SOUTH BEND — Here comes a sentence that hasn’t often been connected to the Notre Dame basketball program.
It’s about (freaking) time.
It pertains to the latest addition to the Notre Dame basketball roster for 2026-27 in former University of Pennsylvania combo guard Ethan Roberts. Too many guys over too many seasons seemed to choose Notre Dame for reasons other than the obvious.
That being, this was an elite college basketball program not that long ago. One that won an Atlantic Coast Conference tournament championship by beating Duke and North Carolina on consecutive nights on Tobacco Road. One that won 32 games and got to an Elite Eight where it nearly beat then-unbeaten Kentucky for the program’s second Final Four.
One that produced generational program talents (and even better guys) up and down the roster. That group may not have been the most highly recruited or had sure-fire NBA futures in their games, but the way they worked and the way they won left lasting impressions.
That was Notre Dame basketball. Remember them? Remember that season?
Roberts remembers. That’s one reason why when it came time to enter the transfer portal — and he entered it kicking and screaming against his better basketball wishes — there was only one school on his wish list. Others came calling after Roberts finished his second season at Penn under head coach and former Irish assistant coach Fran McCaffery, but there was only one school that the 6-foot-5, 195-pound Roberts had eyes on.
It was the first school to contact him. The school he committed on Thursday afternoon to play his graduate season at. This wasn’t a personal decision for Roberts as much as it was a family decision.
“A dream come true,” Roberts told the Tribune as he traversed the Penn campus. “I’ve been a Notre Dame fan since I started breathing. Not many people can say that they’re going to play at their dream school, but I’m very, very excited.
“Man, I can’t wait to give all that I’ve got this year and make it a good one.”
A native of Arlington Heights, Illinois, Roberts knows Notre Dame well. His grandparents went to Notre Dame. His uncle, Jim Cooling, went to Notre Dame Law School and has Notre Dame football season tickets. The first time he attended an Irish football home game, Roberts was seven years old. It was against USC. He even spent some time down on the field.
“I was,” he said, “head over heels.”
Not only for football. On his official visit to the Nore Dame basketball program earlier this month, he stepped inside Rolfs Hall and stepped back in time to 2015. He saw all the plaques and the snapshots and the mementos from that magical Notre Dame season. He basically melted right then in Rolfs.
That was his team. Those were his guys. Roberts talked of watching power forward Bonzie Colson, a freshman that year. He talked of watching another freshman, guard Matt Farrell, grow into an All-ACC guard. He remembers falling hard for swingman Pat Connaughton, the team’s lone captain that season, and researching his insane vertical jump (44 inches at the 2015 NBA combine).
Roberts patterned his game after the guy they called Planet Pat. He watched the Kentucky game and was crushed was crushed at the end. He remembers basically everything about that 2014-15 team.
“That was my favorite team ever,” Roberts said. “It was cool to see those names in the facility. I grew up watching those guys.”
If it wasn’t going to be Penn, it had to be Notre Dame basketball
In choosing Notre Dame, Roberts wants to be one of those guys that kids look to and say they want to be like, just like he did with Connaughton and Colson and Farrell from that 2014-15 team.
“That’s how much this place means to me,” he said. “I’m going to give everything I can to make people proud that I play for Notre Dame and to see what we’ve got here.”
Roberts had no desire to leave Penn. He still doesn’t. But the Ivy League being the Ivy League, he had no choice. After previous one-year stops at Drake (he redshirted in 2023-24) and Army (he was the Patriot League freshman of the year in 2022-23), Roberts has one year of eligibility remaining.
The Ivy League does not allow graduate students. That’s how former Yale power forward Paul Atkinson found his way to Notre Dame in 2021-22. Roberts hopes to follow in Atkinson’s footsteps, albeit reluctantly.
“How many times do you see a guy into the portal who doesn’t want to go in the portal?” he asked. “I didn’t want to leave. I love Coach McCaffery (but) I wanted to go to somewhere that really means a lot to me with good people and that’s Notre Dame.”
Roberts was often asked during a season in which he averaged 16.9 points, 3.9 rebounds and 2.3 assists in 30.5 minutes a game about next season. Where would he go? Where did he want to go? He refused to ponder it, often saying only that he wanted to play for a program that didn’t have eight-hour bus rides to away games (like at Penn).
Charter flights are the mode of away-game transportation at Notre Dame.
“As long as they wanted him, he wanted them and it was evident right away they wanted him,” McCaffery said by cell phone from Romania, where his son, Patrick, plays professionally. “It was over as soon as they wanted him. I’m thrilled for him.”
Roberts is the second graduate transfer to commit to Notre Dame during portal season. On April 14, the Irish landed power forward Logan Duncomb, the 2026 Big South player of the year at Winthrop. Duncomb and Roberts will help a young Notre Dame get old.
Don’t tell Roberts that Notre Dame has staggered through four straight losing seasons, and three straight under head coach Micah Shrewsberry. Don’t tell him many believe it will be five and four next season. Don’t tell him many are down and about out on Notre Dame basketball.
He won’t hear it. That was then.
“They’re going to get dudes in that program who want to win,” Roberts said. “I’ve got all the faith in Coach Shrewsberry and staff that we’re going to win.”
Do that and what was said Thursday about the addition of Roberts will be said again about Notre Dame next season, albeit for different reasons.
It’s about (freaking) time.
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: The real reason Notre Dame basketball added another graduate transfer
Reporting by Tom Noie, South Bend Tribune / South Bend Tribune
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
