ND MEN'S BASKETBALL: Irish kickoff season Thursday against Radford

Nov. 10—SOUTH BEND — Another Notre Dame men's basketball season gets underway Thursday when the Fighting Irish host Radford at Purcell Pavilion (8 p.m., ACC Network).

Notre Dame is coming off a 24-11 season that saw them qualify for the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2017. The Irish were one of the last four teams selected for the tournament, sending them to the First Four in Dayton.

After winning a wild, 89-87 double-overtime game over Rutgers in its tourney opener, the 11th-seeded Irish then upset sixth-seeded Alabama in the Round of 64. The season would come to an end two days later for Notre Dame, as they lost to third-seeded Texas Tech, 59-53, in the Round of 32.

While there's plenty of experience returning for the Irish this season, they'll have three key players to replace in Blake Wesley, Paul Atkinson and Prentiss Hubb. Wesley, who was selected 25th overall in the NBA Draft by the San Antonio Spurs, led the team with an average of 14.4 points per game last year.

Atkinson proved to be a solid big man for the Irish, averaging 12.5 points and a team-leading 6.9 rebounds a contest. Hubb was the team's leader in assists a season ago, averaging four of those a game.

It will be difficult to replace those players' production, but a roster anchored by four returning graduate seniors will have a good chance to overcome those losses. Guards Cormac Ryan, Dane Goodwin and Trey Wertz, along with forward Nate Laszewski are back for a fifth season of college basketball, all of which were part of the Irish's core rotation of players last season.

A key newcomer is freshman JJ Starling. The 6'4" New York native was ranked 27th overall in the Class of 2022 by ESPN and the sixth-best point guard in the class. While playing for LaLumiere in 2020-21, he averaged almost 15 points a game. In his senior season back at Baker High School in New York, he scored 28.6 points a contest.

It's a later start to the season for Notre Dame, as they will be the last ACC team to officially play a game. Most teams began their seasons on Monday, as there were more than 100 games on the college basketball schedule on the first day of the week.

"They're ready to go," said Notre Dame head coach Mike Brey of his team. "The older guys, we've went through the summer and we're ready to go. I do like that games come at us quick here."

Radford also hasn't played a game this season. Even though the Highlanders went 11-18 last year, Brey expects them to come ready to play Thursday night.

"Good guards," said Brey of Radford. "They go into the transfer portal, and all of a sudden, they're older. They can score. They play fast. ... Everything's part of your resume, and I'm going to tell our guys that I expect a hard game."

IRISH SIGN THREE ON SIGNING DAY

While the immediate focus is on the upcoming season for Notre Dame, the future was on a lot of people's minds Wednesday as the Irish officially signed three recruits for the class of 2023.

The most notable one, locally, is Penn High School senior Markus Burton. In his junior season, Burton led the Kingsmen to a Class 4A regional championship game appearance, averaging nearly 27 points, six rebounds, five assists and three steals a game along the way.

At 5'10", Burton was seen as being undersized by many at the end of his junior campaign. A huge summer showing on the AAU circuit created a lot of buzz around the point guard, though, and many Division-I offers soon followed. Eventually, Brey offered him a scholarship, and Burton verbally committed to the Irish just a few days later.

"I'm thrilled to have him," said Brey of Burton. "He's got to score a lot for his high school team as we know, but what was interesting to watch with him ... he was getting into the lane and finding people (on the outside). He doesn't do that as much at Penn because he has to score, but he can do that."

The other two players in the signing class are Parker Friedrichsen and Brady Dunlap. Friedrichsen is from Bixby, Oklahoma, and was a finalist for the Oklahoma Gatorade Player of the Year last year. The 6'4" shooting guard average nearly 28 points a game as a junior, along with five rebounds, four assists and 3.3 steals.

Dunlap is from Studio City, California. The 6'7" wing player is the 82nd-ranked overall recruit by ESPN. This past summer, Dunlap averaged 16 points playing for Strive for Greatness in the Nike EYBL Circuit.

"Parker's high school coach and Brady's father both really understood our program and how their skill sets would really fit for us," Brey said. "They can also do the math that there's a lot of guards leaving the building. There's playing time available (next year) when you look at our roster and there's all these fifth-year seniors."

Austin Hough can be reached at austin.hough@goshennews.com or at 574-538-2360. Follow him on Twitter at @AustinHoughTGN.