Tag: Ven-Allen Lubin

Notre Dame’s Dom Campbell has inflamed Achilles, being shut down

A short rotation seemingly gets even shorter.

SOUTH BEND – [autotag]Ven-Allen Lubin[/autotag]’s bad tendon in his ankle appeared to open up more playing time for fellow freshman [autotag]Dom Campbell[/autotag]. Instead, Campbell’s season appears to be over. Tom Noie of the South Bend Tribune is reporting that an inflamed Achilles is bothering Campbell, and it will keep him out long enough that we probably won’t see him again this season:

If this is how Campbell’s first season in South Bend ends, he will end it averaging 0.7 points and 1.1 rebounds on 2-of-9 shooting from the field and 2-of-4 shooting from the free-throw line over nine games. Campbell never played more than seven minutes in any game, and the recent win over Louisville was his first time seeing action in five games. While he found more playing time than most players not in [autotag]Mike Brey[/autotag]’s rotation, it still hardly was enough to make a significant impact.

Now, with his two freshman forwards unavailable, it will be interesting to see what Brey does as far as giving his starters rest for the time being. He can’t play all five of them 40 minutes as he practically is prone to do. Now is the time for him to dig deep into his bench, whether he wants to or not.

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Ven-Allen Lubin will miss Notre Dame’s game vs. Wake Forest

Will Dom Campbell get more minutes in light of this?

[autotag]Mike Brey[/autotag] had “hope” that [autotag]Ven-Allen Lubin[/autotag] would be ready for Notre Dame’s contest against Wake Forest. He said as much after the Irish beat Louisville ahead of a week off of games. It turns a week won’t be enough time for the tendon in his left ankle to heal. The freshman forward will not play against the Deacons.

Lubin aggravated his ankle in practice the day before the Irish’s win over the Cardinals. That opened up a spot for [autotag]Dom Campbell[/autotag] in the rotation for that game, but he only played four minutes. Many Irish fans didn’t like Brey giving Campbell so little time, but that also was part of the criticism for him not going deeper into his bench against an inferior opponent. It will be interesting to see if Brey mainly plays only six players again.

Fighting Irish Wire will be in South Bend for both basketball games this weekend, so keep it here for all of the best coverage!

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Mike Brey, JJ Starling, Cormac Ryan speak after win over Louisville

Everyone was happy to get the win.

SOUTH BEND – For once, everyone associated with the Notre Dame men’s basketball program was in a relaxed mood. After the Irish’s 76-62 win over Louisville, there wasn’t a frown in sight.

[autotag]JJ Starling[/autotag] (22 points) and [autotag]Cormac Ryan[/autotag] (11 points, career-high eight assists) came out first to talk about games that undoubtedly will be on their season highlight reels. Then, [autotag]Mike Brey[/autotag], fresh out of the suit he wore for the game celebrating Coaches vs. Cancer at Purcell Pavilion, took his turn at the podium.

Make no mistake: A convincing win over the worst team in the ACC doesn’t do a whole lot in the grand scheme of things. However, the Irish needed something good in the worst way. They got it, and they have a whole week to enjoy it before reconvening at Purcell Pavilion against Wake Forest.

Here are some of things players and coach said as they basked in an enjoyable afternoon:

Notre Dame breaks skid against Louisville

The Irish are back in the win column.

SOUTH BEND – Finally, Notre Dame faced an ACC opponent that not even it could mess up against. Sure, Louisville is at the bottom of the conference and remains winless in league play, but the Irish needed any good vibes they could get. That’s indeed what they got as they took down the Cardinals, 76-62, to snap a four-game losing streak.

The Irish (10-12, 2-9) scored 13 unanswered points in the first half and went up by as much as 30 early in the second. Even with the Cardinals (2-19, 0-10) upping the nerves of everyone at Purcell Pavilion by cutting that 30-point lead to 13, the Irish had built enough of a cushion that they were able to withstand the threat. Their biggest blown lead this season is 12 in their road game at Syracuse, so it was critical that this team especially gave itself a lot of room for error.

[autotag]JJ Starling[/autotag] led the way with 22 points, one shy of his high during his first collegiate season. [autotag]Nate Laszewski[/autotag] scored 17 points, including a game-high three 3-pointers. [autotag]Cormac Ryan[/autotag] had 11 points to go with a career-high eight assists, and [autotag]Dane Goodwin[/autotag] scored 10 despite missing all six of his 3-point attempts.

