Signing one of the best recruiting classes in the country gave Brian Snow the credibility to speak with confidence at Wednesday’s press conference announcing the addition of four players to Notre Dame’s men’s basketball program.

“When Coach [Micah Shrewsberry] and I were sitting up here last year, we were confident we were going to have a really good day today,” said Snow, the program’s director of recruiting. “We might not have known exactly who was coming and who wasn’t, but we had a plan in place. Everybody from the top down was able to execute that plan. You see the results of it today with four signees that we couldn’t be happier about.”

What Snow and Shrewsberry couldn’t have been certain about last December was that national recruiting analysts would be as impressed with Notre Dame’s 2025 class. So much so that Notre Dame’s four-man class entered Wednesday ranked No. 6 in the country by Rivals.

Notre Dame called it the highest-ranked Irish class in the modern era in its own press release. Class rankings can be hard to track, but Notre Dame didn't sign a class ranked higher than ninth on Rivals since the 2018 class. That class of five finished ranked ninth with four four-star recruits and one three-star recruit.

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Notre Dame signed three four-star recruits — small forwards Jalen Haralson and Ryder Frost and power forward Brady Koehler — and three-star center Tommy Ahneman on Wednesday. They converted from verbal commitments that were strung together in September following weekend official visits around Notre Dame football home games. Ahneman was the last to join, but he didn’t wait for ND’s 31-24 win over Louisville on Sept. 28 to end before he privately gave the Irish his pledge.

“That was a first by the way,” Shrewsberry said. “I know I haven’t been doing this a really long time, but nobody has ever committed during a football game that they’re attending. It made for a joyous rest of the weekend.”

At that point, Notre Dame’s class sat atop the national rankings already thanks to the trio of Haralson, Frost and Koehler. All three of them visited for the football program’s first home game of the season. Though that ended with a 16-14 loss to Northern Illinois, the weekend led to massive victories for the men’s basketball program.

Koehler announced his commitment first on Sept. 23. Two days later came Haralson. Two more days later came Frost.

“It was certainly a sense of accomplishment,” Snow said of the temporary No. 1 class ranking. “I don’t know if that’s happened before here. Just the fact that they all committed when they did, it just was a payoff of hard work. We had three of these kids on a visit at the same time. That is a lot of coordination so that everyone feels that they got the proper attention, everyone feels that they were wanted.”

Shrewsberry said all four of the signees will be great complementary pieces to the roster that’s already in place in South Bend. The choices on who to pursue were intentional with the skills that they will bring to the program.

“You obviously need really good basketball players,” Shrewsberry said. “You obviously need a lot of talent. But you have to recruit fit as well.

“Jalen Haralson makes Markus Burton better. Brady Koehler makes Cole Certa better. They all help each other. There’s something that each of these guys brings that makes the guys that are here better. The guys that are here make these guys all better. That’s what we’re looking for.

“Just continually adding more skill and more size. Now you got Cole Certa at 6-5 and Ryder Frost at 6-6, you got two big shooters that are hard to deal with running off screens. Brady Koehler and Jalen Haralson are two big wings that can both be really switchable defensively, can handle the ball, can rebound it and start a break. Both have high, high IQs, can both shoot the ball. Now you’re worried about multiple people handling the ball, passing the ball, playing in different ways.

“It allows us to be very, very versatile and very, very hard to prepare for. That’s the compliment that I love hearing after games. Man, it’s really hard to prepare for you guys. Yeah, wait ‘til we got more people.”

Haralson is the undisputed gem of the class. The Irish were fortunate to have a relationship with Haralson spanning back to his freshman year in high school when he first expressed interest in playing for Shrewsberry when he was the head coach at Penn State. Snow and Shrewsberry weren’t convinced that getting Haralson to Penn State would be feasible, but it became easier to recruit Haralson to stay in his home state of Indiana.

Haralson, whose received five-star ratings from multiple recruiting networks, has the kind of talent that could translate to a one-and-done situation that leads to him entering the NBA Draft after one season at Notre Dame. But that never changed how Notre Dame recruited him.

“We recruited him like we recruited everybody else,” Shrewsberry said. “Sold him on the vision of how he could help us.”

Shrewsberry joked that everybody can be a one-and-done in college basketball whether it’s to the NBA or into the transfer portal. Whether it’s a freshman or a graduate transfer arriving for one season, Shrewsberry tells them to unpack and make sure they feel like a part of the program.

