Cole Certa made his debut in the Rivals150 when it matters most.
Rivals ranked Certa, a 6-foot-5, 175-pound shooting guard who signed with Notre Dame men’s basketball in November, as the No. 87 overall prospect in the 2024 class in its final update to the Rivals150 on Tuesday.
Certa was previously rated as a three-star recruit and ranked as the No. 41 shooting guard. The final position rankings will be released Wednesday, but 24 shooting guards are currently listed ahead of Certa in the new Rivals150.
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One of those shooting guards is fellow Notre Dame signee Sir Mohammed, who moved up nine spots in the Rivals150 to No. 58 overall. In the 28 games with reported stats on MaxPreps from Mohammed’s senior season at Charlotte (N.C.) Myers Park, Mohammed averaged 13.1 points, 6.0 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 2.3 steals per game.
Stats for Certa’s senior season at Bradenton (Fla.) IMG Academy weren’t immediately available. Rivals highlighted his performance at the Chipotle Nationals earlier this month when he scored 24 points, including 6-of-9 shooting from 3-point range, in a 101-89 loss to Chantilly (Va.) St. Paul VI and fellow Notre Dame signee Garrett Sundra, a three-star recruit.
As it stands, Notre Dame’s three-man class is currently ranked No. 23 in the country, but that could change as the rankings are updated this week.
“We’re really excited about what he’s going to provide to us,” Notre Dame assistant coach Ryan Owens said of Certa in November. “He’s going to provide instant spacing on the basketball court. He has the ability to space the court, which allows everybody else to have more room to operate. He’s a world-class, elite shooter. We felt like we got the best shooter in the country coming to Notre Dame next year in the ‘24 class.
“He can shoot it off the bounce. He can shoot it off the catch. He can shoot it off the move. He can cut with pace and shoot it. This year, you can see as he has the ball in his hands right there, he’s a rhythm shooter as well. He’s a gym rat, high IQ, very competitive young man with a deep range. You can see him coming off using a ball screen, pulling up and shooting with confidence. There’s always a place on the team for world-class shooting.
“That’s one of the best things about him and what he's doing right now. He’s at IMG. He's training with some of the best down there. He's practicing with the best. They have a great coaching staff down there. He's getting that world-class nutrition on a daily basis. He has access to facilities at all times. Cole’s one of the individuals who is going to take advantage of the resources there at IMG just like he’s going to do fantastic things for us here at Notre Dame.”
In head coach Micah Shrewsberry's first full recruiting cycle at Notre Dame, he signed two top 100 recruits in Mohammed and Certa. The Irish last signed two top 100 recruits in the 2022 class: No. 22 JJ Starling and No. 49 Ven-Allen Lubin. They both transferred out of Notre Dame after head coach Mike Brey's departure.
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