With [autotag]Ven-Allen Lubin[/autotag] out after tweaking his previously injured ankle in practice Friday, [autotag]Dom Campbell[/autotag] took his spot in the rotation and made a single field goal in four minutes.

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Notre Dame battles NC State hard but still winless on road

Still nothing to show for a good effort.

To Notre Dame’s credit, it was about as good an effort as it’s shown on the road this season. But like every other game away from Purcell Pavilion, a victory just wasn’t meant to be. This time, it was NC State reaping the benefits, and the Irish will head home after an 85-82 loss.

During the first half, the Irish (9-12, 1-9) turned an 11-point deficit into a seven-point lead. The Wolfpack (16-5, 6-4) cut that lead to three before halftime, then went in front themselves early in the second half, which was a dogfight. While there wasn’t really any one moment that doomed the Irish, they couldn’t convert on a number of good looks or open shots to make a close game even closer or, in some cases, to tie it up. It also did not help that they were crushed in the turnover battle, 15-2.

Jarkel Joiner was the Wolfpack’s big player with 28 points and six rebounds. Terquavion Smith, the ACC’s scoring leader who fresh off a serious injury scare Saturday at North Carolina, had 17 points to go with six assists. D.J. Burns Jr. scored 14, and Casey Morsell added 11.

[autotag]Cormac Ryan[/autotag] and [autotag]JJ Starling[/autotag] paced the Irish with 19 and 18 points, respectively. [autotag]Marcus Hammond[/autotag] had a nice stats line of 11 points, 10 rebounds and four assists. [autotag]Dane Goodwin[/autotag] also scored 11, and [autotag]Ven Allen-Lubin[/autotag] added 10 off the bench.

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Mike Brey, Nate Laszewski, Cormac Ryan speak after loss

Here are some words about the most recent loss and the backdrop of Brey’s retirement announcement this past week.

SOUTH BEND – Notre Dame’s 84-72 loss to Boston College came during its most tumultuous time of the season. [autotag]Mike Brey[/autotag]’s upcoming retirement being reported 48 hours earlier only added to the stress of what has happened with this season. Now, the Irish have lost nine of their past 11 games, and nobody can quite figure out what exactly has gone wrong. All anyone knows is things are bad, and they have no choice but to play through it.

Brey met the media after the latest defeat along with [autotag]Nate Laszewski[/autotag], who was coming off a career-high 29 points, and [autotag]Cormac Ryan[/autotag]. The feeling was some combination of disbelief and resignation. All of them are aware of everything that has happened, and it can’t be a good feeling to know the remaining schedule hasn’t even reach single digits. The rest of the season figures to be long and continually frustrating.

Here is some of what they said:

Notre Dame on pace for worst conference season in program history

This is a conference season to remember for all the wrong reasons, and it could sink lower.

After decades of independence, Notre Dame joined the Big East for the 1995-96 season. It proved to be an adjustment as the Irish went 4-14 during their first conference schedule. That was as bad as it got in conference play until the 2018-19 Irish stumbled to a 3-15 ACC record. Now, only four years later, the Irish are on pace for something even more putrid.

Through eight ACC games, or 40% of the conference schedule, the Irish are 1-7, and they earned that lone win by the skin of their teeth. If this pace keeps up, they’ll finish 3-17, which would give the program its worst conference winning percentage ever at .150. Given that a second game with Georgia Tech and one with Louisville, the only teams you objectively can say are as bad, if not worse than the Irish, remain on the schedule, that’s not out of the question.

The eye test should have seen this coming. Except for the win over Michigan State, no nonconference win looked particularly impressive. Sure, the Irish had a few double-digit wins sprinkled in there, but the season began with single-digit victories at home against blue-blood opponents Radford and Youngstown State, followed soon after by a one-point home win against the almighty Lipscomb. Perhaps those raised flags, but how many actually believed it?

As the losses pile up, so do the calls for [autotag]Mike Brey[/autotag] to retire or be fired. Frankly, you can’t blame Irish fans for wanting either one. His “get old, stay old” philosophy for this season has backfired. Having a bunch of veteran players fresh off two NCAA Tournament wins and a highly-touted recruit in [autotag]JJ Starling[/autotag] should have worked, but everything that could go wrong has.

