SOUTH BEND − A recruiting glow thanks to eight magical days wasn’t just going to go away, no matter what Notre Dame men’s basketball coach Micah Shrewsberry couldn’t say.

He couldn’t talk in specifics about a recruiting class for the ages that he and his staff assembled in a little more than a week. Notre Dame got one commitment from an Indiana kid. Then it got another from the kind of prospect that rarely gives the Irish a second thought. Then, another from New England. And finally, word from a big man from the Upper Midwest, a place where Notre Dame seldom ventures to mine potential talent.

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Like that, the Irish recruiting class went from zero to four, while the recruiting momentum went from zero to somewhere north of 100. Talk about acceleration. Shrewsberry and his staff hit the gas one day, and didn’t slow until every piece was in place.

Pieces that remain nameless and comment-less from the head coach until national signing day arrives in November. That’s when Shrewsberry is safe to publicly acknowledge, comment on and project how Brady Koehler (Indianapolis), Jalen Haralson (Anderson, Indiana), Ryder Frost (Beverly, Massachusetts) and Tommy Ahneman (Fargo, North Dakota) fit into his program’s future.

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A future that’s suddenly so white-hot bright that shades are mandatory around the Rolfs Hall offices.

Shrewsberry can kind of/sort of talk around that class, which he did last week during Notre Dame men’s basketball media day. Of course he was asked about former Indiana Mr. Basketball Markus Burton, the reigning Atlantic Coast Conference freshman of the year poised to possibly have a bigger sophomore season. He was asked about his team. He was asked about the rotation. He was asked about the season.

He also was asked about the recruiting momentum that swept through his program over those memorable eight days.

“It hasn’t been easy; it’s a lot of hours, a lot of manpower, a lot of time,” Shrewsberry said. “Sometimes, you have to no clue. Somebody I was talking to earlier said it’s like turning on a faucet. Once you turn it on, it can get rolling. But if it never gets turned on, that’s a struggle, too.”

For the Irish, it was a struggle. The program went more than a calendar year since it received a commitment. The last had been current freshman guard Sir Mohammed in August 2023. Shrewsberry and his staff laid the groundwork for 2025 barely days after he took the job in March 2023. They recruited through the spring of 2024, through the summer and the early fall window with no commitment cornered.

There was concern. There was skepticism. Late September was nearing, and the class was still empty. Then Koehler committed. Haralson then shocked the recruiting world and picked Notre Dame. Frost joined the fold. Then, finally, Ahneman.

That Irish faucet was flowing.

“We were struggling for a while,” Shrewsberry said. “(It) has been a slower cycle for recruiting across the country. You never know what’s going to happen. It just so happened for us at one time.”

When it happened, it was huge. Following Frost’s commitment on the Friday afternoon of a home football game weekend, Notre Dame was elevated by two major recruiting services – Rivals.com and 247Sports.com. − to the No. 1 recruiting class in the country. Ahead of Duke. Ahead of Kansas. Ahead of two-time defending national champion Connecticut. Ahead of, duh, everybody.

Ahneman’s commitment three days later kept the Irish at the No. 1 spot. With so many of the nation’s elite prospects uncommitted − only three of Rivals’ top 24 had committed as of Wednesday – the big boys/bluebloods might eventually muscle Notre Dame from that No. 1 ranking. It might only last a couple more days. Or a few weeks.

However long it goes, it’s still sweet for Shrewsberry and his staff to see the Notre Dame name at No. 1. Surreal too.

It wasn’t that long ago that Notre Dame knocked on the Top 10 rankings door. The 2018 class, which delivered four four-star/Top 100 prospects in Robby Carmody, Dane Goodwin, Prentiss Hubb and Nate Laszewski, was considered consensus Top 10. That group went to one NCAA tournament and delivered two NCAA wins. Not the best return on (costly) investment.

The expectations of this class will be greater. This class also is a testament to the plan Shrewsberry outlined when he arrived after two seasons at Penn State. Forget the quick fix of the transfer portal. This staff would build out the roster from the high school ranks. It took barely two cycles to do that.

“This has been since I got the job last year, what we’ve pointed toward and what we’re trying to do,” Shrewsberry said. “Now you’re seeing that come to fruition a little bit.”

Who’s next? What’s next? That’s easy. Turn the page to the 2026 class, which is already a work in progress. Notre Dame was out last week looking at current high school juniors, including a Top 10 guard in Texas by the name of Elijah Williams, the son of former Irish standout and NBA head coach Monty Williams.

The cycle never stops. At Notre Dame, it can’t.

“We continue to keep building,” Shrewsberry said. “You keep stacking together good classes of guys that fit, now your vision can come out for everybody to see. Instead of just being my vision and showing a couple people, now more people start to see it and start to buy into it and start to believe in it.”

To the point where Notre Dame flirting with the top-ranked recruiting class becomes the norm, not the exception. No pressure there.

Buy into it. Believe in it. Get used to it.

Follow South Bend Tribune and NDInsider columnist Tom Noie on Twitter: @tnoieNDI

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: What did eight magical days do for Notre Dame men's basketball recruiting?