We’re almost there, almost back in the grind of another college basketball season. Before you know it, there will be a foot of snow on the ground, temperatures will be below zero and another Atlantic Coast Conference game going up and down the court inside Purcell Pavilion.
Poll Position: Where did Notre Dame basketball finish in USA Today’s ACC preseason poll?
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To get you ready for those nights and get you ready for a Notre Dame season that starts Monday, November 3 at home against LIU Brooklyn, we’ll take an alphabetical player-by-player look at the 2025-26 Notre Dame basketball team over the next 13 weekdays (Wednesday October 15 thru Friday, October 31). Who are these guys? What did they do last year? Where do they fit in this one? And what does third-year head coach Micah Shrewsberry think of them?
Noie: Why does this 2025-26 schedule fit this Notre Dame basketball team this season?
We have the answers. Here:
∎ (3) Markus Burton
Hometown (High School): Mishawaka, Indiana (Penn)
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Dimensions: 6-foot, 190 pounds
Projected position: Starting point guard
Class: Junior
Notable number: A starter since his first game, Burton has scored 1,130 points halfway through his collegiate career. Multiply that by two (number of seasons remaining) and it would give Burton 2,260 career points. Only two Irish —Austin Carr (2,560) and Luke Harangody (2,476) — have scored more.
24-25 stats: Averaged a team-high 21.3 points, 3.6 rebounds and a team-high 3.0 assists in 33.7 minutes over 26 games, including 25 starts. Shot .442 percent from the field, .375 from 3 and .848 from the foul line. Burton missed seven games early in the year (late November to early January) with a right knee injury that did not require surgery.
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25-26 outlook: Write Burton’s name in ink for Atlantic Coast Conference first team preseason honors. He’s one of the five best returning players in the conference and would get more national pub if the Irish were better. As Burton went his first two seasons, so went the Irish. That should be a similar storyline for Year Three. Burton is bigger and better than the kid who stepped on campus as Indiana Mr. Basketball his freshman year. The challenge for him now is to become an elite guard, someone who can make everyone around him elevate their play.
Shrews on Burton: “The one thing we talk about with him is, you don’t have anything to prove. You can just play basketball. Sometimes it becomes a competitive fight and you feel like you’ve got to prove something. You feel like you’ve got to win every contest. You don’t, because you have really good teammates; you have really good players around you. His growth and maturity have shown through this summer.”
Follow South Bend Tribune and NDInsider columnist Tom Noie on X (formerly Twitter): @tnoieNDI. Contact Noie at tnoie@sbtinfo.com
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Getting to know Notre Dame basketball 2025-26 guard Markus Burton