The worst part is this is happening with the knowledge that the Irish are going to have a lot of unproven talent in next year’s rotation. Except for Starling and [autotag]Ven-Allen Lubin[/autotag], no underclassman has played nearly enough for fans to say they’re excited for the 2023-24 season. With the window of opportunity not stretching beyond this season, this was the last chance for success for this group. Instead, it’s going out with a whimper.

It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what needs to happen to label the rest of the season a success. Right now, just avoiding the standing for program conference futility is the most reasonable. That speaks volumes and specifically means a disappointing tempering of expectations. However, there’s not much else you can do when it’s become almost certain that this year’s Irish will not play beyond the ACC Tournament.

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Notre Dame thoroughly outplayed by North Carolina

The Irish have slipped to .500.

It’s become increasingly clear that this season is a lost cause for Notre Dame. Perhaps the best evidence of that so far was its trip to Chapel Hill to face North Carolina. Despite initially looking strong out of the gate, the Irish couldn’t keep that going, and their 81-64 loss left them still searching for their first ACC win.

The Irish (8-8, 0-5) appeared ready to give the Tar Heels (11-5, 3-2) a game, taking the lead on [autotag]Marcus Hammond[/autotag]’s tiebreaking 3 near the midway point of the first half. That quickly changed as the Tar Heels cracked down on their defense and won nearly every meaningful rebound battle.

With [autotag]Ven-Allen Lubin[/autotag] out with an ankle injury, the already-small Irish badly missed his height as they lost the battles in blocks (6-1) and rebounds (45-32). That undoubtedly kept the game less close than it otherwise might have been.

The Irish were stretched out even further in the second half when [autotag]Cormac Ryan[/autotag] was ejected for a flagrant 2 that he committed while being dunked on by Puff Johnson. Tempers briefly flared, but nothing else of consequence happened. Ryan started heading back to the locker room before the call officially was made, indicating that he knew what was about to happen.

Armando Bacot lived up to his billing as the ACC’s leading scorer and rebounder, leading all players with 21 points and 13 boards. He also was one of three Tar Heels with two blocks. Caleb Love, an equally lethal scorer, had 18 points. RJ Davis scored 13 points and stole the ball three times, though the conference’s leading free-throw shooter was held to 1 of 2 from the charity stripe. Johnson totaled 11 points off the bench.

[autotag]Nate Laszewski[/autotag] led the Irish with 17 points and eight rebounds. [autotag]Dane Goodwin[/autotag] and [autotag]JJ Starling[/autotag] scored 10 points apiece.

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Notre Dame’s Ven-Allen Lubin will miss game at North Carolina

This is a tough time to lose him.

The ankle injury Notre Dame forward Ven-Allen Lubin suffered against Boston College hasn’t healed yet. Consequently, he won’t be available for Saturday’s game at North Carolina. That’s according to Tom Noie of the South Bend Tribune:

It’s unknown at this point whether he’ll be available for Tuesday’s home game against Georgia Tech, but that’s not the big concern right now. The problem is the Irish have lost some serious depth down low ahead of going up against Armando Bacot, the ACC’s scoring and rebounding leader. Oh, and Lubin is the Irish’s leading blocker at 0.9 a game. That’s not good for one of two teams that are 0-4 in conference play.

Simply put, Lubin’s injury could not have happened at a worse time. We don’t know if [autotag]Matt Zona[/autotag] or [autotag]Dom Campbell[/autotag] are capable of slowing Bacot down because they’ve barely played. If Mike Brey isn’t comfortable with sending either of those two out there against Bacot, he better get comfortable with it and fast.

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Revisiting some of Mike Brey’s local media day comments

Do you think Mike is regretting any of these preseason quotes?

Back in October, Fighting Irish Wire was lucky to attend Notre Dame’s media day for South Bend outlets. [autotag]Mike Brey[/autotag] spoke with the assembled reporters before the players entered the room, and every answer he gave was a clue into the workings of his team. The atmosphere was an optimistic one as the Irish were coming off a couple of NCAA Tournament wins in the spring. Why couldn’t it happen again with all of these older players returning?

Well, the Irish have reached a crossroads much sooner than they would have liked. They are 8-7 and have lost their first four ACC games, tying with Louisville for last in the conference. The fun of last March has given way to frustration and bafflement as to how things have gone so wrong. Even most of the nonconference victories have not been very satisfying, and there is no reason to think this season will last beyond the ACC Tournament.

So how have some of Brey’s preseason words held up? Let’s take a look: