Was this really supposed to happen for Notre Dame men's basketball guard Markus Burton?
Tom Noie
WASHINGTON — One voice bellowed above all others and bounced around the cavernous Capital One Center early Monday afternoon.
It was the voice of a college point guard, now a veteran in every way even though he was in high school this time last year earning Indiana Mr. Basketball, something they don’t give to just anyone in that state.
It was the voice of someone who’s grown into his leadership role, someone who on that first day of practice in June said maybe five words to anyone, to no one. He didn’t know his teammates. He didn’t know his role. He didn’t know college basketball. He didn’t know.
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It was the voice of the Atlantic Coast Conference freshman of the year as voted on by league coaches and media and announced late Monday afternoon. It was the voice of Notre Dame men’s basketball guard Markus Burton.
“It’s a blessing,” Burton said Tuesday. “I worked my butt off to get here and now I’m here. It’s cool to see.”
Everything that Burton was asked to do, and he was asked to do just about everything, Burton did at a successful rate. He led the Irish and was sixth in the ACC in scoring (17.26 ppg.). He led all ACC freshmen in scoring. He finished sixth for assists (4.26), 13th in free throw percentage (.802), fourth in steals (1.97) and seventh in minutes played (33.5), all for someone who maybe — maybe — stands 5-foot-10 on a good day and is listed at 166 pounds.
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How far has Burton come from that score first and second and sometimes third point guard from down the road at Penn High School in Mishawaka through his first season as a leader — the leader — of the Irish men’s basketball team? All you had to do was sit in the empty stands of the empty arena and watch, really listen to, Burton during the 45 minutes that the Irish were on the floor.
Someone who the coaching staff couldn’t get to say anything in the summer and the fall seldom stopped talking now that we’re on the verge of spring. Like when teammate and classmate Carey Booth knocked in a 3-pointer during a shooting drill.
“Carreeeeeeeeyyyyyy!” Burton bellowed
Or when backcourt mate Braeden Shrewsberry banged in a 3 at the top of the key.
“Yeah, Brae!”
And especially when Burton pulled up from the wing or the corner or the top of the key and connected on a 3.
“Booooommmm!”
That snapshot is Burton’s season in a nutshell. Church-mouse quiet, if not steady and confident when this crazy run through college basketball started last summer to steady and confident and the voice as Notre Dame looked to extend it season another day Tuesday in the first round of the ACC Tournament against Georgia Tech.
As the Irish gathered for practice Monday across town at McDonough Gym on the campus of Georgetown University, coach Micah Shrewsberry informed Burton in front of the team that he had earned an honor everyone figured he had wrapped up with a late season run of excellence. Having won league rookie of the week three times in a four-week stretch, it was obvious as February ended and March arrived that the rookie of the year race was over.
Burton lapped the field and did it decisively. No freshman, let alone no player, may have meant as much to his team this season as Burton.
“Markus Burton is an elite player,” said Clemson coach Brad Brownell. “He’s just hard to handle for every team in the league. He puts so much pressure on everybody that he makes everybody else better.
“That’s what great players do.”
Burton needed help, but help never arrived
None of this should have happened this early for Burton. Well, OK, some of it shouldn’t have happened this early for Burton. He was going to play, but maybe not play that much.
The kid needed help in a man’s league.
Shrewsberry didn’t know much about what the 2023-24 season would hold, but he did know this — it's ridiculously hard, even a little cruel, to ask a freshman to step into the role that Burton stepped into and do all the stuff that he had to do every single game.
To alleviate that pressure, Shrewsberry and his staff tried to get Burton help. They tried to tap the transfer portal in spring and summer and almost into fall for a veteran point guard who could run a team. Want to play point at a high-major program? There was opportunity. There was playing time.
There were no takers.
“I recruited other people,” Shrewsberry said. “I tried to get a bunch of people to help him, but everybody thought we were going to suck. Nobody wants to play on a team that’s going to suck. Like, oh, well, it’s your loss.”
It was Burton’s gain. He was good from the get-go, scoring 29 points in the season opener against Niagara. He went on a run of 22 consecutive games of scoring double figures. Rarely were there nights where he didn’t lead the Irish in scoring, in assists, in minutes, in everything.
For Notre Dame to have a chance, Burton had to be on the floor. Always.
“We feed off his energy,” Shrewsberry said. “What he’s done this year, man, he’s been circled at the top of the list as A Number One from Day One. He’s handled it exceptionally well.”
Most surprisingly, Burton never bounced face first off that proverbial rookie wall. Look at Burton and that generously listed 5-foot-11, 166-pound frame and you figured that he’d be running on fumes by early February. By March, he’d be ground down. That never happened.
Burton played some of his best basketball toward the end of the year, like when he won that rookie of the week honor three times in a four-week window. Like when he led the Irish to wins in five of six games. Like when he scored a career high 31 points in a big home win over Wake Forest.
At a time when freshmen wear down, Burton got better. He made it look easy. It wasn’t.
“It was really hard,” Burton said. “I had a lot of ups and downs. I stuck with it. The coaches believed in me. The players believed in me. I put my head down and worked every single day.”
Notre Dame took a chance on the local kid, and he delivered
How Burton ended up at Notre Dame is a story in and of itself.
Though just down the road from Penn, Notre Dame didn’t give him the basketball time of day his first two seasons in high school. Too small. Too much of a scorer, too much of this and too little of that. One summer league game in 2022 in Indianapolis changed the whole trajectory for him. For the Irish.
Burton scored 35 points. He was the best player on the court. He would be the best player in the state his senior year.
Former Irish coach Mike Brey wanted to reach out to former Penn coach Al Rhodes with a scholarship offer right there that summer. Brey was convinced by a veteran member of his coaching staff to slow play the offer. To wait and see what Burton did on the rest of the summer AAU circuit and maybe early in his senior year,
He was a Mid-American Conference player. At best.
Brey hopped in his car and headed home from that game that summer. He couldn’t stop thinking about Burton the entire way up U.S. 31. (Forget) it, Brey thought when he arrived home. He called Rhodes and offered a scholarship.
Burton’s journey to Notre Dame had begun.
Brey never coached Burton, but the coach never forgot the player. The former Irish coach reached out to the current Irish point guard last week via text, congratulating him on his season.
Burton became the first Irish in the program’s 11-year affiliation with the ACC to earn rookie of the year honors. Only Troy Murphy (1998-99) and Chris Thomas (2000-01) did it in the Big East. Burton’s 535 points (and counting) this season broke the freshman scoring record of 519 that Murphy owned for 25 years.
Burton is happy with how far his game has come, but he’s nowhere near satisfied. Each time he talked Tuesday of the award, he made sure to mention how the Irish had a tournament game to play, had a tournament game to win.
Burton has come a long way in a brief time, but there’s a longer way for him, for the Irish, to still go. He’s playing college basketball close to his hometown, close to family and friends and loved ones. Life’s good for Burton.
It may only get better. Just like his voice. Just like his game.
Just like him.
Follow South Bend Tribune and NDInsider columnist Tom Noie on X (formerly Twitter): @tnoieNDI. Contact: (574) 235-6153.