Mike Crotty has coached some big-time talent over the years with the Middlesex Magic.
Crotty has coached guys like current Miami Heat forward Duncan Robinson, former Marquette guard and likely NBA Draft pick Tyler Kolek and former Notre Dame and current Milwaukee Bucks guard Pat Connaughton.
So Crotty knows big-time talent when he sees it and he says he sees it with Ryder Frost, a 2025 Massachusetts forward, who received an offer from the Irish earlier this week.
“Best shooter I’ve coached in a Magic uniform, I can tell you that,” Crotty told ISD of Frost this week. “I can tell you that with all respect to Connaughton, Robinson, Kolek and company. I don’t know if he’s going to become the shooter Duncan Robinson has become, but in terms of just what he’s been able to accomplish while I’ve coached him.
“He just really, really shoots it; compact, tight, clean release, gets it up fast, shoots it from wherever in the gym, off screens, off the catch, off the bounce.”
In addition to knowing talent, having coached Connaughton along with guys like Cormac Ryan and others who played in South Bend, Crotty knows what a Notre Dame-type kid looks like.
Again, he believes he sees that in Frost.
“I believe so,” Crotty says. “He’s the whole package. He’s a student-athlete. He’s a well-rounded kid. He’s got great character, great values. I think that’s why an offer like this is exciting. It’s obviously an amazing athletic home, but it’s a first-class national academic education and brand.”
Of course, Frost would fit at many of the 20 or so offers he currently has, including the nine high-major programs that have offered him in the past week. It’s safe to say the 6-foot-6, 205-pound wing is blowing up following his most recent UAA Session.
n addition to the Irish, Frost has picked up offers from Syracuse, , Wake ForGeorgia Techest, NC State, Virginia Tech, Minnesota, Nebraska and Boston College since Monday.
Crotty saw this coming for Frost, but acknowledges players can get restless until the offers began to flood in.
“When this happens, I tell these guys, ‘Don’t start thinking about where or what yet. Take a week and enjoy it all, man,’” Crotty says. “‘You’ve been working so hard. Soak this up. Sit around and be like, Hey, I got five ACC offers today…today, in one day.’ That’s a nice thing to say out loud. 
“I’m excited for him; amazing kid, great student, great family, just really good people.”
Frost is taking Crotty’s advice and told ISD he’s in no rush to make a decision, but did say he’s confident he’ll get to South Bend at some point.
“He’s also a really athletic kid at 6-6,” Crotty says. “He’s strong as hell. I’ve been saying he’s a college basketball player, he is just in high school. From the minute he wakes up, what he’s doing with his body, what he’s putting into his body, he’s treating himself like a college guy or a pro.
“The strides he’s made with his game and his body in the last two years, I think are a testament to his work and his work ethic.”
