SOUTH BEND – Now the fun starts for Notre Dame basketball.
If fun is defined by a total revamp/reboot/reset of the roster under head coach Micah Shrewsberry, then yes, the 14-day transfer portal window that opens Tuesday, April 7 and closes Tuesday, April 21 will be fun.
Coaching change aside, Notre Dame has never been in a situation that it finds itself in having to go to the portal to replace so many key pieces off a team that finished 13-18 overall, 4-14 in the Atlantic Coast Conference and left home from the 2026 league tournament for the first time in program history.
Will that happen again in 2026-27? Is this program doomed to fall further into the abyss? Are better days ahead? The next 14 days will start to tell that tale.
Notre Dame basketball transfer portal roster additions for 2026-27
∎ On Saturday, April 25, former Rutgers combo forward Bryce Dortch committed to Notre Dame. A former three-star recruit from Somerville, Massachusetts, the 6-foot-9, 210-pound Dortch averaged 2.1 points, 3.2 rebounds and 0.1 assists in 14.4 minutes last season for a Rutgers team that finished 14-20 overall, 6-14 in the Big Ten. Dortch shot .610 percent from the field and .536 percent from the foul line in 14.4 minutes per game. He played a then-season high 19 minutes with four points and and two rebounds in the November 25, 2025 loss to Notre Dame in Las Vegas. He did not play in the 2024 overtime win over Notre Dame.
∎ On Sunday, April 19, former Gonzaga point guard Braeden Smith committed to Notre Dame. He previous played at Colgate, where he earned Patriot League player of the year honors as a sophomore after averaging 12.5 points, 5.5 rebounds and 5.6 assists. A native of Seattle, Smith spent two seasons at Gonzaga (one redshirt in 2024-25). He averaged 5.1 points, 2.2 rebounds and 3.6 assists in 17.1 minutes last season as Gonzaga finished 31-4. He played in all 35 games with 18 starts.
Smith finished second on the squad with 127 assists and was fourth with 38 turnovers over 597 minutes.
∎ On Thursday, April 16, former University of Pennsylvania combo guard Ethan Roberts committed to the only school he wanted to play at for his final season – Notre Dame.
Roberts called the commitment not a personal decision but a family decision. He admitted to being a Notre Dame fan ever since he was born.
A 6-foot-5, 195-pound native of Arlington Heights, Illinois, Roberts also previously played at Army and Drake before two seasons at Penn. He averaged 16.9 points, 3.9 rebounds and 2.3 assists in 30.5 minutes per game last season under former Irish assistant coach Fran McCaffery. In his one season at Army, Roberts earned Patriot League player of the year honors after averaging 12.4 points and 4.4 rebounds per game.
∎ On Tuesday, April 14, an Irish program overdue for some good news finally got some with the first of what is expected to be numerous transfer portal additions.
Logan Duncomb, a 6-foot-10, 230-pound native of Cincinnati who played last season at Winthrop, offered his commitment as the first piece to the 2026 Irish transfer puzzle. Duncomb, who played one season at Xavier and two at Indiana, averaged 18.3 points and 8.9 rebounds last season for a Winthrop team that finished 23-11 overall, 13-3 in the Big South.
Duncomb earned Big South first team and player of the year honors.
Notre Dame basketball roster subtractions after 2025-26 season
There have been many and it has been painful.
As of Monday, April 6, six Notre Dame players have announced plans to transfer. In alphabetical order, they are point guard Markus Burton (two seasons of eligibility remaining), shooting guard Cole Certa (two), shooting guard Ryder Frost (three), wing guard Jalen Haralson (three), point guard Sir Mohammed (two) and power forward Garrett Sundra (two).
On Wednesday, April 15, Sundra announced that he would attend James Madison while Haralson committed to Tennessee. On Monday, April 13, Burton announced his commitment to Indiana via social media. He also reportedly considered Houston. On Sunday, April 12, Certa committed to Clemson. Certa had a DNC (do not, contact) tag when he entered the portal, meaning he likely previously knew his destination.
