Notre Dame men's basketball loses two players to transfer portal
After going three days without any roster changes, the transfer portal — which opened on Monday — became a destination for Notre Dame men's basketball on Thursday with two upperclassmen announcing their plans to leave the program.
Forward Matt Zona and guard Alex Wade, the latter of whom was elevated from walk-on to scholarship player prior to the 2023-24 season, made separate posts on X/Twitter with personalized letters confirming their departures from the Irish program.
Both were recruited under former head coach Mike Brey and chose to remain in South Bend for the first season of head coach Micah Shrewsberry. Zona went through Senior Day festivities on March 2 against Clemson and will have one year of eligibility remaining in 2024-25 due to COVID-19. Wade, a junior on Notre Dame's roster, will be a graduate transfer at his next institution because he earned his ND degree in three years.
Zona, a team captain, was the only one of the two to find a spot within Shrewsberry's rotation with 32 games played and six starts. Wade, who appeared in seven games this season, was behind the logjam of Markus Burton, Braeden Shrewsberry, Logan Imes and Julian Roper II in Notre Dame's backcourt. Wade averaged less than one point per contest off the bench.
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In 2023-24, Zona averaged 2.4 points and 2.4 rebounds per game. The 6-foot-9, 252-pound forward played in 75 games across four seasons and finished with 130 total points and 133 total rebounds. Zona brought down a career-best 76 rebounds this season and also shot 33% from the 3-point line.
"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," Micah Shrewsberry said after the Clemson win. "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."
As a recruit, Zona starred at Oradell (N.J.) Bergen Catholic and was a three-star recruit in the 2020 class. He chose the Irish offer over Penn State and St. Joseph's and reported 12 total offers in his recruiting process.
Wade, a former standout at San Diego Cathedral Catholic, accepted a preferred walk-on spot for the Irish in the 2021 class over scholarship offers from Air Force, UC Santa Barbara and Hawaii.
The 6-0, 173-pound guard played 13 total games in his Irish career and scored three points and dished four assists in those contests.
Following Zona's decision to leave, Notre Dame now has 12 scholarship players expected to be on the 2024-25 roster, including 2024 signees Sir Mohammed, Cole Certa and Garrett Sundra. That could shrink to 11 if senior guard Tony Sanders Jr. enters the portal as well.
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