“We cannot, we will not, we’re not going to have success with renegades,” Shrewsberry said. “Like I’m just coming in and getting numbers and I’m going to show everything that I’ve got. That’s not who [Haralson] is as a player anyway. One of the best things he does is his ability to make everybody around him better.

“We sold him on our basketball vision. We sold him on Notre Dame. We sold him on what Notre Dame can do for you and your future.

“I don’t know what his future’s going to be. But whatever his goals and his dreams are, I said we’re going to help you get there.”

With the help of Notre Dame’s assistant coaches, here’s a closer look at each of Notre Dame’s signees.

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Size: 6-7, 205

Ratings and rankings: Four stars, No. 6 small forward and No. 17 overall

Hometown: Fishers, Ind.

High school: La Porte (Ind.) La Lumiere

AAU program: Indy Heat in Nike EYBL

Stats: 16.3 points, 6.7 rebounds and 5.9 assists as a junior at La Lumiere; 11.1 points and 4.0 rebounds in seven games for USA Basketball at the FIBA U17 World Cup; 21.2 points and 7.3 rebounds for Indy Heat on Nike EYBL spring circuit; 16.6 ppg at Nike Peach Jam in July.

What assistant coach Ryan Owens said: “He has the ability to really get after it off the bounce and get to the rim. Now you see him getting to his spots. Good off the bounce. Gets to his spots on the court with his size and his athletic ability. A lot of times when he raises up, it’s just him and the rim. That’s unique. He’ll show you a little bit of his game off the bounce, shooting the 3. Catch-and-shoot 3. I thought he shot the ball really, really well when I saw him in Turkey this summer with catch-and-shoot 3s. Now you see him assisting. That’s one of the best things about his game is how he makes everybody else around him better. He can really pass that ball. He makes his teammates better. People like playing with him. He has a certain joy about himself on and off the court.”

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Size: 6-6, 205

Ratings and rankings: Four stars, No. 27 small forward and No. 96 overall

Hometown: Beverly, Mass.

High school: Phillips Exeter (N.H.) Academy

AAU program: Middlesex Magic in Under Armour Association

Stats: 21.6 points, 7.7 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game while shooting nearly 44% from 3 as a junior at Phillips Exeter; 15.8 points, 5.4 rebounds and 1.8 assists in 18 games while shooting 45.2% from 3 for Middlesex Magic on UAA spring/summer circuit.

What assistant coach Mike Farrelly said: “He can really throw the ball in the hoop. One of the best shooters in the country. Deep range, automatic. This is an AAU tournament back in May in Ohio, and he made eight 3s in one of these games. Really picked up a ton of offers after that weekend. Certainly, one of the finest shooters in the country both off the catch, and you’ll see a lot of movement shooting as well. … He’s a really good cutter. He’s an underrated athlete. He’s an underrated passer. He can really do everything.”

Size: 6-9, 180

Rating and rankings: Four stars, No. 16 power forward, No. 111 overall

Hometown: Indianapolis

High school: Indianapolis Cathedral

AAU program: Indy Heat in Nike EYBL

Stats: 15.5 points, 6.5 rebounds and 2.3 blocks per game while shooting 38.6% from 3 as a junior at Indianapolis Cathedral.

What assistant coach Ryan Owens said: “When you think of Brady Koehler, that’s the definition of upside. He produces now, but he still has so much upside. 6-9, 7-2.5 wing span. One of the guys that grows late. He’s grown six or seven inches through high school but never got awkward. Check out his fluidity, how he runs up and down the court, catch and shoot 3s. You see him off the bounce a little bit getting to his spot. One of the more underrated skills he has: he’s an unbelievable off-the-ball shot blocker. He can get that ball of the glass and just go and make plays. Getting it, starting the break and transition.”

Size: 6-10, 240

Rating: Three stars

Hometown: West Fargo, N.D.

High school: St. Paul (Minn.) Cretin-Derham Hall

AAU program: Howard Pulley in Nike EYCL

Stats: 20.3 points, 13.3 rebounds, 2.2 blocks and 1.9 assists as a junior at West Fargo (N.D.) Sheyenne; 20.7 points and 8.1 rebounds in 11 games for Howard Pulley in spring EYCL circuit.

What associate head coach Kyle Getter said: “Besides being 6-10, he’s got great footwork, hands, skill. He’s ambidextrous. He can score really efficiently around the rim with either hand. One of the things that stood out immediately about Tommy was that he knows who he is. He’s a great teammate.”

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