SOUTH BEND — What’s in a number?
More importantly for this column, who’s in a number? A Notre Dame basketball jersey number.
In FIFA World Cup, players at specific positions are assigned specific jersey numbers. Goalies wear No. 1. Wingers wear No. 7. A team’s top striker gets No. 9. With the country in the midst of World Cup fever (GOOOOOOAAAAALLLLLL!!!!), it gets you thinking — what if Notre Dame basketball had jersey-specific numbers at the same positions for players every season?
What if the starting Irish point guard could wear only one pre-determined number based on the best to do it in program history? Same for the shooting guard and the small forward, power forward and center. What number would each wear?
The following is one list of what position-specific jersey numbers might look like for today’s Irish. For this discussion’s sake — this is not an argument or a debate and there are no right or wrong answers — we limited the possible number choices to five at each position. We could go deeper at some spots. Probably should at every spot.
Here are the top 25, and, ultimately, the top five jerseys with a bonus sixth pick.
Point guard
In the mix: No. 1 (Chris Thomas); No. 4 (David Rivers, John Paxson); No. 22 (Jerian Grant); No. 23 (Ben Hansbrough).
The jersey is: No. 22 (Jerian Grant). This was the toughest call. Rivers and his résumé would warrant the edge, but drill down a bit more on Grant to understand his true value.
Grant was the most talented player on a 2010-11 team that went 27-7, but he sat out the season as a redshirt because that team had too many guys. He could have left then but stayed. Grant lost the second semester of his junior season to an academic issue. He could have left again but returned to have one of the greatest one-year runs in program history. Look what he did in 2014-15. Look what the Irish did in 2014-15. Notre Dame won an Atlantic Coast Conference tournament championship after beating Duke and North Carolina on consecutive nights with Grant at the point. Notre Dame should have won an NCAA Tournament regional final with Grant at the point. He drove the Irish to a school record 32 wins.
For nearly three decades, Rivers was the Irish point guard standard. Since 2014-15, Grant has been the best example of how an Irish point guard can play and distribute and make guys around him better and, oh, yeah, win.
Shooting guard
In the mix: No. 12 (Elmer Bennett);No. 13 (Matt Carroll); No. 15 (Colin Falls); No. 32 (Steve Vasturia); No. 34 (Austin Carr).
The jersey is: No 34 (Austin Carr). This was the easiest call. Any all-whatever team for Notre Dame basketball begins with Carr. There is no debate. When his college career ended in 1971, he was the greatest to ever wear the Notre Dame uniform. Fifty-five years and counting later, AC remains the gold standard at ND.
Carr is the leading scorer (2,560) in program history. He averaged 38.1 points as a junior, 38.0 as a senior and 34.5 in his career. He did it with no 3-point line. Carr still holds the record for points (61) in an NCAA Tournament game. He owns three of the top five scoring games in NCAA Tournament history. He has the top 11 marks for most field goals in a game at Notre Dame. He was an absolute bucket, before being a bucket became a thing.
Small forward
In the mix: No. 24 (Pat Connaughton); No. 34 (David Graves); No. 35 (Bonzie Colson); No. 44 (Adrian Dantley, Kelly Tripucka).
The jersey is: No. 44 (Adrian Dantley). Another easy decision. If Carr is No. 1 in program history, Dantley is second. In some cases, 1A. In his three collegiate seasons, the two-time consensus All-American averaged 18.3, 30.4 and 28.6 points per game. He scored 2,223 career points, shot .562 percent from the field and .800 from the foul line.
Dantley could also go and get it. He led the Irish in rebounding (10.2 and 10.1 rebounds per game) in his final two seasons. He led the USA in scoring at the 1976 Olympics. He left school early in 1976 and returned to finish his degree in economics in 1978. He enjoyed a pro career that included 23,177 points scored and concluded in 2008 with a spot in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.
Power forward
In the mix: No. 3 (Troy Murphy); No. 20 (LaPhonso Ellis, Tom Hawkins); No. 34 (John Shumate); No. 44 (Luke Harangody).
The jersey is: No. 3 (Troy Murphy). You could see it the summer before his freshman season, when the Irish gathered in The Pit to play pickup, that the dude from Morristown, New Jersey was different. He moved like a pro. He played like a pro. He carried himself like a pro.
He would eventually be a pro, becoming the first Irish since Dantley to leave early for the NBA, where he was a lottery pick (13th overall) in 2001. Notre Dame hasn’t had another lottery pick since. Murphy announced his arrival in college basketball with 30 points and 11 rebounds in his ninth career game and in his Big East debut. He earned league rookie of the year as a freshman, league player of the year as a sophomore and again as a junior. You could pencil (and often pen) him in for 20 and 14 every night. As a sophomore, he became the first player in Big East history to lead the league in scoring and rebounding.
There hasn’t been as physically gifted a guy to come through the program since Murphy. He was one of one.
Center
In the mix: No. 20 (Paul Atkinson, Jr.); No. 30 (Zach Auguste); No. 40 (Bill Laimbeer); No. 51 (Walt Sahm); No. 53 (Bob Whitmore).
The jersey is: No. 30 (Zach Auguste). We close with a curious choice for some. It shouldn’t be. Auguste is the only player in program history to start at center on consecutive NCAA Elite Eight outfits. He played. He produced.
When he exhausted his eligibility, Auguste was one of only three Irish in program history (Adrian Dantley, LaPhonso Ellis) to shoot at least .560 percent from the floor with 800 rebounds. He was one of nine with at least 1,200 points and 800 rebounds. He was the second-leading scorer (12.9 ppg.) and rebounder (6.5 rpg.) on a 2015 team that went 32-6.
He was better in 2016, when he was named the team’s most valuable player. In an ACC quarterfinal overtime win over Duke, Auguste had 18 points and 22 rebounds. Over his final two seasons, both of which ended in the Elite Eight, Auguste played 1,969 minutes with 980 points and 625 rebounds in 73 games.
Sixth man
In the mix: All the above.
The jersey is: No. 24 (Pat Connaughton). Somebody’s got to keep this group moving in the right direction. There’s a lot of shots to go around with guys who want/need their numbers. And only one basketball.
Who best to balance it all than perhaps the best captain in program history? Connaughton also could play. All he did his senior season (after a summer as a pro pitcher) on that team that went 32-6 was slide over and play power forward. He averaged 12.5 points and 7.4 rebounds in 35.6 minutes. He was there every night. He kept everyone believing.
He’d do the same with this group with never much concern about his numbers. That’s why his number still matters.
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: These five Notre Dame basketball jersey numbers would be must-wears
Reporting by Tom Noie, South Bend Tribune / South Bend Tribune
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Tom Noie, South Bend Tribune | USA TODAY Network
