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Notre Dame Basketball: 3 takeaways from season opening win vs Niagara

By Oliver Vandervoort

SOUTH BEND, IN - DECEMBER 21: Pat Connaughton #24 of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish shoot the ball against the Niagara Purple Eagles at Purcel Pavilion on December 21, 2012 in South Bend, Indiana. (Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images)
SOUTH BEND, IN - DECEMBER 21: Pat Connaughton #24 of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish shoot the ball against the Niagara Purple Eagles at Purcel Pavilion on December 21, 2012 in South Bend, Indiana. (Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images) /
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The Notre Dame Basketball team didn’t always look pretty on Monday night, but they managed to finish off Niagara to open the season with a “W.”

Anyone expecting the Notre Dame Basketball team to start off the 2023-24 season looking like a well-oiled machine were probably expecting too much. This was the first game of the Micah Shrewsberry era with a starting five that had never played in a regular season game together.

None of them had ever played together. Or for their head coach in the regular season.

So it wasn’t all that surprising when they came out looking a bit off kilter. Especially considering they were doing so without one of the players they expected to lean on in Penn State transfer Kebba Njie.

About midway through the first half, Notre Dame basketball started to get its collective feet underneath it and looked like it was just a matter of time before they took control. Eventually they did, winning the first game of the season 70-63 over a Purple Eagles team that played hard but just didn’t have enough talent.

Here are three of the top takeaways from Notre Dame Basketball’s season opener.

Notre Dame Basketball is still figuring things out

For the first 10 minutes of the game, the Fighting Irish looked about as bad as any team in college basketball. They couldn’t really play defense, they couldn’t hit a shot, they looked unsure on what to do on either end of the floor.

It’s likely that they will look like that again this season. Probably a few more times. Everyone is new to each other, and that’s not going to go away after one game. Luckily, the Irish have another “warmup” game before the schedule starts getting harder.

Markus Burton is already the real deal

Most Notre Dame Basketball fans knew Markus Burton was going to be good. I don’t think anyone expected him to be this special, this fast. Burton was among those who got off to a slow start on Monday, but once he got going, he really got going.

When the smoke cleared and the final buzzer went off, Burton had himself a Notre Dame Basketball freshman record 29 points. In his first ever collegiate game.

The former Mr. Indiana Basketball was 11-for-20 from the field, including 1-for-2 from deep and 6-for-6 from the free-throw line. He also led the team in assists with four and had four rebounds.

What does he do for an encore?

Notre Dame Basketball needs another scoring option

It’s early yet, but Markus Burton can’t be the only scoring threat for the Fighting Irish because better teams will find a way to shut him down. Burton’s 29 was the team high by quite a bit and Carey Booth, another true freshman was the only other Notre Dame player with double digits scored (10).

A third freshman, Braeden Shrewsberry, and Booth look like they might be the best options to be the “go to guys” early on, here’s hoping Notre Dame Basketball is able to identify them in their next game, on Saturday against Western Illinois.