Notre Dame Men’s Basketball: 4-star Forwards Ryder Frost and Tommy Ahneman Commit to the Irish

Micah Shrewsberry and his staff have now landed three 4-star commitments and one 5-star in a 7-day span, most recently securing an absolute SHARPSHOOTER and a promising center for the class of 2025.

Some of this is old news from late last week, and some of this is new news, hot off the press — so we figured we’d combine it into one fun article about the latest good news for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish men’s basketball program after the commitments of Brady Koehler and Jalen Haralson in the first half of last week.

On Friday afternoon, 2025 4-star forward Ryder Frost committed to Micah Shrewsberry and co., choosing ND over a list of other finalists that included Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Virginia Tech, and Syracuse. He also held offers from BYU, Penn State, Miami, Georgia Tech, NC State, Villanova, Wake Forest, and West Virginia, among others.

The 6’6”, 205-lb SF from New Hampshire (he attends Phillips Exeter Academy) is ranked 85th in the 2025 class in the 247sports composite rankings, ranked 97th by 247 themselves, 97th by ESPN, 96th by Rivals, and 83rd by On3. He plays for the same travel team, the Middlesex Magic, as Pat Connaughton and Cormac Ryan did, as well as some other familiar names like Duncan Robinson and Tyler Kolek.

Like the names in that list, Frost is an EXCELLENT shooter — perhaps one of the best in the 2025 class. According to Adam Finkelstein’s scouting report on his 247sports profile, Frost took over 75% of his shots in UAA play from 3-point land, hitting a scorching-hot 45% of them. He’s described as being “a movement shooter, who excels at getting balanced with his feet set.”

You can see in his highlights that he’s got a powerful, thick frame. He’s not the best defender and maybe not super quick on his feet, and certainly isn’t an above-the-rim guy. But he’s a decent passer and good handling the ball, and is the exact kind of guy you want to bring in to spot up while Markus Burton, Sir Mohammed, and Jalen Haralson all drive and kick to waiting shooters. He’s the kind of guy who will thrive in a Micah Shrewsberry free-flowing offense.

With this flurry of commitments last week, the Irish were still missing a pretty necessary component for a class that meets program needs: a true big man who can body up down low, snag rebounds, defend the post, etc.

On Monday afternoon, Shrewsberry and his staff continued their hot streak and landed yet another 2025 commitment:

Tommy Ahneman, a 4-star center from Cretin-Derham Hall in Minnesota (same high school as Michael Floyd and Joe Mauer!), announced his pledge to the Irish after a very successful visit he took this past weekend alongside 6’8” 4-star PF target Tre Singleton.

Ahneman is even bigger than Singleton, measuring in at a healthy 6’10” and 235 lbs with the frame to bulk up even more. The big man from St. Paul, Minnesota chose ND over a group of four runners-up that included Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska, and Minnesota. He also had offers from DePaul, Northwestern, Penn State, and a few others.

Ranked 106th in the 247sports composite rankings, he’s considered a top-20 center in the class and the #1 player in the state of Minnesota. He seems to have a nice little toolbox of post moves and the ability to finish with touch down low, using both hands.

He’ll need to keep getting stronger and probably get a bit better as a defender, considering he isn’t necessarily a rim-protecting shot-blocker. But he has massive potential as a John “Mutton” Mooney-esque presence in the paint and provides much needed beef/height down low for a program that’s been loading up on guards and wings of late.

With Frost and Ahneman added to Koehler and Haralson, the Irish now have the #1 ranked recruiting class — which is CRAZY to say considering one week ago they didn’t have a single commitment in the class.

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But the work Shrewsberry and his assistants have put in (particularly Ryan Owens) has been substantial, and ND might not be done for 2025. They’re still very much in the mix for top-50 point guard Kayden Mingo, and considering Singleton visited last weekend at the same time as Ahneman with plenty of interest in the Irish and looking to potentially make a decision soon, perhaps he decides to join the party as well.

Whether ND picks up any more commitments or not, the 2024 and 2025 classes that the Irish staff have assembled are AWESOME considering the current state of the program and how down it’s been the last few years.

Obviously the talent has to show up and develop and perform (the Laszewski/Hubb/Goodwin class’s hype and subsequent underperformance is all too fresh). But at this rate, it’s not crazy to be talking about the Irish not only making the tournament again within just the next couple years, but also in 2025/2026/2027 potentially making a push for a 2nd or even 3rd weekend appearance. The talent stockpile is going THAT well right now.

Welcome Ryder and Tommy to the Irish family, and here’s to a few more recruiting wins and some nice year-over-year improvement in Year 2 for Shrewsberry’s squad while we patiently wait for all this newly-committed talent to arrive in the fall of 2025!