Notre Dame MBB center Tommy Ahneman sidelined by knee surgery

Notre Dame men’s basketball will start its 2025-26 season without a healthy Tommy Ahneman.

Ahneman, a freshman center, has been sidelined by an unspecified left knee surgery that occurred earlier this offseason, the ND program announced Thursday. The 6-foot-10, 250-pound Ahneman joined the Irish in June.

Ahneman has not been ruled out for the entire 2025-26 season. The program said his ability to return will be assessed around January with the guidance of associate director of sports medicine Courtney McNamara Martin.

Ahneman signed with Notre Dame as a senior at Cretin-Derham Hall in St. Paul, Minn. Ahneman spent his final high school season at Cretin-Derham after transferring from West Fargo (N.D.) Sheyenne.

On3 rated Ahneman as a four-star recruit and ranked him as the No. 9 center and No. 64 overall in the 2025 class. The Rivals Industry Ranking slated Derham as a three-star recruit, the No. 19 center and No. 160 overall in the class.

Ahneman averaged 16.3 points and 10.6 rebounds in his lone season at Cretin-Derham Hall. He scored 20.3 points and grabbed 13.3 rebounds per game in his junior season at Cheyenne. He led Cheyenne to a Class 2A state championship in 2024 and was named North Dakota’s Gatorade Player of the Year for boys basketball.

Notre Dame is expected to rely on forwards Kebba Njie, a senior, and Carson Towt, a graduate transfer from Northern Arizona, as their primary post players this coming season. The 6-10 Njie started 30 games for the Irish last season and averaged 6.1 points and 5.9 rebounds per game. The 6-8 Towt led Division I in rebounds per game last with 12.4 per game in addition to scoring 13.3 points per game at Northern Arizona.

Notre Dame, which was projected in the ACC Preseason Poll to finish the conference in 10th place, will play an exhibition at Butler on Friday before hosting hosting DePaul for an exhibition on Oct. 24. The Irish will open the regular season with a home game against LIU Brooklyn on Nov. 3.

Ahneman is one-fourth of Notre Dame’s 10th-ranked recruiting class. The Irish have three other scholarship freshman on campus from the class: guard Jalen Haralson and forwards Ryder Frost and Brady Koehler. All three of them were rated as four-star recruits by On3. It ranked the 6-7 Haralson as the No. 8 small forward and No. 31 overall, the 6-10 Koehler as the No. 14 power forward and No. 65 voerall and the 6-7 Frost as the No. 19 small forward and No. 88 overall

Notre Dame later added 6-7 forward Luke Devine to the roster as a walk-on in the freshman class.