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For this edition of my Notre Dame men’s basketball film breakdowns, I’m going to group the next two players together. Braeden Shrewsberry and Logan Imes round out the incoming freshman in Micah Shrewsberry’s inaugural Irish recruiting class. Both are reminiscent of recent Notre Dame guards and, to be frank, each player’s skillset is pretty straightforward, so it feels fitting to pair them up. Let’s get to it.
Braeden Shrewsberry
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I’ll be up front: there is a marked lack of film to find on the younger Shrewsberry (at least for someone like yours truly who doesn’t have a Hudl account). But from what I could find, the 6-foot-3, 189-pound shooting guard comes off as a capable enough ball-handler and shooter, willing to put his head down and get to the rim for a finish…
… draw in defenders and kick to the open man …
… or let it go from downtown when he’s open.
With all of that said, in an ideal world, Shrewsberry would be a developmental player. He doesn’t come off as an outstanding athlete. If I had to guess, it seems like 247Sports Composite rated him a three-star recruit just inside the top-200 nationally because he does a lot of things pretty well but nothing outstanding. That’s not a bad thing per se, and given the state of the Notre Dame program at this moment, there’s nothing to lose in throwing everyone on the court and seeing what they can contribute.
In terms of comparison, Shrewsberry reminds me of recently graduated Irish guard Trey Wertz.
The two players have similar shooting form, and Shrewsberry seems like he can fill a combo guard role similar to Wertz’s niche if the Irish need to split ball-handling duties among the guards.
I don’t see Shrewsberry’s ceiling being particularly high, but he could have a slightly better career than Wertz given that Shrewsberry seems more athletic. And, for whatever it’s worth, his dad is the head coach, so perhaps Braeden has some insight into what kind of scheme the Irish will implement that gives him an advantage.
Logan Imes
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Like Shrewsberry, the 6-foot-4, 189-pound Imes was also a three-star and barely a top-200 prospect per 247Sports Composite. The Zionsville, Ind. native decommitted from Penn State to follow head coach Micah Shrewsberry to South Bend.
That move feels like fate, because Imes strikes me as a continuation of former Irish guard Cormac Ryan. Ryan was about an inch taller, but, in my opinion, the two of them play (and, honestly, look) very much alike.
Imes is a pure shooter, through and through. He’s got textbook form and the ability to hit shots both off the catch and off the bounce.
He’s also willing to pull up from midrange or get to the rim.
Finally, he’s a competent distributor once he draws the defense.
To be clear, I don’t think Imes is ready to immediately contribute like Ryan did the last three years, and he’s almost certainly not as good of a defender as Ryan (not that Ryan was world-beating on that end, by any stretch, but at least he gave effort). But he’s still a true freshman, and he won’t need to be a great defender if Micah Shrewsberry continues to recruit long and athletic players who can compensate for Imes on that end of the court.
Imes is a developmental player, but as Bizarro World a thing as it is to say, I’m not sure Notre Dame has many knockdown shooters on the roster this season. With that in mind, Imes could certainly carve out a niche as a plug-and-play floor-spacer. That’s especially possible because — and not to belabor this point — this is a trial-and-error year for Shrewsberry at Notre Dame, so everyone, Imes included, should have a chance to earn playing time.
And like Braeden Shrewsberry, Imes should be a four-year player in college, even if all of those four years aren’t at Notre Dame. But if he sticks in South Bend then he could become the next Cormac Ryan. And for as up-and-down as the last several years have been in this program, it was never a bad thing to have a Cormac Ryan on the roster.
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