What's next for Notre Dame men's basketball guard Markus Burton? NBA? Maybe

SOUTH BEND — At some point, following a freshman season with the Notre Dame men’s basketball program that no one saw coming, this became the logical next step in the evolution of guard Markus Burton. 

Once you get over the surprise, shock even, of Burton declaring for the 2024 NBA draft but leaving open the possibility (likelihood?) of returning for his sophomore season, it makes too much sense. 

Burton had to do what he did Thursday on Instagram in announcing his plan to explore what the 2024 NBA draft might hold for him. He had until April 27 to declare. He has until May 29 to decide whether to stay in the draft or return to school. 

The 2024 NBA Draft will take place June 26-27 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Those close to him, and close to the Irish men’s basketball program, expect the 2024 Atlantic Coast Conference rookie of the year to play his sophomore season at Notre Dame, but ... 

Plans change. Times change. Doors that you didn’t think would ever open suddenly open. That’s where Burton stands today, less than a year removed from his high school graduation. 

That Burton could even entertain the notion of becoming only the second Irish in school history to play one year before turning pro (and the second since 2022 when another former Michiana schoolboy star, Blake Wesley did it), would’ve been preposterous a year ago. 

Seriously, is this a joke? Nope. This is business. Big business. The business of Markus Burton, who is set to be taken care of financially at Notre Dame from a Name, Image and Likeness standpoint. This isn’t about money. Wait, of course it’s about money. It’s always about money. 

Burton is set to make a good deal of it as a college sophomore. He could make a heck of a lot more of it as NBA rookie. If — and that’s a massive IF — everything falls into place for him, much as it did for Wesley, who went from an unknown college prospect to an all-league guy in one year at Notre Dame to a first-round NBA draft pick with a guaranteed contract that pays millions of dollars. 

Coming off his senior season at Mishawaka Penn High School when he became the first South Bend-area player since 1978 to earn the coveted Indiana Mr. Basketball, Burton expected to play a significant role for first-year head coach Micah Shrewsberry, mainly because there was nobody else on the roster who could do what he could do. And then he did. 

Burton was going to start. He was going to play a lot. He was going to have the chance to do a lot of what he did in high school, where he had the ball placed in his hands and instructed to go and make plays. Score points. Be a premier point guard in one of college basketball’s premier leagues. 

We should’ve known Burton had it in him when he scored 29 points in his first collegiate game in November at home against Niagara. We should’ve known that there might be more to Burton’s game when he earned league player of the week four times. We should’ve known when he became the first Notre Dame player named the ACC rookie of the year. When he also earned a spot on the league’s third team all-league squad. 

When he scored more points in his freshman season (577) than any freshman in program history. More than David Rivers. More than Chris Thomas. More than Troy Murphy. No Irish newcomer had as good of a scoring season than Burton, who stands maybe 5-foot-10. 

Noie:Was this really supposed to happen for Notre Dame men's basketball guard Markus Burton?

He was a revelation last year, but now what?

No matter what the future holds, last season might be the best it ever gets for Burton. Everything about the year was pure. There was an innocence about him. He wasn’t worried about making all-league teams or getting his name on the national stage or thinking that there might be a spot for him at the game’s highest level. 

He was just hooping, and few hooped as well as he did. Those days are over. Basketball for Burton now becomes a business. A brand. Something for him to chase in addition to a college degree and the NCAA Tournament. How does he balance all of it? Can he balance it? Does he want to balance it? 

All questions that will have to be asked and answered with some hard truths mixed in as this moves forward. Maybe he decides to give it a go. Maybe he realizes that he can be an elite college guard, then figure the rest out later. Way later. 

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Asked repeatedly this winter about his freshman season, Burton often relied on one word – dream. It was a dream for him to play for the school a short drive from his home, where family and friends could see him for any given home game. It was a dream for him to play such a significant role in a league like the ACC. It was a dream for him to do what he did so often this season, leading the Irish in scoring (17.26 ppg.), in assists (4.26), in steals (1.97), in minutes (33.5), in swagger (endless). 

That dream would take him only so far. Standing on the floor of Capital One Arena in downtown Washington, barely an hour before he would officially be named league rookie of the year, Burton again talked of all those dreams, and about how surreal it was for him to do everything he did this season at Notre Dame. He was asked that afternoon if he could ever imagine not living that dream at Notre Dame. 

“I wouldn’t say that,” said Burton, effectively leaving open the possibility of doing what he did Thursday afternoon. 

Once you heard him say those words, you realized that he wanted more out of all this than just playing for his hometown school. 

Burton’s first season mirrored that of Thomas in many ways. Both played high school basketball in Indiana. Both were named Mr. Basketball. Both started from the first games of their freshman years. Both earned league rookie of the year honors. And both declared for the NBA draft early to gauge where the game might take them. 

Thomas spent a month measuring his draft stock following his sophomore year in 2003. Ultimately, after never being assured that he was a first-round draft pick, Thomas returned to school for his sophomore year. He played his final three seasons at Notre Dame but was never the same after a knee injury that needed delicate microfracture surgery the summer before his senior season robbed him of what made him so special. 

The last Irish to declare for the draft but leave open the door to return to school was swingman Carleton Scott in 2011. Every evaluation Scott received told him the same — return to school. Scott stayed in the draft, went undrafted and never played in an NBA game. 

When NBA scouts rolled through Purcell Pavilion this winter, they were often there to see guys on the other team. Guys on Duke and North Carolina State and Virginia. They weren’t there to see Burton. He wasn’t on their radar. One NBA scout told the Tribune that Burton is not on their 2024 draft board. 

Still, it takes only one team to like you. To believe in you. To promise that they’ll take you. Once that happens, if that happens, there is no choice. 

Notre Dame guard Markus Burton will become former Notre Dame guard Markus Burton. 

Follow South Bend Tribune and NDInsider columnist Tom Noie on X (formerly Twitter): @tnoieNDI. Contact: (574) 235-6153.