuesday for a bout at No. 9 North Carolina (23-6, 15-3 ACC), who has only lost one game at home this season, against Clemson on Feb. 6. Tip-off is 7 p.m. EST on ACC Network.
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