Five players from last season’s roster – Tommy Ahneman, Logan Imes, Brady Koehler, Braeden Shrewsberry and Brady Stevens – are expected back. Imes, Koehler and Shrewsberry have publicly announced that they will return in 2026-27.
The transfer portal also includes (kind of) a member of the coaching staff. Associate head coach Kyle Getter, who spent three seasons at Notre Dame, was named head coach on April 6 of California Baptist, which finished 25-9 last season and advanced to the NCAA Tournament. It lost to Kansas in the first round. Getter also was a finalist for the Pepperdine job.
On Thursday, April 9, a seventh player from the 2025-26 Notre Dame team entered the portal. Kind of. Power forward Kebba Njie, who played 114 career games over four full seasons, hopes to retain an additional year of eligibility after appearing in 17 games (more than half) this season before suffering a knee injury. Njie is expected to apply for an BCAA waiver, but fell far short (eight games) of being eligible to get this last season back because of injury.
Notre Dame basketball transfer wish list
Five returning players and three incoming freshmen (guards Nick Shrewsberry and Jonathan Sanderson and center Gan Solongo) put Notre Dame at eight players for 2026-27. The Irish can add as many as seven this spring to reach the NCAA maximum allowed (15).
In order of importance, here’s what the Irish need:
Notre Dame basketball transfer additions history
The Irish have added 21 transfers in 27 seasons, dating back to the summer of 1999 (prior to the only season of former head coach Matt Doherty), when former Oklahoma All-American Ryan Humphrey became the first transfer in program history.
Here’s a look back at the portal additions over the last 10 years. College transfers could play at once (without the one-year sit rule) beginning in 2020.
2026: Devin Brown WG (Davidson); Bryce Dortch F (Rutgers); Logan Duncomb PF (Winthrop); Ethan Roberts WG (Penn); Braeden Smith SG (Gonzaga).
2025: *Matthew MacLellan (Madonna), *Carson Towt (Northern Arizona)
2024: *Matt Allocco (Princeton), *Burke Chebuhar (Lehigh), *Nikita Konstantynovskyi (Monmouth)
2023: Tae Davis (Seton Hall), Kebba Njie (Penn State), Julian Roper (Northwestern)
2022: *Marcus Hammond (Niagara)
2021: *Paul Atkinson Jr. (Yale)
2020: Trey Wertz (Santa Clara)
2019: Cormac Ryan (Stanford)
2018: None
2017: Juwan Durham (Connecticut)
*Graduate transfers who played one season at Notre Dame
Notre Dame basketball transfer departures history
2026: Markus Burton (Indiana), Cole Certa (Clemson), Ryder Frost (George Washington), Jalen Haralson (Tennessee), Sir Mohammed, #Kebba Njie (petitioning NCAA for additional year), Garrett Sundra (James Madison).
2025: Tae Davis (Oklahoma), J.R. Koniezcny (Florida Gulf Coast)
2024: Carey Booth (Illinois), Matt Zona (Iona)
2023: Dom Campbell (Howard), Robby Carmody (Mercer), Ven-Allen Lubin (Vanderbilt), Cormac Ryan (North Carolina), J.J. Starling (Syracuse)
2022: Elijah Morgan (The Citadel), Elijah Taylor (Quinnipiac)
2021: Nik Djogo (Northeastern)
2020: Chris Doherty (Northeastern)
2019: D.J. Harvey (Vanderbilt)
2018: Elijah Burns (Siena)
2017: Matt Ryan (Vanderbilt)
#-No college eligibility remaining
Follow South Bend Tribune and NDInsider columnist Tom Noie on X (formerly Twitter): @tnoieNDI. Contact Noie at tnoie@sbtinfo.com
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Notre Dame basketball transfer portal tracker: who’s in, who’s out?
Reporting by Tom Noie, South Bend Tribune / South Bend Tribune
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