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Penn State transfer Kebba Njie follows Shrewsberrry to Notre Dame

Former Penn State forward Kebba Njie has rejoined former Nittany Lions head coach Micah Shrewsberry at Notre Dame.
Former Penn State forward Kebba Njie has rejoined former Nittany Lions head coach Micah Shrewsberry at Notre Dame. (Morry Gash, Associated Press)

Beyond some needed size and some starting experience, coach Micah Shrewsberry’s newest addition to the Notre Dame men’s basketball roster offers something of which it had become completely devoid.

A sophomore-to-be.

Kebba Njie, a 6-foot-10, 237-pound forward who committed to the Irish on Saturday, becomes the second transfer and fifth new face overall since Shrewsberry was named to succeed Mike Brey back on March 24. Additionally, Notre Dame landed its first recruit in the 2024 class in 6-5 guard Cole Certa on Thursday.

Njie spent his freshman season with Shrewsberry at Penn State, playing in all 37 games for the Nittany Lions and starting in 26 of them. That’s 11 more college starts than the rest of the current Irish roster combined.

Njie brings the number of Irish scholarship players back up to nine after it had dwindled to four, with all three ND players in Njie’s class transferring, as well as grad seniors Robby Carmody (Mercer) and Cormac Ryan (North Carolina), the latter a multi-year starter.

Additionally, two of the three players who had signed with Notre Dame back in November opted out, guard Parker Friedrichsen (Wake Forest) and wing Brady Dunlap (St. John’s).

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Njie, a Centerville, Ohio, product, spent his senior high school season as a teammate to former Notre Dame guard JJ Starling at LaLumiere School in LaPorte, Ind., then averaged 3.4 points and 3.5 rebounds at Penn State this past season. He shot 52% from the field and 60% from the free-throw line.

Starling (Syracuse) was one of the three departing sophomores-to-be, along with forwards Ven-Allen Lubin (undecided) and Dom Campbell (Howard).

“He’s going to be a project offensively,” Rivals basketball recruiting director Rob Cassidy said of Njie. “Now the good news is he runs the floor incredibly well, and he has the agility and the length to become an offensive force. He just hasn’t done it yet.

“What he can give you right away is rebounding. That’s what he was always known as a prospect. That’s what he does best. He’s got good instincts. He’s not going to stretch the floor and play out on the perimeter.

“He’s got really good touch around the rim. Good hands. They’re going to have to teach him to face up and maybe diversify his post maneuvers if they want him to be a scoring threat.”

Njie joins fellow transfer Julian Roper II, a junior from Northwestern, and former Penn State signees Carey Booth, Logan Imes and coach’s son Braeden Shrewsberry, November Irish signee Markus Burton and the three scholarship holdovers — seniors Matt Zona and Tony Sanders Jr., and junior J.R. Konieczny.

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Shrewsberry said last week that his preference in building a team would lean toward recruiting high school players, in part because the transfer portal felt too much like speed-dating. However, in Njie, there is at least familiarity.

“I feel like I'm a GM, where you don’t want to make mistakes,” Shrewsberry said during the Notre Dame Day fundraiser last week. “You don’t want to take a player that’s going to handcuff you for a couple of years, because you’re worried about next year. We want to find good players who are able to help us. We want to be competitive next year. Like, I’m in this to win.

“I don’t have a lot of patience. We're coming in here to win, but we’re going to do it with the kids who fit Notre Dame. We're not going to take chances on somebody who doesn’t fit here. Maybe he makes us a couple of games better next year, but it hurts us in the future.”

Njie was the No. 147 player overall and No. 16 power forward coming out of high school in the 2022 class. His best basketball figures to be ahead of him.

“He’s got time to develop,” Cassidy said. “He’s still young. He’s played one season of college basketball. The building blocks are there. He moved incredibly well. I think you can teach him. The tools are there. It’s just about developing him as a post player on the offensive inside.

“He’s not an elite rim protector, but he does change shots and he can be something in the paint on the defensive end right away. He’s probably a four-year player who can come into his own as a third- or fourth-year player rather than expecting him to impact the game right now at a high level.”

Notre Dame Men's Basketball projected 2023-24 roster
Name Position Class Height, Weight

Tony Sanders Jr.

Guard

Senior

6-7, 215

Matt Zona

Forward

Senior

6-9, 242

J.R. Konieczny

Guard

Junior

6-7, 202

Julian Roper II

Guard

Junior

6-3, 180

Kebba Njie

Forward

Sophomore

6-10, 237

Carey Booth

Forward

Freshman

6-9, 215

Markus Burton

Guard

Freshman

5-10, 170

Logan Imes

Guard

Freshman

6-4, 170

Braeden Shrewsberry

Guard

Freshman

6-2, 175

Alex Wade*

Guard

Junior

6-0, 170

*Denotes walk-on player


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