Notre Dame Men's Basketball releases 2023-24 non-conference schedule

Notre Dame Men’s Basketball has released their official non-conference schedule for the 2023-24 season. On Wednesday morning, the team Twitter account posted the full non-conference slate, which you can see right here:

You can also view the opponents and dates further below

locked in our first non-conference schedule of the Shrewsberry era!

🗓️ https://t.co/xXhONSv5YN
🎟️ https://t.co/5HCbiXPbrH#GoIrish pic.twitter.com/1NOGVEv6xu

— Notre Dame Men's Basketball (@NDmbb) August 9, 2023

Full 2023-24 Notre Dame non-conference schedule

Nov. 7: vs. Niagra
No. 11: vs. Western Carolina
Nov. 16-17 Legends Classic (Brooklyn, NY) vs. two of Auburn, Oklahoma State or St. Bonaventure
Nov. 22: vs. Maryland-Eastern Shore
Nov. 28: @ South Carolina
Dec. 5: vs. Western Michigan
Dec. 9: @ Marquette
Dec. 16: vs. Georgetown
Dec. 19: vs. The Citadel
Dec. 22: vs. Marist

Well, Micah Shrewsberry will certainly face a few early tests in year one as the ND head coach. The first of those comes when the Irish travel to New York City for a pair of games at the illustrious Barclays Center against a decent field of opponents. Auburn should be solid again and Oklahoma State is typically strong on defense, while thre Bonnies have a reputation as a sturdy mid-major program.

The next time ND leaves South Bend occurs towards the end of the month when they travel to Columbia for a bout with South Carolina. Frankly, there aren’t very many power conference teams who were worse than the Gamecocks last season, so they aren’t a terrifying first true road contest for Shrewsberry’s club.

The same can’t be said for the second away game on the schedule — which is a bus ride straddling Lake Michigan up to Milwaukee to face Marquette. The Golden Eagles won the Big East in year two of Shaka Smart’s tenure and return the starting backcourt trio and center off of a top-10 offense. They also have the country’s best true point guard in Tyler Kolek and return, in total, eight of their top nine players from last year.

Frankly speaking, Notre Dame will need a near-miracle to pull that win off. However, beyond the Marquette contest, there’s a more winnable power conference matchup next up as the Fighting Irish return home for Georgetown, who also just hired a new coach but are certainly in a better roster situation than Notre Dame at the moment. But at home, Coach Shrewsberry will hope to pull that one off.

Otherwise, the slate is loaded up with your typical matchups against lower-conference teams, and Notre Dame is facing some real bottom-of-the-barrel clubs in that respect. So it should be a winning record in the non-conference, but those power conference games will be tough to win.