Rutgers transfer forward Bryce Dortch commits to Notre Dame
Notre Dame likely completes its transfer portal class with former Rutgers forward Bryce Dortch, a defense-first reserve.
Basketball Bryce Dortch to Notre Dame
- Thread starter Richie O
- Start date
Happy for him. Good kid, good attitude. Limited ability but puts in the effort. Needs to work on shooting away from the rim if he wants to earn more PT.
Wish him the best of luck! Always been a fan of him, SINCE his game against ND at the Players’ Era tournament. Played lockdown defense against Braeden Shrewsberry and played a big role in getting us back in the game after going down in the first half (only to fall just short). That game probably played a role in his recruitment.
ND should be good for him. They are offense-focused, but don’t play iso ball like we do from my recollection. If there are schemes to get him easy points like back-door cuts, alley-oops, or just slashes to the rim, he’ll be a good role player for him, especially with his defensive contributions.
ND should be good for him. They are offense-focused, but don’t play iso ball like we do from my recollection. If there are schemes to get him easy points like back-door cuts, alley-oops, or just slashes to the rim, he’ll be a good role player for him, especially with his defensive contributions.
Right now he’d be the second best front court defender on the team (and it’s not a given Sydnor is better). We need to add some D.
Really - why? We only have 5 front court players to compare him to and one of them is Ware so really 4. Smith is definitely not better than him at D (he’s bottom 5% nationally) - so down to 3. If Dortch brought the same level of offense as Buchanan, he’d have played over him in a second and you know it. His offense is what held him back (nonexistent). DB is a servicable defender. He’s ok. Dortch is better. Hard really to compare Dortch to Gordak since they are different types of players. Sydnor was pretty good at defense while playing in the MAAC. It’s not a given either are better at D than Dortch let alone both. So again - why is it a “hot take” to say Dortch would be among our best front court defenders right now? Do you think Powers at the 3 is a better defensive option? Come on.
I missed defender…. He was a decent defender but an absolute zero on offense. Unfortunately in basketball you NEED to play on both sides of the court. Danny Hurley said something like… it’s way too hard to get defensive players to contribute offensively. Recruit offensive players and demand that they play hard in defense. Good to see Pike moving in that direction.
I;ll just hope Bryce goes injury free the rest of his college career and graduates .
As for basketball success> I'll leave that to the imitation Irish fanbase , but hope Dortch enjoys his time in South Bend as a student
As for basketball success> I'll leave that to the imitation Irish fanbase , but hope Dortch enjoys his time in South Bend as a student
He was not good on defense. Even as bad as Buchanan was he was better than Dortch. Dortch wasn’t good.
Trends change… Hurley even mentioned that he didn’t make that shift until more recently.
Oh no doubt - in no way was I suggesting Dortch is a better overall player than the guys we’ve brought in, but the guys we brought in didn’t really replace “him”. They replaced Zrno, Grant and Ogbole. Dortch offered a defensive spark for the 14 minutes he played that we probably could’ve used this year at the 4. We didn’t have enough offensive fire power to play him and Ogbole together since as you pointed out, he was a zero on offense. My point is we could probably use someone who brings his defense in the rotation when we’re having trouble stopping teams - moreso than we need another PG. We could probably get someone better at D than Dortch and even a little better at offense for the money we’re shopping what won’t even be a clear superior player to Lino. I just really think we need some interior D pieces at this point. That’s all.
That’s crap. Sometimes he didn’t look great trying to cover 5s, but he is a better defender than Buchanan overall. ND clearly thought so.
Actually, we don't know that ND thought Dortch is a better defender than Buchanan overall. I doubt that question ever crossed their minds.
LOL. Easy points for Dortch, huh ? Have you ever seen him play?
He couldn’t guard 5s at all (which he functionally has to guard cause he’s got the skill of a 5 on O, if that) and got beat whenever tasked with guarding someone smaller as well. Rutgers was better off when they put Grant/Buchanan at the small ball 5 on both ends. Buchanan can at least body up and grab the rebound on D. I bet you Buchanan, Sydnor and Gurdak as well as whoever we get at backup 5 will be better defenders than what Dortch was. Zero reason to miss him.
Dortch was not even close to being as good as a defender as Buchanon. Did you actually watch the men's team last year? Dortch got pushed around like a rag doll. Buchanon was definitely a much better defender
Sorry - I just meant they clearly thought Dortch was pretty good on D otherwise there’d be no point in bringing him on. He barely scores.
I think Dortch is a better straight up defender - position by position. He’s quicker than Buchanan and similar physicality. Much more effective with the press. If he could guard 4s he wouldn’t have looked overmatched. Buchanan’s defensive rating is deceiving because he too often guarded players outside of his natural position but I saw enough of both. And Dortch did play the 4 a bit as a frosh with Lathan in the USC game where he looked very good. I bet he plays the 4 not the 5 at ND. We’ll see.
Did you? Dortch couldn't guard 5s in the post at all, and by almost all defensive metrics he was still the teams best defender. He did a good job when on the perimeter. Darren was solid, but so was Dortch.
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All the badmouthing of Dortch is uncalled for. He played his role to the best of his ability. He's a big, which often develop slowly. I'll be surprised if he doesn't find himself a regular spot in the rotation at ND.
He’s not really a 5. He’s an offensively challenged forward. But seeing how our roster is developing, we don’t really need offense now. Lino scored in double digits in 8 of our last 11 games (6 with 14+ points). Tariq rarely scored less than 14-15 points. We just added a wing/SF who scored over 20 ppg, and a PF who averaged around 14 ppg as a frosh (yes, lower conferences but the ways they score suggest they will be able to do it at any level - maybe not as efficiently, but their scoring is not primarily opportunistic put backs and such like Grant’s film. They have actual post moves. And Buchanan scores. Plus Powers might take the next step. And our incoming frpsh averaged 29 ppg his senior year. Offense doesn’t figure to be the concern.
What we need in our last few targets now is a few rotational pieces who play strong defense to add to the mix. Wooten’s scouting report says he’s this - but so did Nwuli’s. Can’t count on anything from a frosh until they play in a game. Playing two of TF, Smith and Powers (our weakest defenders) together may not be an option against some teams and we’re going to need more defensive options than what we have right now to manage that. Also - down low Buchanan is still undersized at 4/5 and we only have him Gordak and Sydnor right now. So not a lot of players period.
I’ll add here - if we don’t add D, and then end up with a losing team à la 2024-25 because we simply lack the ability to get key stops, that is not a NIL issue. We are well positioned right now to purchase a couple key utility pieces who play defense. Meanwhile - it’s being reported that our remaining target is to add another PG to a room that already has two PGs, Tariq and a wing with point forward experience.
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