Notre Dame transfer target Josh Cohen commits to Arkansas
Notre Dame head men’s basketball coach Micah Shrewsberry is entering a pivotal second season in South Bend. He hit a bump in the road Friday afternoon.
Former UMass forward Josh Cohen has committed to Arkansas, he told On3’s Joe Tipton on Friday. He visited Notre Dame on Thursday and Friday, shortly after visiting Arkansas on Tuesday and Wednesday.
In a text message to Blue & Gold on Friday morning, Cohen spoke highly of his visit to South Bend.
“Micah Shrewsberry is the greatest guy in the world,” Cohen said. “So passionate and has a clear understanding of what the program needs.”
Cohen, a graduate transfer, has one season of eligibility remaining. After considering two options, he chose to spend it in Fayetteville, Ark.
Cohen averaged 15.9 points per game in his lone season at UMass, where he transferred after spending four years at St. Francis (PA). He put up 21.8 points per game in his finals season with the Red Flashes, prompting him to move from the Northeast Conference to the Atlantic 10.
As a scorer, Cohen prefers to operate out of the low post. He uses impressive footwork underneath to get himself open for layups and turnaround shots. This gave him 1.27 points per possession on post-ups, according to College Basketball Scouting, and that mark was in the 95th percentile in Division I hoops.
The 2019 graduate of Lincroft (N.J.) Christian Brothers Academy is an adept rebounder, hauling in 6.8 per game with the Minutemen. He dished out 1.7 assists per game, averaging 0.5 blocks and 0.9 steals on top of that.
Cohen was a complete non-shooter for the first four years of his career, attempting only two 3-pointers and missing both before the 2023-24 season. However, he began to develop a shot with UMass, going 11-of-32 (34.4 percent) from beyond the arc. Cohen can hit elbow-range jumpers as well if defenders sag off too much.
Listed as a center in On3’s transfer rankings, Cohen is one of the industry’s top available players. He’s the No. 5 center and No. 24 overall transfer — including those already committed — according to the On3 Industry Ranking.
Only Stanford’s Maxime Raynaud (No. 1 on the overall list), Rutgers’ Clifford Omoruyi (No. 3), Oklahoma State’s Brandon Garrison (No. 4) and Michigan’s Tarris Reed (No. 14) rank higher than Cohen among centers currently in the portal. None have committed to a new school.
Cohen would have been the first graduate transfer to commit to Shrewsberry at Notre Dame, and the fourth transfer overall. Northwestern transfer Julian Roper II, Penn State transfer Kebba Njie and Seton Hall transfer Tae Davis joined the Irish in 2023.
