Notre Dame Men’s Basketball: 2023 4-Star SG Parker Friedrichsen Commits to the Fighting Irish

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish men’s basketball program continues its recent run of success on the recruiting trail, with Mike Brey and his staff garnering their 3rd verbal commitment in the last two months with a live pledge from Parker Friedrichsen on the 247sports YouTube channel this afternoon.

Friedrichsen, a 4-star shooting guard from Bixby, Oklahoma, held offers from a list of schools that included Iowa, Creighton, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State (which he was at one time committed to for a couple months prior to decommitting back in May) Purdue, Illinois, Cincinnati, Memphis, Missouri, Virginia Tech, and Xavier, but ultimately had narrowed his choices to three finalists: Notre Dame, Davidson, and Nebraska. He visited Notre Dame back in late August, followed by trips to Davidson and Nebraska in early and mid-September.

On Tuesday afternoon, the 6’3” guard — ranked 122nd nationally and 2nd in the state of Oklahoma according to the 247sports Composite Rankings — ended his recruitment with a commitment to the Fighting Irish, who just last week received a commitment from 6’7” 3-star wing Brady Dunlap roughly 8 weeks after landing a commitment from Markus Burton (now a 4-star point guard on 247sports after being unranked just a couple months ago) in late July.

Friedrichsen looks to be an excellent addition to the program and someone who should thrive in Brey’s system, as he’s a fantastic shooter who appears capable of both hitting spot-up shots from deep as well as shooting off the bounce when needed, with the ball-handling and passing ability to make him a nice secondary option to handle the ball for the Irish offense as well.

He’s not an above-the-rim kind of athlete, but he seems to have enough general length, athleticism, and body control to be effective at the next level, as long as he puts on some muscle and can overcome a lack of high-end quickness to be a serviceable defender in the ACC. And he DID have a few dunks in that highlight tape, so he’s not completely incapable of throwing it down when the situation will allow it, which we love to see.

It’s clear from his tape and from his season averages last year as a junior (27.8 ppg, 4 apg, 5 rpg, 3.3 spg) that Friedrichsen is going to come in and add a lot of scoring and shooting and maybe a few other key skills to a young core of guards that’s getting pretty exciting to think about, especially if J.J. Starling stays at Notre Dame for more than one season.

Loading up on guards and wings is crucial, for sure, as the Irish stand to lose almost all of their non-freshman guys at those positions after this coming season, with Dane Goodwin, Cormac Ryan, Trey Wertz, and Marcus Hammond set to play their final collegiate seasons this year.

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Brey and co. are also in on 4-star, top-40 overall guard Elmarko Jackson, who has ND in his final 7 that he announced last week and is reportedly visiting ND on October 30th. That would be a monster pickup to keep these efforts rolling to solidify the guards who will be playing with big men Ven-Allen Lubin and Dom Campbell. However, the 6 other finalists for Jackson are much tougher recruiting opponents than Davidson and Nebraska, as Jackson is considering Kansas, Villanova, UCLA, Miami, Virginia, and Texas along with the Fighting Irish. It would be a pleasant surprise, but it’s pretty unlikely this 2023 class grows beyond the 3 members it now has with Friedrichsen’s commitment.

So, hats off to Brey and the fellas on another job well done recruiting backcourt help for next season and beyond, and welcome to the ND family, Parker — we look forward to watching you light it up in Purcell over the next few years!