Irish Sports Daily

Living in nearby Mishawaka, Demetrius Jackson has been to plenty of Notre Dame basketball games, but none like Saturday night’s upset over top-ranked Syracuse.

“That was really exciting because I’ve never witnessed anything like that, a team taking on a number one team, especially being Notre Dame,” said Jackson, a 6-foot-1, 180-pound junior guard from Marian High School. “It was a good thing to see. They were ecstatic.

“It was crazy. That was the biggest crowd I’ve ever seen at Notre Dame and I’ve been to a few games, even when I was younger. It was a packed house and with the student section back, it was crazy. It was hard for me not to cheer.”

Jackson didn’t storm the floor with the Notre Dame student section, but did manage to find his way into the Notre Dame locker room afterward.

Adam Breneman is considered the top tight end in the Class of 2013 by most recruiting analysts and, apparently, by several college football programs as well.

While National Signing Day is one of the busiest days on the college football calendar with senior prospects signing their National Letters of Intent, college coaches also use the day to reach out to their top 2013 prospects to let them know they’re thinking of them.

The 6-foot-5, 220-pound Breneman from Cedar Cliff High School in Camp Hill, Pa., heard from the staffs at Notre Dame, Michigan, Maryland, Virginia, Vanderbilt, North Carolina, Georgia and Washington on Wednesday. The Huskies used the conversation to extend an offer while the others already had.

Demetrius Jackson is nearing a college decision.

“You could put it that way,” the 6-foot-1, 180-pound junior combo guard said.

That could mean the Notre Dame basketball program is close to wrapping up its 2013 recruiting class.

Jackson, from nearby Mishawaka, Ind., has offers from Notre Dame, Butler, Michigan State and Xavier, but the Irish seem to be trending in a more positive direction than the others at this point.

He will be at Notre Dame’s home game against Pittsburgh on Tuesday night.

The Class of 2012 is finally signed, sealed, and delivered. Although the class did not end up looking like many had hoped for, and how it appeared it would end up looking like, the Notre Dame coaches were able to land a number of talented football players at key positions. Notre Dame had hoped to combine another Top 10 class with the standout Class of 2011. The Irish staff fell short in that goal, but that does not change the fact this staff continues to restock the roster with talented football players.

Will it be enough to get Notre Dame back on track? That remains to be seen. By and large, Kelly and his staff has been able to land talented players across the board and has overhauled the defense. But there is still work to be done if this staff wants to truly have a roster that can compete with the nation’s best top-to-bottom.

It is often argued that the only way to truly evaluate the job a staff did on the recruiting is to look at the last two classes combined. The Class of 2011 received its grades and the Class of 2012 received its grades. Now it is time to combine the classes and evaluate how well the Notre Dame staff has truly faired during its first two full recruiting cycles.