Notre Dame transfer guard Markus Burton discussed his commitment to Indiana and provided an update on the injury that cut his 2025-26 season short in an interview with Field of 68.
A full transcript of his comments is available below:
Burton on his health: “Oh man, I’m feeling good. I’m feeling better than ever. Obviously, I’ve been getting myself back to where I was before I got hurt.
“But I mean, for me, I took something from this with just being away from the game. But I felt I needed this time to really grow and see who I really was and took time to myself and just being around my teammates at Notre Dame and just being a leader. And I felt that time being off, it really helped me and helped me grow as being a leader.
“And with my ankle, it was hard, obviously, because it was tough trying to come back. But obviously, my recovery has been going really well. I’ve been doing a lot of stuff to get it stronger.
“I’ve been working out a lot more than I have. And just doing the little things, obviously, it was different. It’s different for me, because I’ve never been hurt like this and I’ve never missed this long of a time before.
“So it was, like I said before, it was different. But I got also like, it helped me out a lot, too. Because I’ve never been in this position and I was put in a position to be a leader and really become the person I really wanted to be.”
Burton on leaving Notre Dame: “I’m not gonna sit here and say it was the easy decision. I love Coach (Micah) Shrewsberry. I love those guys to death.
“It definitely was a hard decision for me, but it was a decision that I needed to make for myself to go somewhere with this basketball thing. And I feel like me as a player, I felt, why not go somewhere else and challenge yourself, right? So I looked at it that way and I needed to do something for me. And I felt like that was the best decision for me moving forward.
“But like I said, like Coach Shrewsberry, he gave me the opportunity to play at the highest level. He gave me the okay and green light to showcase my talents and go out there and perform. So I thank that guy. He handed me the ball. So I can’t say a lot of bad things about him. That’s my guy. He knows it. Like I said, it was just something I needed to do.”
Burton on his decision to commit to Indiana: “It was definitely a hard decision. Like I go through the process, hear all these coaches, hear what they have to pitch and hear what they have to offer.
“But it was more with me, it was more like a relate thing. Like I can relate to you. I can talk to you about things other than basketball all the time. Like say something that happened in life… How can I have a relationship with you?
“And I felt like a lot of the schools that I was in contact with, we had a similar relationship. But what Indiana stood out to me was Coach DeVries, he offered me, he was my first offer out of high school when he was at Drake. So like the relationships goes, it goes way back. And I really like what he’s been doing at Indiana. I like what he’s done in the past. And I believe he can get me to a level where people probably didn’t see I could play at. But like I said, it’s just been all, it was all a good decision for me in the relationship type of thing.”
Watch the full interview below:
(Photo credit: Markus Burton on Instagram)
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