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Notre Dame lands four-star 2016 point guard Temple Gibbs Jr.

Mike Brey

AP Photo

AP

With Jerian Grant out of eligibility and Demetrius Jackson due to be a junior next season, adding a point guard in the Class of 2016 would help Notre Dame moving forward. Sunday night head coach Mike Brey and his staff received a commitment from four-star point guard Temple Gibbs Jr., who is the first commit in the 2016 class for the Fighting Irish.

News of Gibbs’ commitment was first reported by Rivals.com, with Gibbs announcing the news on social media shortly thereafter.

Gibbs will be the third family member to play Division I college basketball when he arrives in South Bend in 2016. The oldest brother, Ashton, played four seasons at Pittsburgh and middle brother Sterling is looking for a school to complete his college career at after playing one season at Texas and two at Seton Hall.

Like those two, 6-foot-3 Temple attends Seton Hall Prep in West Orange, New Jersey and was a key target for a number of high-major programs. Among those programs were Oklahoma, Iowa, UConn, St. John’s, Providence, Georgetown and Virginia. But it’s Notre Dame, which hosted Gibbs on a visit this past weekend, that did what it needed to do to land Gibbs.

And given the point guard position for them moving forward, this is an important development for the Fighting Irish.

With Jackson expected to lead the way offensively for a team that lost both Grant and Pat Connaughton from last season’s ACC champion team (they also reached the Elite Eight), a big year for him in 2015-16 could leave Notre Dame with an even greater need at the point. 6-foot-1 Matt Farrell will have eligibility remaining, as he’ll be a sophomore next season. But landing a player in Gibbs who can both score and distribute the basketball gives Notre Dame some much-needed depth at the position.

Gibbs averaged 19.9 points, four rebounds and 3.2 assists per game as a junior, earning second team all-state honors from NJ.com. He plays his grassroots basketball for the Playaz Basketball Club, and in Nike EYBL play Gibbs is averaging 13.6 points, 3.6 rebounds and 2.6 assists per contest.